West Pennine Moors

The West Pennine Moors is an area of approximately 90 square miles of moorland and reservoir scenery, located in Lancashire, between the towns of Chorley, Bolton, Horwich, Ramsbottom, Haslingden, Oswaldtwistle and Darwen. Notable architectural features include Rivington Pike, Winter Hill transmitting station, Holcombe Tower and Jubilee Tower on Darwen Moor.

United Utilities owns around 40% of the land for water catchment [http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/regeneration/wpmsi/intro.asp] . The company operates four information centres at Rivington, Jumbles Country Park, Roddlesworth and Haslingden Grane.

Geography

Rising to a peak on Winter Hill (456 m), the area is mainly upland, with many well-trodden paths, as well as areas of historical and geological interest. A large amount of open moorland has been made accessible due to the right to roam legislation, although much of this area is very boggy and makes for difficult walking.

The moorland occurs in a number of discrete blocks at Withnell, Anglezarke and Rivington Moors; Darwen and Turton Moors; and Oswaldtwistle and Holcombe Moors. The predominant land use is sheep farming. Unlike many areas of moorland in the north of England, the moors here are not managed for grouse shooting and consist largely of rough grassland and peat bog. There was a 50% loss of heather cover between 1946 and 1988 [http://www.lbap.org.uk/bap/habitat/moorland.htm] .

The West Pennine Moors are bisected by a number of wooded valleys and cloughs, the largest such area being in the Roddlesworth valley near Tockholes. There are some small coniferous plantations, particularly around the area's many reservoirs, but overall woodland cover is minimal.

The underlying geology of the area is millstone grit, and much lead and tin has historically been mined from the area. The first Witherite was discovered at White Coppice.

Reservoirs

Rivington chain

Many visitors to the area tend to visit the four large reservoirs : Anglezarke, Upper Rivington, Lower Rivington and Yarrow, along with the village of Rivington itself. These are linked through Heapey and White Coppice by a man-made ditch called The Goit that cuts through the landscape. The disconnected High Bullough reservoir now features as an attractive nature reserve on the Anglezarke trail. To the east of the area can be found the separate chain of Belmont, Delph, Turton & Entwistle, Wayoh and Jumbles reservoirs.

The area is often referred to as the 'Little Lake District' and like the 'real' Lake District, the area is a haven for walkers and ramblers, offering easy level walks around the reservoirs or more challenging walks on Winter Hill or the moors to the East. There are plenty of guidebooks available for the area, some of which can be bought from the information centre at Rivington Lower Barn. Mountain biking has become increasingly popular since 2002, when the area was the setting for the biking events of the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The reservoirs are now owned by United Utilities but were originally constructed by Liverpool Corporation. As this suggests, the water collected supplies the city of Liverpool and has done since August 1857. The first reservoirs to be built, authorised by an 1847 Act of Parliament, were designed to impound the waters of the rivers Douglas and Roddlesworth, and form a reservoir in the valley between Rivington Pike and Heath Charnock. These are the current day Anglezarke, Upper Rivington and Lower Rivington reservoirs. All water piped to Liverpool passes through these reservoirs in the order given and was originally filtered through the sand beds at the southern end of Lower Rivington Reservoir.

In 1860, the increasing demand for water in Liverpool meant that extra supplies were required. A new reservoir was built further up the Roddlesworth valley, the furthest upstream of the current Roddlesworth reservoirs. Though this new reservoir increased the storage volume for wet years, it did not increase the area of the watershed.

In 1867, it was found that yet more water was going to be needed, so the decision was made to construct another reservoir in the Yarrow Valley, current day Yarrow Reservoir. Work started in 1868, was finished in August 1875, and finally filled in February 1877. To cope with the extra water, two new filter beds were also constructed.

The Roddlesworth and Rake Brook Reservoirs are now linked to Anglezarke and so the filter bed via a 3.5 mile long canal, of which some is underground near Brinscall, and is labelled on Ordnance Survey maps as The Goit.

High Bullough reservoir - formerly Chorley Reservoir - is now disconnected from the system, existing as a nature reserve attracting Goldeneye amongst other species.

