Morris dances

Royal Preston Morris Dancers in action...
The costumes are traditional and each dance side has its own livery. They don't usually wear peaked caps (as far as I recall) and I wasn't sure about those!  Made them look rather incongruously like school boys. The dancing was good though. You should hear the sound of eight sets of clogs pounding on a wooden floor...

Morris men

The Barrowford festival celebrating the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal was only a small event - a few stalls and refreshments, some (very interesting) displays about the canal, a tombola. (Surprise, surprise - I won a box of posh teabags from the famous 'Bettys of Harrogate'). There were also a couple of Morris dance sides - the men's Royal Preston Morris Dancers and a team of female clog dancers (whose name I have sadly forgotten).

As always at such events, there was plenty of dancing but also lots of sitting around chatting - and the occasional glass of beer was consumed (not by me!)

I really enjoy watching the dancing, though it's a complex subject and I don't know a huge amount about it. It's interesting to note the variations between the sides and the types of dances. Northern Morris is quite different from what you see further south (Cotswold). The dancers often wear clogs and many of the dances use sticks rather than hankies. I love that these old traditions are kept alive but the average age of the dancers tends to be 'mature' and one wonders if it will die out eventually.

It's all too easy to poke fun at - but then, some of the jokes are quite amusing:

'Our local Morris group has a team of men, a team of women and a team of children too. They call them Morris Minors.'

'Did you hear about the bus load of Morris dancers that was hijacked? The hijackers threatened to release one every hour until their demands were met.'

And the old adage: 'You should make a point of trying everything once -  except incest and Morris dancing.'

Marooned

There are 91 locks along the 127 miles of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal - and seven of them are in Barrowford. Unfortunately the lock you can see in my picture has some sudden problem with the concrete that supports the lock gates. It was closed and drained to allow urgent repairs. So, if you wanted to travel further east than this you would have to wait. It seems to have scuppered the plans for at least one narrowboat. Never mind, it is a pretty area to while away some time, with plenty to watch - cyclists, dog walkers, fishermen and picnickers abound. When the all people have gone home there would, I imagine, be some wildlife to observe too. I liked the yellow flag iris, growing profusely along the banks.

Peaceful Pendle

One of the reasons I went to Barrowford was because there was an event celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, which was fully opened in 1816. The canal links the two great counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire, enabling the trade and passage of goods that fuelled the Industrial Revolution, servicing the huge mills that produced wool and cotton textiles. Nowadays most of the traffic on the canal is for pleasure rather than business. And what a pleasure it must be to cruise slowly along pretty stretches like this, on the outskirts of Barrowford. In the distance you can see the brooding outline of Pendle Hill, which dominates the otherwise gently rolling countryside in this area.

Pendle Heritage Centre

I bravely ventured across the border into Lancashire recently (!) to Barrowford, a town I have never visited before. The town itself was a bit of a disappointment really. Although it has an interesting history and has some very old buildings scattered around, I thought it fell just short of being picturesque.  It does, however, have this lovely old house on the outskirts. 

Once a farmhouse, Park Hill is now the Pendle Heritage Centre, a museum and visitor centre. It sits beside an ancient crossing point over the river named Pendle Water. Originally the site held a timber house and then a stone building that was enlarged and altered through the years from the 16th century. There are three different building periods visible in the frontage in my photo.  The house was for centuries the home of the Bannister family, whose most famous descendant is Sir Roger Bannister, the distinguished neurologist and athlete, the first person to run a mile in under four minutes.

Behind the Heritage Centre is a pretty 18th century walled garden and the lovely 15th century cruck- framed barn, below, that was rebuilt here in the 1980s after being moved from another site.

Inside the Heritage Centre, much of it has been left in a raw state so that you can see how the building was constructed and altered. There are interesting displays about the history of the area, including the story of the Pendle Witches, who were tried and hanged in 1612.