IIB®W'yila\Wild Scale Of5 Nt/Os I I I I I O 234 5 Rural District Boundary • • •

$IIB®W'yila\Wild Scale Of5 Nt/Os I I I I I O 234 5 Rural District Boundary • • •$ .,;.~ . ........... -._.-._. \ . ,. \ • Presoon . \ F 0 ". ./ .- ,.~;" .' ·,.rrlold~ Cas , • Longd;' Cas. Harede!/ '.I TOTRIOGE fELL .. .-". _.;! \ --_.til' .",.' THE RURAL DISTRICT OF IIB®W'YILA\WilD Scale of5 Nt/os I I I I I o 234 5 Rural District Boundary • _ • _ • _ Copyright: Ed . J. Burrow & Co. ltd. BOWLAND RURAL DISTRICT by the strength of the sword. Henry VI lived for a time at the Hall in unhappy circumstances after the Battle of Hexham in 1464, but his hiding place was discovered by Yorkist sympathisers the Talbots of neighbouring Bashall, who surrounded the house with a small force, but failed to trap the King. He escaped through a window with three trusty friends, but was later captured in Clitheroe Wood. Above the gatehouse the hall bears the inscription "I will raise up his ruins and I will build it as in the days of old." Within the house the King's flight is commemorated in the carved panels of a sixteenth-century cupboard. Not far from the village and close to Waddow Hall will be found Peg 0' Nell's well, associated with the legend of a ghost that created mi ~ chief throughout the Ribble Valley. Idle Peg, a servant at the Hall, seems to have aroused in her mistress a wish that Peg should fall and break her neck, which Peg obligingly did down at the well. Her ghost not only haunted the district, but claimed a life every seventh year until the bridge at Brungerley was made. Waddington Parish Church is interesting chiefly for its fifteenth century tower, the remainder being largely a restoration of 190I. The road that passes it gives on to field paths that make a pleasant walk to Bashall Eaves. Bashall Hall is not shown, but Browsholme Hall (described on page 13) lies some two miles north of the hamlet and makes a worthwhile excursion on the right day, that is, when the hall is open to the public. The Parish Church at Slaidburn Waddington almshouses, founded by Robert Parker in the early eighteenth century, group prettily round a green, and with their tiny chapel are worth seeking out. WEST BRADFORD AND GRINDLETON Though sizeable villages both, with a crossing of the Ribble, there But the moors as a last gift on the descent offer a surprise in the is little of remark for the tourist in either place. This is not to Moorcock Inn, quite isolated in the wild moorland, yet seemingly their discredit, for the same can be said of many places one would very popular. be happy to live in, and merely to be a part of the lovely Ribble Valley is something on the credit side. West Bradford has one Waddington itself is a sizeable village offering enough historical interesting feature, a stream running deep beside the roadway, material to fill a book, which is not surprising when one learns with miniature stone bridges giving access to the houses along its that the Waddington family was founded in the eighth century course. It is to Grindleton that Sawley folk come to church, by one Duke Wada, who built and is buried in Mulgrave Castle, having, despite their monastic associations, no church of their near Whitby. This long line had down the years spread itself the own. world over, and the globe trotter will find a Waddington in Pendle Hill, though some miles away across the river, is as Australia and the United States, a harbour of that name in Canada, much a part of both villages as a hill may be, for it dominates and a square in Valparaiso. A Waddington was a pioneer of the every scene across the meadows to the south west. The extra Canadian Pacific Railway and another Waddington, son of the ordinary thing is that it is higher at 1,831 feet than any summit owner of a large spinning factory in France, became Prime in the Forest of Bowland, yet is a pale shadow of a hill by Minister of France in 1879. comparison. Grindleton makes a very good centre both for the Waddington Old Hall still stands as a reminder of historic exploration of Ribblesdale and the Forest of Bowland. days when battles were fought on English soil and kings triumphed 20 17 BOWLAND RURAL DISTRICT SLAIDBURN An altogether delightful grey-stone village, its houses set close on the roadways with only an occasional cobbled fore court berween front door and highway. An ancient village, junction of many ·pack-horse tracks, and still the natural centre for the Forest of Bowland. It has a Youth Hostel and the delightfully named Hark to Bounty Inn in close proximity. The name Hark to Bounty is a hunting allusion, the only one in England, though, there is a Hark to DandIer at Walmersley, Lancs., a Hark to Jowler at Bury, a Hark to Lasher at Edale, Derbyshire, a