Since then, a multitude of other reservoirs have been constructed across the West Pennine Moors area. The Rivington watershed now comprises 10,000 acres (40 km²) of land and the average flow rate through the filter beds near Horwich is 8.96 million litres/day (2.24 million gallons/day).

Haslingden Grane

Situated in the north east of the area, Haslingden Grane is home to Calf Hey, Ogden and Holden Wood reservoirs. There is a car park and information centre at Clough Head.

Prominent Architecture

Winter Hill Transmitters

The main mast on Winter Hill extends to a height of 1014 feet and is owned by Arqiva. It carries analogue & digital radio transmissions and analogue & digital television transmissions of BBC TV, ITV, CH4, CH5, FREEVIEW, BBC radio and commercial radio services. This mast serves millions of homes across the North West region.

Most of the other masts and towers are for mobile phones base stations, emergency services communications and PMR services as well as various microwave links.

Rivington and Lever Park

Lord Leverhulme left his mark on the area in creating Lever Park, with Rivington Pike, the Terraced Gardens, and a replica of Liverpool Castle, which remain popular tourist attractions.

Due to its exposed position, Rivington Pike was long used as a signalling and Beacon point with its first recorded use being 19th July 1588, when it was lit as part of the national system to alert the population to the engagement of Spanish forces by the Royal Navy. A beacon was also lit here as part of numerous celebrations more recently, particularly the end of the Great War in 1918, the coronations of both George V and Elizabeth II and the Royal wedding in 1981. The beacon site has since been re-allocated to the Last Drop Village, closer to Bolton where it was lit as part of the Millennium Celebrations.

The building which now stands on top of the Pike was first built as a folly come shooting shelter commissioned by John Andrews in 1733. It ceased to be used when the estate was bought by W.H. Lever (later Viscount Leverhulme) in 1900 and has since been bricked up, though it remains a Grade II listed building.

On the flanks of Rivington Pike lie the Oriental Gardens. The gardens featured pavilions, pools, waterfalls and exotic plants and shrubs. After an arson attack by Edith Rigby a member of the suffragette movement on the 8th June 1913, it fell into disrepair, but is still accessible today, though many of the buildings have been demolished.

The Pigeon Tower sits at the northwestern edge of the Oriental Gardens, and originally had three stories, with the top room being Lady Lever's sewing room and the lower two levels housing ornamental doves and pigeons. Whilst structurally sound following renovation work in Spring 2006, the property has not been inhabited for many years.

There are two 'barns' within the Rivington Estate. Rivington Great Barn sits beside the main road, and has been dated at around 1000 AD with dates ranging from 811 AD to 1300 AD with its Scandinavian design. It experienced a major renovation in 1702 and it is now a tourist information centre and café. The larger barn is set back along a drive, and was renovated in the early 20th century. It is now used as a venue for presentation evenings, weddings and the like as well as the weekly motorbike rally which forms in the car park of a Sunday.

The Lower Barn in Rivington is a common meeting place for walkers. The Upper Barn is more known for its large biker meetings, where several hundred machines can be seen every Sunday.

Jubilee Tower

The octagonal tower on Beacon Hill overlooking the town of Darwen was completed in 1898 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and also to celebrate the victory of the local people for the right to access the moor. The tower is often referred to locally as "Darwen Tower". 85 ft in height, walkers can climb to the top via the internal staircase to admire the views of Yorkshire, Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, Cumbria, and surrounding moorland. On rare occasions, with the right weather conditions, walkers can see the Isle of Man to the north west from the top of the tower.

History

The West Pennine Moors has a long and varied history from Iron Age Settlements on Winter Hill to the Lead Mines at Anglezarke, the beacon on Rivington Pike at the time of the Spanish Armada which was later converted to a folly at the same time as the Pigeon Tower and Oriental Gardens were built by Viscount Leverhulme. Not all the history is peaceful, in the 1800s, the people of the surrounding towns took place in a mass trespass, leaving the legacy of today's Access Land arrangements and later the Oriental Garden's were nearly destroyed by the Suffragette Movement. Also in the 1800s the valleys to the West of the Moors were flooded to form today's reservoirs and more recently, the area came to world's screens as the setting for the Manchester 2002 [Commonwealth Games] Cycling Events.

