Misplaced Pages

#407592

16-581: The Lancashire Witches Walk is a 51-mile (82 km) long-distance footpath opened in 2012, between Barrowford and Lancaster , all in Lancashire , England . It starts at Pendle Heritage Centre in Barrowford before passing through the Forest of Pendle , the town of Clitheroe and the Forest of Bowland to finish at Lancaster Castle . The route was created to commemorate the 400th anniversary of

32-553: A verse of a poem and featuring the name of one of those executed, which have been placed on the route. Bibliography Barrowford Barrowford ( / ˌ b ær oʊ ˈ f ɔːr d / ) is a village and civil parish in the Pendle district of Lancashire , England, north of Nelson , near the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty . Barrowford is on the Marsden – Gisburn – Long Preston turnpike . One of

48-566: Is in the Pendle parliamentary constituency, which is coterminous with the borough. According to the United Kingdom Census 2011 , the parish has a population of 6,171, a small increase from 6,039 in the 2001 census. The town forms part of a wider urban area , which had a population of 149,796 in 2001. A similar but larger, Burnley Built-up area defined in the 2011 census had a population of 149,422. The racial composition of

64-544: The 1860s, the village was heavily reliant on the cotton mills for employment, and, along with the rest of Lancashire, was badly affected by the Cotton Famine during the American Civil War . The wall alongside the river opposite Barrowford Park was built during this period to provide work for unemployed weavers: the milestone, which projects from the wall, is dated 1866. Barrowford was once a township in

80-475: The 400th anniversary of the hanging of nine of the Lancashire Witches. Starting in Barrowford and finishing at Lancaster Castle , where the witches were tried, the walk follows the most likely route that the witches were taken, on their way to be sentenced and hanged. Conveniently, the route also visits some of Lancashire’s best fells, using Slaidburn YHA as a base, almost exactly halfway along. While

96-549: The ancient parish of Whalley. This became a civil parish in 1866, and then in 1894 the urban areas became an urban district up until 1974. The part of Blacko parish historically in Lancashire was created from the remainder, with the exception of a small area across Pendle Water, which became part of Nelson. The parish is split between the Barrowford and Blacko and Higherford wards of Pendle Borough Council. It

112-443: The corner of the nearby children's playground. For the next fifty years, cotton cloth was woven in the many handloom weavers ' cottages which can still be seen along the village's main road. As power looms were introduced into the cotton industry in north east Lancashire in the 1820s, weaving gradually became a factory industry and production moved from the home to the massive weaving sheds which began to be constructed. At its peak,

128-735: The industry boasted some 10,000 looms and "employed several thousand local people". One of the last examples of a working weaving shed could be seen at the East Lancashire Towel Company, but the firm, moved to premises in Nelson, and ceased production in the United Kingdom altogether. The site of the former mill was redeveloped by Booths supermarket, which opened in November 2014. Another weaving shed at Higherford Mill has been converted to artists' workshops. By

144-609: The locks heading towards Leeds is Foulridge Tunnel known locally as the "Mile Tunnel". The packhorse bridge near Higherford Mill is the oldest in Barrowford, dating to the end of the 16th century. It formerly lay on the old main road to Gisburn , which was superseded by the Turnpike road built in 1804. The modern Anglican church (St Thomas') was built to replace the original church of 1839, which burnt down in 1964. The village has two rivers: Pendle Water , which flows through it, and Colne Water , which joins Pendle Water behind

160-504: The northern half on midsummer's days . Download coordinates as: Carol Ann Duffy , UK poet laureate and Professor of Modern Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University , was commissioned to create a poem to mark the anniversary of those 1612 witch trials. The poem, The Lancashire Witches , is made up of ten tercet verses, for the ten people hanged at Gallows Hill in Lancaster. Stephen Raw designed waymarkers, each inscribed with

176-451: The original toll houses can still be seen at the junction with the road to Colne . The toll house was restored in the 1980s and is owned by the trust which operates nearby Pendle Heritage Centre . Barrowford is about half a mile from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal , and a set of seven locks leads to the highest section of the canal between Barrowford and Barnoldswick . About a mile on from

SECTION 10

#1732779816408

192-404: The site of the now demolished Samuel Holden cotton mill and flows down from the moors above Colne . The first residential home for the deaf in Lancashire was established at Barrowford in 1929. Barrowford has been a centre for textile production since at least the 16th century when a fulling mill is recorded as being in the village. Until the late 18th century, the manufacture of woollen cloth

208-694: The start, finish and mid-points are accessible by public transport, much of the rest is remote. Green Close, a rural arts organisation based in the village of Melling, organised the installation of 10 half-tonne cast-iron installations on or near the path, embossed with stanzas of the walk’s poem, written by the poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy , all funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund . The route has been used in seven walking festivals (one by Clitheroe , two by Bowland and four by The Pendle Walking Festival). One originally Lancaster-based charity has used it to raise £5,200, by getting 50 youngsters to walk

224-410: The town in 2011 was 95.3% White (93.8% White British), 3.8% Asian, 0.1% Black, 0.6% Mixed and 0.2% Other. The largest religious groups were Christian (70.2%) and Muslim (3.2%). 72.7% of adults between the ages of 16 and 74 were classed as economically active and in work. The daily newspaper, Lancashire Telegraph , covers Barrowford in its Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale edition. The Nelson Leader ,

240-539: The trials of the Pendle witches . Ten cast iron tercet waymarkers, designed by Stephen Raw, each inscribed with a verse of a poem by the poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy , have been installed at sites along the way. The route was designed by Ian Thornton-Bryar and John Sparshatt, following initial suggestions from Sue Flowers, the artistic director of the Lancashire-based arts organization Green Close. The sustainable 51-mile long-distance walk commemorates

256-483: Was the primary industry, but in 1780 the fulling mill was rebuilt by Abraham Hargreaves as a cotton mill . The diarist Elizabeth Shackleton documented her life here. She died in 1781 at Pasture House. The cotton mill was powered by a water wheel and fed by water drawn off at the weir on Pendle Water . The mill reservoir is now the ornamental pond in Barrowford Park, whilst remains of the mill survive in

#407592