Pendle Hill
We incorrectly assumed, as we research after we visit a place so we get the real vibe from it, that Pendle Hill had a larger connection to the Pendle Witch Trials than it actually did. The reason for this was the fact that our Ren, the book lover, is a big fan of The Spooks Apprentice books by Joseph Delaney and they are set here in Pendle. Having explored Witches, Boggarts, and other mystical creatures, she naturally assumed that the landmark would have had a more central role with the supernatural, even though the books are fiction they'd have drawn from the heavy truth of Pendle somewhere.
In reality, despite the Pendle Witches being quite the well documented persecution of Witches in the UK, the infamous hill had very little to do with any of it. While obviously it bore witness, many of the 'witches' accused simply lived around or on the site which is why they were dubbed the Pendle Witches, no trials took place here. Considering how hard it was to climb, there is no surprise there. We even said to each other during one of our many rest stops on the way up, there was no way the entire village flocked up this hill just to bare witness to these trials. As it was they never took place here to begin with. So we have to go back as we REALLY want to explore the Pendle Witches in more detail and we feel the only way we can do this is to get to the places involved.
That isn't to say that Pendle and Barley was not involved, in fact Alice Nutter's family is buried within the churchyard here and the village still echoes with the horrific ghosts of their past. As we walked from our Inn to the hill we got such an eerie vibe. We felt unwelcome. To be fair, that was both down to the present people and the general atmosphere. We'd had the worst experience with Pendle Inn the night before as they avoided checking us in and then left us in the dining room without the food we'd ordered and then turned off the lights because no one could be bothered to tell us they'd closed the kitchen early! But that being said, the regulars within the inn did not seem keen on us outsiders. We got all sorts of gnarly looks and were shoved about a bit, but when exploring the hill next day we did come across a few nice people!
The atmosphere here was spooky. Rain, fog, the feeling of being watched even though the village was dead quiet. Seriously, when we went out walking baring in mind it was 9am on a Saturday, there was NO ONE around. It was unsettling. We'd had a bad night sleep as well as felt like we were being watched, the whole village seemed to have a negative buzz and we didn't shake it until we were well away from there and on our way to Kidderminster.
It is no surprise that we felt unwelcome though, Yvette Fielding herself said that the episode of Most Haunted that they filmed in the area was the scariest they had ever made, so it wasn't just us who felt the weight of Pendle and Barley.
Now interestingly the name of Pendle Hill originates from two different languages, much like Bredon Hill in Worcestershire. The name mixes the Cumbric Pen with Old English Hyll which was made into Pennul or Penhul in the 13th century. Then when modern English took over they added Hill baring in mind Penhul meant 'Hill Hill' already so now Pendle Hill literally translates to 'Hill Hill Hill'. There must have been another meaning back then to the words as it very much gives off the same energy as one of us standing next to a field and pointing 'cow' at a cow.
Much like Kit's Coty House down our way in Kent, the original meaning of the name is lost to history, but it could well be something to do with the Neolithic burials around the summit of the 'Hill Hill Hill'. There has also been Bronze Age burials discovered up there, but it is quite a large hill so we doubt there are many graves up there. Yogi took it like a champ but this was worse than Glastonbury Tor! And Lauren's ankle was as healed as it is ever going to be. Turns out we took the difficult path up because we opted not to read the sign...
The top of the hill, that now covers the Neolithic and Bronze Age tombs is formed of Pendle Grit which is a Millstone Grit sandstone aptly named after its local source on the hill. Further down you have the boulder clay and glacial till which dates back to the last ice age as well as peat. The hill is so steep that it has had its fair share of landslips, which we saw evidence of while we were there and were terrified of simply falling off the edge at any one time, but that leads us to an interesting bit of folklore from the site.
The ancient legend states that the Devil once jumped from Hameldon Hill to the southwest slope of Pendle where he stood on an outcrop overlooking Sabden. He left his footprints in the sandstone and then gathered some rocks in an apron and continued on to Apronfull. Interesting name likely accounting to the fact the Devil literally had an apron full... Anyway, the Devil then threw a boulder from here and aimed it at Clitheroe Castle but at this moment his apron string broke and the boulder instead landed near Pendleton which created a pile of rocks at the slight prominence there. Wild.
More factual is the three events that Pendle Hill has historic ties to. Obviously the Pendle Witch Trials because these women belonged to Pendle Hill, but also in the 17th century there was the Barometer experiment conducted by Richard Towneley, and the Quaker movement due to George Fox's vision here in 1652. From this point onward the Quakers then used the site for pilgrimages.
So all in all, despite Pendle Hill not having much to do with the horrific 17th century trials that we rather morbidly chase, it was a site that ended up meaning a lot to us personally due to the challenge it gave us. We are so proud of ourselves for scaling this massive hill, especially as we aren't too keen on heights, and it is a memory we will cherish, despite our negative feelings, forever. It also transpires that it has its own history which was interesting to learn and to be fair it was a gateway site into a deeper sort of history. There's more to explore here, and there was plenty we did explore, but now our mission is to return to Lancashire and find out more! On the bright side, Ren is happy she got to at least visit a site mentioned in one of her most impactful childhood book series, and it has inspired a re-read once we finally get our new house sorted!
Obviously the reason for such a high haunting rating is the fact that this site is so obviously haunted, even though we didn't see anything. That overall feeling, the negativity, the eerie vibes, there is no reason not to think this site, and to be fair Barley as a whole is haunted. This has to be the most suffocatingly haunted site we have visited since Dering Woods. We are struggling to put it into words to be honest, the very air felt heavy, something was very different, very wrong here. We would come again, but we'd think twice about staying overnight!
DISCLAIMER: Now for the official bit. This blog does not receive any paid promotions from the places mentioned above. We have not been approached to promote or act as spokespersons for any attraction mentioned within this post and this is simply a post intended to act as a day in the life of a couple on a cute date. All photos included are taken by ourselves and as such the rights for these images are ours, no links, brands, or companies mentioned otherwise belong or are associated with Phantom Adventures UK. We are responsible only for this blog. Opinions are our own and not influenced by any third party source..
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