Anglezarke

Human activity around Anglezarke can be traced back to pre-historic man. Dotted across Anglezarke Moor are two pre-historic sites which are still clearly visible - Pikestones and Round Loaf, a landmark clearly visible from the route across Great Hill from White Coppice.

Most of Anglezarke's history, however, revolves around mineral mining. As early as 1690, lead was discovered in Stronstrey Bank near White Coppice. The landowner, Sir Richard Standish formed a partnership with two farmers and a mining engineer, John Knowle. After several failures, a good quantity of lead was mined, but following her husband's death, Sir Standish's wife claimed all the profits. After losing the resultant court case she flooded the mines by diverting a stream. Despite this, the mines were expanded in the 1790s and not only lead was extracted, but also copper and galena.

A substance known as Witherite (Barium Carbonate) was also discovered as early as 1700, and although there were some ill-fated attempts to use it for medicinal purposes the main use for it was as a coloured glaze for porcelain.

Lead Mines Clough

The earliest recorded evidence of lead mining in the Lead Mines Clough area is from 1690. Though the yield was always small, production continued through the 1700s, finally ending around 1830. It seems that whilst the most productive time was in the late 1700s, this was often disrupted by disputes between the landowners and miners. Overlooking the valley is a war memorial, commererating the crew of an RAF Wellington bomber which crashed there during the second world war.

Belmont

Nestled between Winter Hill, Anglezarke Moor and Turton Moor, Belmont, first recorded in 1212, sits astride the old turnpike road between Bolton and Preston, the present day A675.

Belmont at its height housed a bleaching and dying works, powered by water from Eagley Brook. When the reservoir to the north of Belmont was constructed, there was much objection, so much so that an Act of Parliament stipulated that nearly 2 million gallons a day be released into Eagley Brook during the working day to sustain the industry that depended on it.

Winter Hill Iron Age Sites

Two Iron Age sites have been discovered on Winter Hill Moor. The first located around 0.5 km west of the summit is a burial mound thought to have been for an important person living in or around the area around 1500 BC.

A further site, 1 km west of the summit, known as Noon Hill Saucer Tumulus, is also a burial site consisting of two concentric stonewalls with two sets of burnt human bones in the centre and broken urn containing more bones, along with two flint arrow heads and flint sacrificial knife. The site has been dated at around 1100 BC, and artefacts from both sites can be found in the Bolton Museum.

Access Land

In 1896, a mass trespass took place across the moors. This followed the sale of the land to Colonel Ainsworth who intended to use the land for shooting, and so took step to deter members of the public from using the public rights of way across. Reports from the time claim a crowd of 10,000 people gathered to be confronted by a barrier and the police, but the crowd literally threw the police officers over the fence and proceeded to march across the land. Since then there have been arrangements made to allow member of the public to walk freely across the moors. See the walking page for more information.

cotsman's Stump

Situated opposite the transmitter, there is a memorial to a young Scottish salesman, George Henderson, who was shot on the moor by an unknown assailant in 1838. The story goes that he was en-route to a local inn to meet a friend. When he failed to arrive, his friend went out to look for him, and found him with a fatal shot to his head. Though a man was charged at the time, he was never actually convicted.

Two Lads

A ranger on Winter Hill constructed two cairns on the moor to commemorate the alleged tragic perishing of two young men on the site many hundreds of years ago. Despite the fact that Bolton Council had them demolished, claiming they were a safety hazard, he re-constructed them and supported by the Bolton Evening News, successfully fought for them to remain. In the 1980s a project was planned to excavate the site, but was abandoned, so the truth behind the story is not known.

Air Disaster

On the 27 February 1958, a commercial flight from Ronaldsway Airport on the Isle of Man to Manchester Airport ended tragically on Winter Hill. The weather was atrocious and due to the poor visibility, heavy snow and remote location, only seven of the 42 people on board survived. The crash remains the area's worst air disaster. Plaques to commemorate this are mounted on the Arqiva Winter Hill building and at Ronaldsway Airport.

External links

* [http://www.winterhill.org Winter Hill]
* [http://www.mikes-walks.co.uk Mike's Walks]
* [http://www.danielmwilson.com/wpw West Pennine Wanders]