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PENDLE HILL, STONEY BANK RINGWORK, SD 806 428
The site is located on a raised section of rough moorland named Stoney Bank directly to the north of the Big End of Pendle Hill. The site affords fine views over the upper Ribble Valley with the mountains of the western Yorkshire Dales as a backdrop.
The form is of a circular raised stone bank some 7ft in width broken only by an entry facing directly to the east towards the Heights of Wheathead and the Pike of Alainsete.
The raised-banked ringwork has an external diameter of 72ft, and an internal diameter of 58ft. Prodding of the internal floor area with a metal spiked tool in random locations suggests a paved surface at some depth below the turf. Prodding in the centre of the circle suggested a deeper large stone lined pit. Given that the morning turned wet further investigation is needed. A look on Google Earth and Aerial photographs may prove rewarding.
On my return to Clitheroe I called in at the cottage of a hedge-witch friend of mine, one by the name of Hawthorn, to see if she new of the site. She informed me that she did indeed know the site and that she and her kind used it as a ‘dancing ground’ at the time of the New Moon. In fact, she went on to inform me, she would be off out in an hour or so to mark out the ground with sprigs of Rowen as this Monday night was a New Moon. Men are not allowed at these gatherings and those venturing in the vicinity at such times face great humiliations and are rendered to the fate of Molly Boys, scorned and mocked and later to face self exile to that barbarous place beyond the Pale known as Yorkshire.
On this day, it being the feast day of John the Baptist, and a New Moon for witches to dance beneth, I give you a poem :-
Formerly, when they us'd to troul
Silver bowls of sack, they gave the bowl
Two spoons at least, an ill used kept;
'tis well if now our own be left
For Hawthorn's sisters on yon' moor,
As all a round men feel the lure.
The site is located on a raised section of rough moorland named Stoney Bank directly to the north of the Big End of Pendle Hill. The site affords fine views over the upper Ribble Valley with the mountains of the western Yorkshire Dales as a backdrop.
The form is of a circular raised stone bank some 7ft in width broken only by an entry facing directly to the east towards the Heights of Wheathead and the Pike of Alainsete.
The raised-banked ringwork has an external diameter of 72ft, and an internal diameter of 58ft. Prodding of the internal floor area with a metal spiked tool in random locations suggests a paved surface at some depth below the turf. Prodding in the centre of the circle suggested a deeper large stone lined pit. Given that the morning turned wet further investigation is needed. A look on Google Earth and Aerial photographs may prove rewarding.
On my return to Clitheroe I called in at the cottage of a hedge-witch friend of mine, one by the name of Hawthorn, to see if she new of the site. She informed me that she did indeed know the site and that she and her kind used it as a ‘dancing ground’ at the time of the New Moon. In fact, she went on to inform me, she would be off out in an hour or so to mark out the ground with sprigs of Rowen as this Monday night was a New Moon. Men are not allowed at these gatherings and those venturing in the vicinity at such times face great humiliations and are rendered to the fate of Molly Boys, scorned and mocked and later to face self exile to that barbarous place beyond the Pale known as Yorkshire.
On this day, it being the feast day of John the Baptist, and a New Moon for witches to dance beneth, I give you a poem :-
Formerly, when they us'd to troul
Silver bowls of sack, they gave the bowl
Two spoons at least, an ill used kept;
'tis well if now our own be left
For Hawthorn's sisters on yon' moor,
As all a round men feel the lure.
