A place of mystery and wonder – "twixt Burnley and Clitheroe, Whalley and Colne"
This winter is exceptionally mild, so far. The garden is normally closed to visitors over the winter months but can be opened on request. Though most plants have died down, there are signs of life here and there. The organic Orleans Reinette apples are just maturing and can be bought for £1 a bag from the shop. If you like gardening, the next meeting of the garden group is 20th January 2016 – click for details.
LATEST – FIVE THOUSAND HAVE NOW SIGNED THE PETITION!
The cutting of the entire Countryside budget would be less than 0.2% of the £262m savings that Lancashire County Council are required to make. It makes no sense to desolate Wycoller and the other country parks for such a minuscule amount! Wycoller on its own is a small fraction of this 0.2%.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION
Friends of Wycoller and Friends of Pendle Heritage have written to County Councillor Marcus Johnstone, Cabinet Member for Environment, Planning and Cultural Services, about the closure of the Countryside Management service, which will shut down Wycoller Country Park.
Can you email Councillor Johnstone marcus.johnstone@lancashire.gov.uk and support Wycoller in its time of need? Just click HERE. The more people that email, the more likely the County Council will look again.
Wycoller is internationally known as Lancashire’s part of Bronte Country and contains perhaps the finest group of scheduled ancient monuments and listed buildings in the county, like the ruined Wycoller Hall, the ancient barn, bridges, clothiers houses and vaccary walls all set in stunning countryside bursting with nature. Despite this, it costs hardly anything to run and if cut, the savings will be too small to make any difference to the Council’s need for budget cuts. Continue reading “5000 SIGN ‘SAVE WYCOLLER’ PETITION IN FIRST WEEK”
A traditional carol service, organised by local churches, was held in the Cruck Barn on Tuesday 15th December. This very atmospheric annual event was followed by coffee and mince pies served in the cafe of Pendle Heritage Centre.
The Friends held their Christmas party (organised by some members of the Archaeology Group) in the barn on the evening of Saturday 12th December. There had been torrential rain that day and a lot of flooding but only one person was unable to come. A quiz started the evening. After indulging in an excellent buffet (provided by Pendle Heritage Centre) of quiche, cold meats, pork pie, salads, trifle, lemon meringue pie, mince pie and coffee we were coaxed into taking part in energetic games organised by Michael and Georgina. Having played musical chairs and other strenuous games we were then given more skilful ones to play such as boules using potatoes (none of which were round!) and rolling pound coins towards a bottle of wine. At the end of one of the games there had to be a tiebreaker and I lost – do you know how many time zones there are?! The evening drew to a close with the singing of traditional carols.
A petition to save Queen Street Mill Museum, Burnley and Helmshore Mills Museum, Rossendale has been launched to save these internationally important museums of Lancashire’s cotton and wool industries. SIGN THE PETITION HERE
Details of the planned closures can be found in national and local newspapers and on the Museums Association website… see below
Independent Newspaper Report HERE
Lancashire Telegraph Report HERE Continue reading “SAVE QUEEN STREET MILL AND HELMSHORE MILLS – 8,500 HAVE SIGNED PETITION SO FAR”
Towns across the county celebrated in a variety of wonderful ways for Lancashire Day, 27th November. The day dates back to 1295 when the county sent its first representatives to parliament. It is traditionally observed with the loyal toast to The Queen and the Duchy of Lancaster. Hot on the heels of last Saturday’s Lancashire Tea open-day, the Friends of Real Lancashire joined the celebrations by unveiling their new display banner at the Pendle Heritage Centre.
A PROPOSED renovation of one of Ribble Valley’s oldest mills could potentially create more than 100 full time and part time jobs.
Applicant James Warburton of Emporia Leisure Ltd wants to transform the Holmes Mill in Clitheroe into a 31 bedroom hotel with a restaurant, bar, bakery, function room, two retail outlets and a gym and spa leisure complex.
A FIRST World War exhibition is to be staged in Blackburn to mark the end of a year-long Heritage Lottery-funded project.
