Enchanting Wycoller, Near Colne, Lancashire
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JAGGERMEN’S BRIDGES ON PACKHORSE TRAILS enchanting wycoller, near colne, lancashire. On a cold February morning Wycoller‟s curious looking, crooked, double-arched packhorse bridge spanning Wycoller Beck with the ruinous Wycoller Hall to the rear. February 2010. © Christine McEwen Collection. The charming East Lancashire village of aries were established for the breeding of oxen. Wycoller with its architecturally renowned eight- These powerful, sturdy animals were the main eenth century stone houses and its ruinous, beasts of burden for centuries. Each village reputedly haunted, Wycoller Hall, straddles required eight oxen to pull the plough, and it was Wycoller Beck that meanders down the beautiful the Wycoller vaccaries that provided the oxen. Pennine valley, Wycoller Dene to drain the high The unusual looking, enigmatic vaccary moorland to the east that extends over to walls, built of massive, weirdly-shaped gritstone Haworth in West Yorkshire. slabs are a striking feature of the fields around Anyone approaching Wycoller could not Wycoller. Their existence alongside the ancient help but notice the wild silhouettes of gnarled, trackways where they stand up like giant jagged wind-bent ancient Oaks, Alders, Ash and Birches teeth against the sky, are a testament to the men against the sky. Wycoller received it name from who erected them centuries ago. These walls of the Anglo-Saxon: - ‘wic-air’ – which translates gritstone slabs were built to act as enclosures for into, ‘the dairy farm amongst the Alders’. Middle the safeguarding of the farm’s oxen, cattle and Stone Age man lived and hunted on the encircling sheep, and were probably erected during the mid- high moorland that dominates Wycoller. thirteenth century when many new vaccaries Early records mention – (circa 1196) – were established in nearby Pendle Forest, there were two cattle rearing farms, known as Rossendale Forest and elsewhere in Pennine ‘vaccaries’ in Wycoller. It is probable that vac- Lancashire. 121 JAGGERMEN’S BRIDGES ON PACKHORSE TRAILS „A row of giant jagged teeth against the sky‟. A section of vaccary walling on the fell side above Wycoller Dene. February 2010. © Christine McEwen Collection. By 1527, the two Wycoller vaccaries had typical flash of bright plumage as a kingfisher developed into a hamlet. Between the Tudors and races above the surface of the busy, chattering the stirrings of the Industrial Revolution, Wycoller Wycoller Beck searching for a meal. Alan also developed into a locally important, handloom enjoys a passion for wild flowers, so in spring we weaving village, which by this period lay astride often take a most delightful stroll along Wycoller the packhorse trackway from nearby Colne to Beck where we are rewarded with seeing hosts of Keighley on the other side of the Pennines in the bluebells, wood sorrel, celandines, and those West Riding of Yorkshire. unusually looking plants, butterburs. In summer, Wycoller village, together with the verdant, the edges of the steeply sloping meadows are leafy Wycoller Dene with its beautiful stream, has awash with the colour of tall foxgloves, dog violets for over forty years been a favourite place to visit and germander speedwell. A truly delightful, for my husband Alan, and also for myself ever enchanting and serene haven for wildlife and for since I became lovingly acquainted with its Man. charms in 2002. The area abounds with wildlife; and we have frequently observed kestrels WYCOLLER‟S FAMOUS UNIQUE BRIDGES hovering above the village in search of mice, rats, Wycoller straddles one of the earliest stoats, weasels and young rabbits. In Wycoller important packhorse trackways across the Beck, we have been regularly delighted in seeing Pennines between Colne, once an important heron gracefully standing in the beck fishing for cloth-making town, and over into the West Riding the abundant brown trout. On a number of other of Yorkshire, Keighley and Bradford in the Aire occasions I have been thrilled on seeing the Valley. 122 JAGGERMEN’S BRIDGES ON PACKHORSE TRAILS Wycoller is renowned for its seven stone builders covering this striking, ancient packhorse bridges that span Wycoller Beck, three being bridge with so hideous a material as concrete! unique specimens of the bridge builders art. On Gladly they did not do so. entering Wycoller the first of these three bridges, The packhorse bridge is affectionately the packhorse bridge can be seen spanning the known hereabouts as Sally’s Bridge. So who was beck a cockstride downstream of a cobble stone- Sally? Local tradition has it way back in the mists bottomed ford. of time, a local lass named Sally influenced the construction of this amazing bridge. A one time THE PACKHORSE BRIDGE resident of Wycoller Hall, Squire Henry Cunliffe The famous packhorse bridge is a had a favourite niece, Sally Scargill, who fascinating specimen of a double-arched