Denise North came to speak to the Friends and as usual with Denise we were treated to a well researched and entertaining account of “A century of Health in Burnley from 1815-1918”. She spoke about the development of sanitation in the town as the population grew. The small number of inhabitants in 1815 drew its
A good group of people met in the Gallery and David Taylor recounted the investigations and research into the Higham Vaccary. Much documentary research has been carried out going back to the Court Rolls and the time of Queen Isabella Regent of England from 1327-1330. We explored many ditches and boundaries and unusual earthworks over
We were pleased to welcome students from the Forensic Science courses at Burnley College and take them on a coach trip around the local area. We journeyed through time starting at Portfield Camp, a late Bronze Age (BA) or Iron Age (IA) hillfort at the western end of the Hidden Valley which is a scheduled
What a fantastic evening we had! The place was filled to the rafters to hear the Holllies Drumming Legend Bobby Elliott talk about his life story of how he became involved in drumming as a young local lad and rubbing shoulders with famous people as the band worked their way up the charts. And some
There was a full house for Steve Irwin’s talk about the Lancashire Cotton Famine and the American Civil War and it was great to see so many people returning to their normal activities and pastimes after the worries of the last eighteen months. Stephen has worked as the Education Officer for Blackburn Museum for the
The Annual General Meeting took place with reports from the Chair, Secretary and Acting Treasurer. These reports outlined the difficulties faced during the last 18 months caused by the pandemic and the shortage of volunteers to take on key roles in the running of the Friends. An appeal was made for a Treasurer and those
Andrea Smith led us on a very enjoyable walk around upper Barrowford and we put a toe into Higherford too. Another nice dry autumn day with convivial and interested people. Of course the ford can still be clearly seen today next to the park and there were another few places where the river could be
This was a really enjoyable afternoon with very convivial company as Norman Mitchell led us in the footsteps of Jonas Moore also known as the Father of Time. Moore was the son of a yeoman farmer of White Lee Farm in Higham, educated at Burnley Grammar school and he achieved amazing things, all the more
“..And they were off to a good start”…. It was a real pleasure to see people turn out for our first talk of the year and to welcome Harold Hoggarth back again to the Friends – and with such tales to tell too. The catalyst for this talk was the information Harold discovered whilst researching
This field walk was to complete the investigation of the western postulated boundary and further examine the enclosures to the north of the site. We had an enjoyable time wandering around and conjecturing what the various ditches, boundaries and banks had to tell us, the conclusions are as follows. We also viewed the interesting vernacular
Who knew how interesting the western side of Higham was going to turn out to be! This is what walk leader Ian Rowley had to report. The visit got off to an exciting start when we were almost hit by a falling squirrel, which I am happy to report bounded away unhurt. The walk commenced
What a joyous start to the easing of lockdown, gorgeous weather and good company. A group of socially distanced Friends met at the Assheton Arms in Downham. First to the site of the Roman Road (RR). David Taylor described the features of RR’s and their routes around the country, he discussed Margary’s work which still
On one sunny day in Autumn we walked from the A671 down a very straight metalled road to the Standen Hey Farm trying to track the Roman Road (RR), for a good while we must have been walking on top of it. After the farms an almost straight grassy track led past the golf course
Well… Status Quo weren’t exactly on our minds last weekend….. but we did go deeper down. A small group dug near to Calf Hill on the flanks of Pendle Hill, socially distanced of course with gloves and hand sanitiser. After a geo physical survey last year led us to believe that there might be things
It was an overcast and windy day when we met on Coal pit lane, an old packhorse route running from Weets house down to Gisburn. We photographed Bonny Black’s Farm, which was a stopover post on the packhorse route, for Margaret Dickinson who gave us a splendid talk on Packhorse Bridges and routes and the
How refreshing to see and hear Jennifer Read’s presentation which included songs and dialect poetry. Her enthusiasm for this subject is helping to keep alive our oral Lancashire traditions. Jennifer is a Broadsheet Balladress, broadsheet as in the very large sheets of paper A3 size,two sheets on which songs were written. Essentially they were Victorian
Dr David Taylor gave an interesting talk to a good group of members, he started by saying that during the time leading up to WW11 pottery did not play a major part in archaeology nor was it well researched. Over the years this view of the importance of pottery has changed and there has been
We were off to a good start for our first walk of the year. New people were introduced to the Hidden Valley project and the rain held off as the walk leader Alex Whitlock took us to previous excavation sites and on the way we tried to find the Chartist Well, well not entirely successfully.
There was an excellent attendance and much interest in Denise North’s talk on the role of embroidery in recording history. Embroidered pictures told a story that could not be shared before the population became literate. Stitching marks our existence onto fabric and also helps us to identify ourselves and our different cultures. A good example
We spent a very interesting and informative morning listening and looking at artefacts, most of them local, ranging in date from the upper paleolithic era to modern times. Alex Whitlock one of the Finds Liaison Officers for Lancashire and Cumbria revealed his knowledge of various finds that are logged by the Portable Antiquities Scheme or
This was a very pleasant afternoon, the droll and wry humoured script of Alan Bennett’s “A Cream Cracker under the Settee” ably performed by Maureen Roberts was just right for a wet December afternoon. We are indebted to Maureen one of our members, who has much experience as a local actor and director, for
Thanks to John and Anne Dodd we had another successful Quiz night. And the group that won it were…. the LYW’s or last years winners – Graham, Sue, Gillian, Iain and Pat, well there were five of them! We started off with a round Lancashire quiz, we had anagrams of lancashire dishes – which were
Why lines were built and why they were shut have been of great interest to our speaker for much of his life and on Thursday night Alan Young came to talk about his hobby. Being a Geordie he first became interested in railway lines and stations in Heaton near Newcastle, that was in 1972 however
Kevin Cootes proved to us that Cheshire was not ‘a black hole’ in the Iron Age nor is it ‘not well known archaeologically’. After outlining nearby settlements, Chester amphitheatre and Meols for example he expanded on the Poulton site. This in an ideal position on a plateau overlooking a rich agricultural flood plain and near
What a super day that was, a dazzling array of speakers who informed and entertained the audience with a box of delights from around the North West. First from the post was Rick Peterson who outlined developments in the Whitewell area. Fairy Holes cave with its intriguing well developed opening has a long history of
Peter del Strother’s excellent talk to a super audience of the Friends and guests was a fascinating insight into little known facts (to some of us anyway) of Clitheroe. Did you know that? There’s a finial in the rose garden of Clitheroe Castle from the Houses of Parliament that was burnt down in 1834… That
A bright and cool autumn day saw a small but select group on the canal at Finsley Gate in Burnley. We were lucky that Mike Clarke was able to meet up with us and start us off on our walk around Finsley Gate and onto the straight ‘mile’ or Burnley Val. According to Roger Frost,
The first talk of the season was off to a flying start with a super turn out to hear Nick Burton’s talk of Cromwell’s northern journey. Nick took us on a tour of Yorkshire and Lancashire tracing the route followed by Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army, in a difficult to comprehend four days, as his
With the farmer’s permission, we enjoyed a lovely sunny September walk along the Ings Beck valley from Hollins Farm to Ings End. The total distance was under 1 mile, but there was plenty of industrial archaeology, wild flowers and geological specimens to discover. The purpose was to explore the remains of the Skeleron Mines and
With the threat of rain, four intrepid archaeologists made one last visit to the site. The trench was cleaned before photographing. As a result of the previous night’s rain, the differences within the trench were more visible. There is an area of stone and quartz in the trench, which could be interpreted as a collapsed