The display will feature work created during the ‘Narratives of Transformation, their story: our story,’ scheme, which looks at how the war changed the lives of people both on and off the battlefields.
Lancashire Telegraph Article HERE Continue reading “Blackburn exhibition focuses on life during the First World War”
Longridge Heritage Centre was busy with volunteers, guests and buyers on Saturday at the launch of its new book ‘Our Heritage-Longridge Past and Present.’
A HISTORIC viaduct belonging to the East Lancashire Railway is set to be handed over so a modern-day cycling route through Rossendale can take shape.
Heritage railway bosses have owned Alderbottom Viaduct, near Stubbins, for a number of years, even though it does not form part of their main Rawtenstall to Bury route.
All 5 of Hyndburn’s libraries at Accrington, Oswaldtwistle, Rishton, Great Harwood and Clayton-le-Moors are under threat from Lancashire County Council cuts. The same is true regarding the 5 libraries serving Rossendale Borough – Rawtenstall, Crawshawbooth, Haslingden, Whitworth and Bacup. Click HERE to sign the petition against the closures.
As well as a terrible loss to all book-lovers, it will also mean the closing of local history sections and their collections (Accrington’s is excellent, ed.).
Continue reading “SAVE HYNDBURN AND ROSSENDALE LIBRARIES – SIGN PETITION”
The Friends held a successful Open Museum Event on Saturday 21st November with the aim of raising awareness of this Pendle gem.
Frank Janet and Gillian guided over 40 visitors, some from as far away as London, round the museum and were available to answer their many questions.
With Lancashire Day approaching (27th Nov) the Real Lancashire Society were there to promote the County Palatine whilst the Leeds and Liverpool Society, the Earby History Society and the Burnley and Pendle Branch of the Family History Society were on hand to highlight local groups, along with the Burnley and District Branch of the U3A. Continue reading “Open Museum and Lancashire Tea event”
We’ve had such a warm autumn that the recent cold weather has caught us by surprise. The snow stuck at Wycoller and gave the place a cold gloomy romantic feel that the Bronte sisters would have loved!
Wycoller hamlet and country park is Lancashire’s Bronte Country and is one of the places the Friends actively seek to conserve. It never fails to inspire.
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Last surviving steam-powered weaving mill in world. Cultural value is ‘incalculable’.
Burnley’s iconic Queen Street Mill Museum looks set for the axe after Lancashire County Council unveiled massive proposed budget cuts this week which aim to close most cultural institutions the Council manages.
Full article about Queen Street Mill here.
Friends of Barrowford Park, Pendle Heritage conservation group and the Council Parks Department all pooled their efforts to research, design and erect an information board in the park. It tells the interesting story of Old Barrowford Mill, fragments of which survive in the park. Next time you are in the park, go and have a look.
The closing of much-loved museums and libraries and the end of the countryside service which manages the country parks like Wycoller and Spring Wood, this is possibly the worst piece of local heritage news one can imagine. Article here.
So much of our heritage is comprised of trees and plants – natural heritage that encompasses and interacts with our cultural heritage. This BBC article is a fascinating insight into how plants might be capable of more than we suspect. Some scientists – controversially – describe plants as “intelligent”.
“The subject of our attention is the Foldys Cross which has been in Towneley Park since 1789…”
Preparations are well under way for The Open Museum / Lancashire Tea on Saturday 21st Nov between 11am and 3.30pm.
The Barn windows have been transformed with an autumnal display and the Lancashire flag is proudly ” flying”. Continue reading “Preparations for autumn event”
The repair of the Wycoller Hall dividing wall has been successful. The ancient wall was damaged many years ago and its coping stones have sat in an unsightly pile in front of the hall for a very long time. The lime-mortar based repair and resetting of the coping stones were undertaken by the Countryside Service of Lancashire County Council. The Friends suggested the project and gave specialist advice on lime mortars etc. We have since been keeping an eye on it to ensure the mortar has set correctly for the winter, which it now has. We are so pleased to see the wall repaired so ‘well done’ to the County Council and all involved.
