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Pendleton



OS Grid ref:- SD756395

Pendleton is a small, characterful Lancashire village in the picturesque Ribble Valley, lying by Pendle Hill and two miles south east of the town of Clitheroe. The word Pendleton means a hamlet (tun) close to Pendle. An ancient settlement, in Saxon times it was called Penictune.

PendletonPendleton

Pendleton has an interesting history connected with traditional folk customs and set as it is by Pendle Hill, with the witchcraft persecutions. The notorious Pendle witch trials of 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history. Twelve people from the area around Pendle Hill in Lancashire were charged with the murder, by witchcraft.The book "The Pendle Witches" by William Harrison Ainsworth, published 1849, covers the subject.

PendletonPendleton

The attractive village has a number of tourist attractions, and there is an old coaching inn, The Swan With Two Necks which serves qoood quallity meals. A stream runs through the village spanned by Fiddle Bridge, so named for its shape.

A native of Pendleton, Doreen McGlashan, nee Wilson, (who now lives in Australia and is aged 92) related that as a child in the 1920's there was frequent talk of witches & witchcraft in Pendleton at that time, and that she and her siblings were kept indoors on certain Saturdays because of "witches Sabbaths" happening in the village on those days. She also recounts large May Day celebrations in her youth which included dancing around a May Pole, and states that as a girl she specifically remembers "pretty girls" often being suspected of witchcraft by the villagers.

PendletonPendleton

Standen Hall, home of the Aspinall family, stands apart from the main village. The village was, and still is, owned by the family. The fine mansion is set in extensive grounds.

A Bronze Age urn was discovered at Pendleton in 1969 and is now displayed at the Clitheroe Castle Museum.

Nearby places of interest

Pendle Heritage Centre set in a range of tastefully restored Grade II Listed farm buildings and .consists of a museum, art gallery, gift shop, tea-room, an eighteenth century walled garden, cruck barn with farmyard animals and tourist information.

Whalley Abbey- founded by Henry de Lacy, third Earl of Lincoln on the 4th April 1296.

Lancaster Castle founded in the tenth century

Ashton Memorial in Williamson Park, Lancaster was commissioned by James Williamson, Baron Ashton as a tribute to his second wife, Jenny and was built between 1907 and 1909.

Butterfly House, Lancaster

Clitheroe Castle-Norman castle keep and museum, said to be one of the oldest buildings in Lancashire, and one of the smallest keeps in England,

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