bridge. evidently delighted in spending time at the hall, Some say it dates back to the thirteenth century, which she had enjoyed ever since being a wee whilst other say the fifteenth century. However, I lass. This Sally, probably was a young well-born am sure its true age will never be revealed but the woman, Sarah Scargill, who was locally known as ancient structure has withstood the constant Sally. She eventually married into the prominent passage of Jaggermen and his strings of Cunliffe family, thereafter being known as Sally packhorses for centuries. Owen Cunliffe. Later, she gave birth to a boy, The whole bridge is built from the local Henry Owen Cunliffe, who in time became the Millstone Grit. The voussoirs: the stones that last Squire of Wycoller Hall. comprise the double arches actually extend the When I have viewed this fascinating, full width of the bridge and display evidence that double-arched, old stone bridge from its upstream in the distant past the arch stones themselves side, the crooked left-hand arch referred to were the actual paving. Also due to the bridge’s above, appears to be most strange. Never- foundation stones being laid in an uneven theless, the quirky, malformed configuration, fashion, the whole structure, and in particular the whether intentionally built in, or the result of an ‘village side’ arch looks to be in a precarious state early partial collapse of the structure, actually of health. How long the bridge has been in this accentuates the overall attractiveness and appeal predicament nobody seems to know, but in 1948 of this stunning pre-industrial packhorse bridge the Ministry of Works issued a fascinating which countless visitors to Wycoller take pleasure condition report on the bridge which, I feel is in photographing. worth adding in full: The ‘crooked’ arch has a span of around fourteen feet. The ‘main’ arch leaps from the “At first glance this appears to be in a centre stone pillar, a distance of around twelve precarious state but it is considered mainly an feet to the bank. The overall span of the bridge optical effect due to the extra ordinary method across Wycoller Beck amounts to around twenty employed in springing the arch – (entirely six feet. The centre stone pillar rising from the built of long stones) – direct from the rock middle of the beck acts as cutwaters on both without any attempt to level it first; the upstream and downstream sides. distortion of the arch does not appear to be a The twenty six inch wide trackway over recent fault and in fact may never have been the bridge consists of severely worn cobbles and true. The bridge is not falling over as flagstones. The random stone parapets are appearance suggests. Mortar in the joints is approximately ten inches high. These were mainly lacking and they should be thoroughly probably rebuilt by the Ministry of Works around consolidated. Original path surface and low 1948. parapets are missing and the backs of the Two or three yards upstream is an arch stones now form the surface. When this attractive stony-bottomed ford, and several is washed out and consolidated, it would stepping stones. Both ford and stepping stones perhaps. Be as well to lay a layer of concrete originally would have been used by herdsmen over the whole bridge, within the parapets of whilst leading cattle and sheep across the beck. course, to form a saddle and provide a proper When in full spate, the beck would no doubt be surface, care, however, would be necessary to difficult to cross, and particularly so for provide a pleasing surface ......” packhorses with their heavily loaded panniers, perhaps containing oats, corn, wheat, woollens, When I read this document, I was truly cotton – which had to be kept dry, this is probably horrified at the prospect of the Ministry of Work’s the reason the packhorse bridge was constructed. 123 JAGGERMEN’S BRIDGES ON PACKHORSE TRAILS On a beautiful April morning I took this picture of Wycoller‟s ancient Clapper Bridge crossing the beck near the front of Wycoller Hall. April 2005. © Christine McEwen Collection. THE CLAPPER BRIDGE several centuries of village handloom weavers This superb specimen of a clapper bridge who crossed the bridge with their ‘pieces’ – spans the beck in the shadow of the broken down sheets of coarse woollens to hang out to dry in walls of enigmatic Wycoller Hall. Hereabouts, the the Tenter field then located at the rear of the beck was too wide to be spanned by a single-slab Hall. Local legend spins that in the Dark Ages, bridge, such as the clam bridge located about a local Druid priests carried out human sacrifices in half a mile upstream. Although somewhat an amphitheatre located on the side of the beck primitive looking, clapper bridges of these where the Hall was later constructed. Evidently, proportions in Northern England are a profound these ancient Druid rites are now recalled in the rarity, and the age of this bridge is the subject of clapper bridge’s thought-inspiring name.