Update on the ruined cottage at Barley

[Lydart]

Maggie ... has anyone done a field name study in your area ?   We've done one here in and around this village, and names do give you clues about past owners, uses, etc. of fields ... like, for e.g. if the fields near 'your' cottage were called something like Castle Field or Church Field or other descriptive name, then you have some useful info to work on.   We have two little fields near here called Castle Edwards, and Little Castle Edwards ... and lo and behold, I found the remains of a motte there !   Without discovering the name, I'd never have thought to see what was there ! 

Near the school where I used to work was a field called Burnt Field ... and in a dry year, it was possible to see why ... two lines in the stubble marking the street, of a little hamlet that had been sacked by Owain Glyndwr and burned to the ground.    A little archaeological digging proved it, with sherds of med. pottery turning up along the old and long disappeared street.

I'm very keen on field names !

[Maggie.]

Hi Lydart,

When we were working on our grant funded study project 2 years ago the first thing we had to do was map regression, perusal of old documents etc. and it was interesting to see the names of the fields.  Quite a few were called by the name of a family who farmed the relevant land and a few were descriptive.  Tithe maps can be useful for this but unfortunately very few exist for Pendle Forest - as the region was Duchy of Lancaster owned there were no tithes.

You make a good point and it is always worth checking out the maps. 

The fields surrounding my own house are called helpful things like 'The Long Meadow' , 'The Great Field' and 'The High Long Field'.  Oh and the field that is permanently water-logged is called 'The Moss'.  I don't think that whoever farmed this area had much imagination. 

[Wiggy]

Descriptive though - I mean - at least you wouldn't go looking in the high long field for moss - would you?       You'd know what field you were talking about at least!

[Lal]

Fabulous thread, thank you. Spent a good part of my childhood around this area - we had a caravan between Settle and Clitheroe with a panoramic view of Pendle. I used to peep through the curtains, looking for witches before I went to bed! 

Have you thought that Sawley Abbey could be a source of old dressed stone? I'm nto sure exactly where the ruined cottage lies, but Sawley is within walking distamce of Downham and that side of Pendle - and the abbey is almost obliterated. Dissolved in 1536 so would fit in with a 16thc new building.

And as an aside, now I'm grown up and not scared...Do occultists really cause that much bother?

The thought occurred to me that the cat skeleton bricked into the doorway might have something to do with protection from boggarts - it's now 2012 and my family still go on about them even now. We have a 'fairy door' (a little plaque placed by the wall) so they can come in and out!

[Lydart]

We have names around this village like Peggy Jones Field, Duke's Piece, Saw Pit Field, Cae Melyn (yellow field), Cae Gwyn (white field), Long Barn Field, The Potash Field, Probyns Allotment ... and lots more !    It was a fascinating study to do !

[youngtug]

Not trying to draw any interest away from the OP, which is extremely fascinating..., but early last year I was researching the history of scaffolding… a groan and mumbles of ‘a sad gitt’ do I hear. Steel scaffolding only came about in the 1920s, and before that it was all wooden.

Can you imagine the forest of trees felled to erect a forest of wooden scaffold poles on a building such as Salisbury cathedral, which incidentally is reputed to have been built in 20 years… unlike Ely cathedral taking a reported 200 years? Much of this time is said to be as a result of a lack of scaffold, and trees were being imported from Norway. I had no previous idea there were any history buffs lurking in the corners of RC.

I came here from the BBC history hub when it became apparent it was sinking due to cost cutting… I also contribute to three other history sites… if anyone has any info ref early scaffolding techniques or brick making… I’d be really grateful if you could pass some on to me. It’s not for publication, more for personal use.

I’m sorry to distract, and I am following this thread with interest.
Btw… have you discovered what an ‘overhouse’ is yet, I’m really eager to know.

Wooden scaffolding was still in use in Germany in the 1980s and may still be. I have somewhere photos of wooden scaffolding that I took in Germany a few years ago, finding them may be a bit of a problem but they are here somewhere

[Maggie.]

Hi Lal - Glad you are enjoying the thread.  Sawley is a possibility although quite a distance away and along a very hilly route.  Barley is on the other side of Pendle to Barley and separated by about 5 miles.  Sawley and Whalley Abbeys were both dissolved around the same time I think.  There must have been a lot of surplus stone around, a lot of it incorporated into houses as is still happening to the choicer pieces of stone within the ruin.

We all assumed that the cat was protection against evil as I was told that it was common practice to hole up not only cats, but charms, coins and shoes.  However the archeaologist who took us round the ruin would not commit himself as to what the cat was doing there.

'Occultists' and their like are less of a problem these days as Pendle Hill is now barred to any traffic on Oct 31st but when we first moved here 30-odd years ago there was a lot of trouble.  These days the villages are mainly full of small children in fancy dress, with their parents.

[Lydart]

I live quite near to the ruins of Tintern Abbey ... its interesting to look around the village and see how many houses are built of fine, dressed stone ... I wonder where they got it from ?? !!

[Maggie.]

More pics  

I don't think we've had this one.  It shows the coursed stonework on the front elevation.  It is sandstone.  Also there is evidence of a trackway in front of the house.  The rather splendid internal door jams are visible in the room behind.