Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
We made our way back from Blackburn Hospital through Colne to Barrowford, a delightful village which we didn't know. Our destination the Pendle Heritage Centre (above) gives a lot more than we imagined. Park Hill is the name of the complex house which the Bannisters have lived in for centuries. A descendant is Sir Roger Bannister. Park Hill dates from the fifteenth century and has been a working farm for most of its existence. The Bannisters after a couple of generations became bankrupt but not before they had built two new wings (seen right and middle below). Thier successors the Swinglehursts and their relations then owned the property until 1920, building the Georgian house facing the river. The Swinglehursts' Georgian house. Inside there is a museum which is a mine of information about the house, its construction, the materials, the craftsmanship. Also large parts of the museum are given over to the Pendle witches, the abbies at Whalley and Sawley, the whole area of Pendle and much else. In fact the information you have to absorb about the house in particular is so much as to be almost overwhelming. You can have too much of a good thing. We also explored the 3 gardens, the cottage garden, the walled garden and the vegetable garden. Exiting through the woods we looked at the outside of an impressive cruck barn (now used for weddings and such). The park at Barrowford is really beautiful, the river running along one side. Here we are approaching the Crown Green bowling green. We couldn't resist a drink in The White Swan and looked at the well-known Bankers Draft next door as well. A thoroughly interesting visit.
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Keith & Frances SmithArchives
August 2023
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