Hark to Melody at Hav~rthwaite, Lancs., a Hark to Nudger at Dobcross, Lancs., and a Hark to Mopsey at Normanton, Yorkshire. The north country seems to have monopolised the supply of melodious hounds. The Hark to Bounty is of particular interest with its exterior stone staircase and the old court room preserving a quaint jury box and other relics. Slaidburn's Parish Church stands aloof from the village in a setting of stone walls and trees. It is mainly fifteenth century in date, and quite charming within, having several features of especial . interest, notably a three-decker pulpit with canopy, a Jacobean chancel screen, and much seventeenth-century woodwork. NEWTON , This is a village with several attractive cottage properties with diminutive white-painted wooden fences, fronting the road from Dunsop Bridge to Slaidburn. The village pump lies coyly hidden in a pump-house flush with the wall. The village is T -shaped, for the Waddington road strikes sharply downhill to cross the River Hodder, passing on the way the Parker's Arms Hotel, a charming house in Queen Anne style with a fine Georgian property almost opposite. The hotel is residential, and a worthy asset to the village. From the bridge there is a fine view of the Hodder, winding its The River Ribble at Sawley well-wooded course through the meadows, but to see both Newton the village and the Hodder valley, one must climb away from the river on the Waddington road. It is a sharp climb and a narrow road, scarcely permitting a driver to look behind and see ,what he is missing. But somehow the car must be put out of the way, so SAWLEY that from the heights of Standridge Hill the Hodder Valley can be viewed in all the loveliness of its rich woodland. If one were permitted a personal opinion, Sawley could be described as the prettiest spot on the Ribble. Viewing it from the bridge on a bright day, most people would agree. There's not WADDINGTON much to it as a village, of course, just a house or two and the On the crossing from Newton to Waddington, Newton Fells village inn. The visitor will find only a few fragments of the abbey completely engulf the traveller and blanket off the world at large, founded in II47 by William de Percy, and even the two finely to reveal a totally different world on the descent-the world of proportioned arches that stood proudly beside the highway are large towns and railways and main roads, with Lancashire's now but one. It is not certain that they were part of the abbey, but Pendle Hill long and low on the skyline, beyond busy Clitheroe. they are probably a reconstruction. 16 21 Bolton-by-Bowland. The war memorial and its well-kept green appear on the right of the picture Though older than the more prosperous abbey nearby at Whalley, Sawley suffered from competition with it, for in the middle ages the monasteries almost had a monopoly in trade, and were not averse to improving their station at a neighbour's expense. Yet both the last Abbot of Whalley and William Trafford of Sawley sank their differences in the face of a common enemy The Trough of Bowland when they took part in the Pilgrimage of Grace, following the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536. This was no pilgrimage in the ordinary sense. It was an insUrtection headed by Robert Aske, bearing a banner embroidered with the five wounds of Christ. It became so strong that the king found himself obliged to issue a general pardon. But in the following year he went back on his word, and with other supporters of the pilgrimage, Abbot Trafford was executed. 22 BOWLAND RURAL DISTRICT BOWLAND RURAL DISTRICT Dunsop Bridge, equally with Slaidburn, has the fell-walkers' BOLTON-BY-BOWLAND key to the forest, for it offers the choice of excursions northwards A more than ordinarily charming village, complete with inn, up river to Middle Knowl and Brennand Round Hill, westwards green, cross, stocks, parish church, and a straggling line of stone to Brown Nab and Bleasdale via Hareden, and southwards down cottages, and yet one very difficult to depict well in a photograph. the Hodder Valley to Longridge Fell. From Slaidburn there are Its cottages are full of character, many having white doors with two principal walks over the Forest to the Ribble Valley beyond, iron studs and wrought iron strap-work-a most noticeable the one over Salter Fell (the path of the Salt trade in packhorse feature, some with whitewashed stonework with black painted days) and down the Roeburn to Wray, the other northwards to mullions, and one group housing the local butcher's shop looking the Cross of Greet Bridge crossing of the Hodder and then over like genuine Tudor and yet bearing the date 1835.

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