Forty years!
That’s how long the Archaeology group has been digging into Pendle’s past.
Quite an achievement, and there is more to come.
The group started out in the Middle Ages investigating the origins of what is now the Pendle Heritage Centre, and it looks like we are back there again with our latest explorations. More of them later.
As well as being forty years since the group started, it is also ten years since we started a look into the deep past of the valley that runs from Portfield, near Whalley, to Water Meetings, near Blacko. The Pendle’s Hidden Valley Project’s remit is to try and expand knowledge of this area beyond the usual cliched view of Pendle history consisting of abbeys, witches, and mills.
In 2023, and into 2024, we have been hunting for physical evidence of a cattle pool known as Brericar. Brericar was amongst the many Lancashire holdings, many within the Blackburn Hundred, of Queen Isabella (c.1295 to 22 August 1358), the ambitious wife of King Edward II (25 April 1284 to 21 September 1327), and mother and regent for Edward III (13 November 1312 to 21 June 1377). Some of her other lands in the area included Ightenhill, Padiham, Marsden, Reade (Reed), Barrowford, Over Barrowford, Trawden, and Pendle (Penhill). Many of these were held in demesne, which means the land was kept and managed by whoever held the manor for their own use or occupation.
Founder member of the group, David Taylor, has researched Brericar extensively. In ‘Project Design for Fieldwork relating to the Vaccaries at Higham and The Fence’, David mentions in the Historical Background that;
“Reedley Hallows and Brericar were not strictly vaccaries but referred to as cattle pools where animals were collected and sorted. Reedley Hallows dealt with the cattle within the Pendle Forest whilst Brericar managed all the cattle in the Blackburn Hundred. It is suggested that this site could be in West Close. The largest vaccary in Pendle was at Higham Booth.”
The Higham vaccary is next door to where we have been concentrating recently and we have done a few field walks that have looked at features within the vaccary.
David also writes that;
“The Higham Booth vaccary always appears to have carried the largest stock total of 47 with the others 29-42. Queen Isabella received the benefit in 1327 and relinquished it in 1348. During this time the stock was built up and the letting of some vaccaries continued. Subsequently the vaccaries declined and in 1399 had ceased to be farmed for the King`s stock throughout the Chase of Blackburnshire, all of them were now occupied by tenants or leaseholders.”
Which means that we are currently trying to find evidence of a snapshot in time that is over 600 years old!! That is a big ask.
So how have we got on? Well, I will let you judge.
Our field walks have noted several features in the landscape that you would expect to find associated with a cattle pool, ironically including what appears to have once been a pond or pool of water. We have noted evidence of extensive and large scale water management, a number of artificial platforms, field boundaries that have been out of use for centuries, and much, much more. What’s fun is when we spot a previously un-noted and unnoticed feature, and then indulge in speculation as to it’s likely and unlikely origins and purpose. Flights of fancy can occasionally spot things that can’t be seen when your feet are on the ground.
Talking of the ground, we have been having a poke about underneath it too. Excavation has always been part of the group’s activities. A few years ago, the first dig looking for Brericar found cinder paths and garden beds from the early to mid 1900s overlaying stone box drains and wall bases from the late 1700s to 1800s. Dating was done in post excavation work based on the pottery found during the dig.
More recently following a geo-physical survey, a spring 2024 dig revealed evidence of wall bases that are as yet undated. In August 2024 we conducted a dig not far from the first one that proved more productive and has raised many more questions whilst shining a light on the development of the site as a whole in the Post Medieval period. Post excavation analysis – also a major component of the groups work – has yet to be completed on the mass of finds. Initial observations are exciting.
Large sherds of Midland Purple pottery have been found. This ware was in production from c1500 to c1700 AD, which correlates with a reused 1590s datestone in the nearby farmhouse and it’s most famous resident, Jonas Moore. It also means we have narrowed the gap to Isabella down to about 200 years. To put that into context, we have also unearthed some pieces of worked flint and chert which are over 6,000 years old.
There have been two phases of digging in 2024, with a third phase planned for later in the year. Going forward we will be continuing with the wider Pendle’s Hidden Valley Project as well as new explorations and further heritage discovery field walks in Pendle and nearby. We even visit abbeys and cross the border into Yorkshire!!! Don’t forget that post excavation work! You can join us as we sift through the fruits of our labours and see what they have to tell us about the site.
Having enabled the people of Pendle and surrounds to enrich the knowledge of the area’s past for four decades, we hope to go forward continuing to help them write new chapters in Pendle’s hidden history and widen the view of past Pendle.
If you want to help prod about in Pendle’s past and re-write history, you are welcome to join us and help preserve it for the future.