Pendle’s Hidden Valley Project – 21st January 2017 – Fieldwalk to Deerstones

Alex Whitlock

The first field walk for 2017 took place on a clear crisp day. The sort of day you that can give you a glimpse of one of the transient beauties of the Pennines – an inversion. When these happen the low ground is covered by cloud & all you can see is the tops of the hills poking out. It gives the happy illusion of removing the modern world. We didn’t see one – we missed out by less than 24 hours.

The aim of the walk was to take advantage of the comparative lack of vegetation and the raking winter light to try and spot features that have evaded us in the warmer weather. The walk comprised a gentle(ish) ascent from the road north of Sabden to the moor above Deerstones and then a more abrupt descent to Craggs & thence back to where we started. On the way up we passed the site of a small WWII depot and Chartist Well. Despite a slow start we spotted at least three previously unnoticed features. The two shown probably relate to early post medieval quarrying at Deerstones but may be more ancient than that.

We will return at a later date to properly record the remains of these structures.  Maybe you would like to join us – if so please free to do so, details of future events are on the website or get in contact by email. You too could be used as a marker post.

(All images by permission of A.Whitlock – All Rights Reserved)