PENDLE HILL, STONEY BANK RINGWORK, SD 806 428

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.

lowergate wrote:...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.

'ere - a' you callin' maa mutha a puff!?

Ahem ! Errr...sorry about that. Dunno wot came over me...

lowergate wrote:

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 south 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.

So - a venture Pendle-way is needed (I wouldn't mind seeing t' Fox Well and that there Devil's Footprint on t'lower side of Pendle Hill too). Dave - wanna jaunt over in t' next week? Danny - have y' got y' new car on t'road yet?

It is all the fault of that photo-grafik minded idiot William Hague - where on earth did he pop out from in that vast swathe of landscape that now includes your idylic Elmet? Some say he is a foundling from Spring Mount or a Mekon from a Dan Dare comic strip.

Is all that stuff for real John, or are you just having us all on. Have you been drinking that stuff, again. Ray.

All is for real Ray.

There is only the Real, all else is illusion in that span of life, but a wink in the eye of the Real, our cognitions have, by the mere chance of being here in that mili-second's wink, to observe.

Was Tim Bobbin real, or just a thread off some weaver's reel ?

Hi John, I think Tim Bobbin (John Collier 1708-86) was a real person - he was a poet much associated with Rochdale, a town I know well from my childhood days - some of which I'd rather forget. Don't drink too much of that ye olde ale John

On this day Ray, 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.