Put the kettle on, mother

The hamlet of Wycoller would be less attractive if it didn't have a tearoom and a little craft centre. Happily it does, housed in an old stone building, a converted shippon (a cowshed and dairy). Its centrepiece is this magnificent Victorian open range, of the type that would have been found in most homes at one time. The houses in Saltaire all had similar things, providing heat (and boy, was this one pumping out some heat!), cooking facilities and scope for heating water. You don't often see them now, and I have rarely seen one in full working condition. Isn't it wonderful? They were not using it to cook on though, I hasten to add.
Having taken the photo, I elected to take my drink outside into the garden to enjoy a relaxing time in the sunshine, topping up my Vitamin D.
(By the way, don't visit Wycoller on a Monday as the tearoom and shop is closed.)

Sunshine plant

Marsh marigolds, one of the first bog plants to bloom in the spring, made a vivid splash of colour in one of the ponds in Wycoller. Alongside the little beck, a string of pools and marsh areas has been constructed. It makes a lovely area in which to walk or relax (plenty of benches for weary hikers) but I imagine it is also used as a resource by school groups. There was plenty of scope for pond-dipping and marvelling at all the wildlife that ponds and bogs contain. It always makes me happy to see efforts being made towards nature conservation and education.

Living sculpture

I really liked these 'living sculptures', constructed by local community artists as part of a project to enhance and regenerate the landscape round Wycoller.  They are woven from willow that is still growing, so in summer the sculptures (including a tunnel, a bower, and a horse - who appears now to be riderless) become leafy and green. In winter the leaves drop, revealing the bare framework again.  In this late spring, there were one or two green shoots, but I enjoyed seeing the graceful lines of the woven branches.

Dog with log - and witches

This ambitious little dog made me smile....

as did the witches sign, below. Wycoller is in a part of Lancashire called Pendle, which has an association with the infamous Pendle witch trials of 1612. Twelve local people (mostly members of two different families) were charged with ten murders by witchcraft, and ten of the accused were found guilty and hanged. The Clerk to the Court, Thomas Potts, published an account of the trial: 'The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster'. It's an intriguing, if tragic, story and the trials have since been the source of inspiration for many writers, poets, dramatists and artists.  There is a well-known novel, written by Robert Neill in 1951, called 'Mist over Pendle', which is still in print. 
The signpost marks a section of one of several Witch Trails that criss-cross the area, enabling people to explore the fascinating 400 year old history.

Wycoller's bridges

The beck that runs through the Wycoller valley is criss-crossed by a variety of unusual bridges and several fords. The bridge above is the Clapper bridge, which would have carried pedestrians and horses. Carts would have been pulled through the adjacent ford. It is said that the bridge once had a deeply grooved surface from the wear it had had, but that a farmer chiselled it flat after his daughter suffered a fatal accident there.

This is the oldest bridge, perhaps dating back 1000 years - the Clam bridge - made out of a single slab of stone supported at either end. It was swept away and broken by floods in 1989-90 but has since been repaired and restored.

The third bridge is the twin-arched Packhorse bridge, possibly built by Cistercian monks in the fifteenth century. The left-hand arch looks a little bit wonky but it was apparently built like that for stability, as the foundation rock on that side is not level.

Wycoller's aisled barn

Built around 1650 using timbers from an earlier cruck barn, the magnificent aisled barn was used to store hay, thresh corn, stable oxen and as a coachhouse. It has been restored and now functions as an Information Centre. Apparently it houses a colony of Natterer's bats, which is a relatively rare species, but I guess they would have been asleep when I was there as I didn't see any.

Wycoller Hall

The hamlet of Wycoller centres around the ruin of Wycoller Hall. The first hall on the site was built by the Hartley family in the 15th century, and it later passed by marriage into the Cunliffe family. The area was a sheep farming and weaving community. As handloom weaving declined, with industrialisation in the nearby towns, so the fortunes of Wycoller fell and many of the estate's tenants had to move out to the towns for work. In 1818, the Hall's last owner, Henry Owen Cunliffe, died with outstanding debts and creditors started to dismantle the Hall and sell off its stone to build mills. By the early 1900s the Hall was in ruins.

It is believed that the hall was the inspiration for 'Ferndean Manor' in Charlotte Brontë's novel 'Jane Eyre'. The village of Haworth, where the Brontës lived, is only a few miles away and Charlotte would have known this area well.

This old fireplace has been rebuilt by the 'Friends of Wycoller' group which works to preserve the area.

Ghost for sale

The hamlet of Wycoller has a fascinating history and even today is an interesting and attractive little place.  It has only a handful of houses, set in a valley through which a little beck playfully winds its way. This Grade II* listed farmhouse, Pierson House, is currently for sale at just under half a million pounds - so you can take a tour inside too if you like, while it remains on the market - see here. It has the added attraction of a ghost - a grey lady who reputedly disappears through the wall into the adjoining house.

Foreshadowing

The narrow road down into Wycoller is reserved for residents' vehicles only, so visitors park at the top and walk down a footpath. It has some lovely views and serves to ramp up the anticipation for what will be found at the journey's end. I was excited to see shadows. The sun! Though, April being April, it teased with some short, sharp, sleety showers from time to time.  There were some lambs in the meadows but they were all out of range of my camera lens.  I got talking to a shepherd who told me that the late heavy snowfall in mid-March meant that he had lost a lot of lambs. The freaky weather may depress me but it has had a lot more serious consequences for our farmers.

And just because I felt like playing, here's a variation on the theme.

Across the border!

Spring outing number two..... Having failed to find any shoes in Skipton last week, a colleague at work suggested I try Boundary Mill, which is a huge store near Colne that sells discounted 'quality branded goods'. It's a massive place, selling not only clothes, shoes and accessories but also things for the home, like bedding, towels, china, cookware. You can easily spend all day there. It's a bit overwhelming really. It does sell some very good stuff - last year's lines of posh brands like Jaeger, and some continental lines like Italian knitwear. There is so much stock that you'd be hard-pressed not to find something that you like. So I bought some shoes... and some tops, a nightdress, a cardigan and a summer coat. Oops - a bit of a spree really! It's 'over the border' in Lancashire - but I'm not proud.

It was raining when I went in the store but by the time I came out again the sun was shining, so I decided to go to Wycoller, which is a hamlet and country park on the border between Lancashire and Yorkshire.  This is the peaceful view from the car park. The hamlet itself is so tucked away that you have to leave your car and walk down into the little valley where the buildings sit.

(BTW, these photos were taken just over a week ago. The ensuing week of sunshine and showers has meant that the winter-bare trees are now misted in green, as the new leaves burst forth. It seems to have happened very suddenly and quickly. We are rejoicing. :) But it does mean this series of photos looks a bit dated already!)