Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
We have lots of local walks, a good few of them involving walks along either the Ribble or the Hodder. With dramatic skies (but no rain) today we opted for the walk at Grindleton along the Ribble where occasionally we'll see a fly fisherman trying his or her luck. Good piece of news as well. Where we finish up in Grindleton there has always been the frustrating sight of two closed pubs, but now lots and lots of work going on at one of them and a banner proclaiming the Rum Fox will open in Autumn. Three cheers! The following day we did the walk to Mitton along the Ribble, through fields and along Malkin Lane. We then dived into the Aspinall Arms and relaxed in their garden with a view of the medieval manor house and church and old bridge. We were soon catching the bus to Whalley and there went into the Abbey grounds............ through the imposing gatehouse....... We hadn't seen the East range before so we enjoyed this view which shows a mixture of medieval, Elizabethan and Victorian........ This range is now used for Diocesan meetings etc and so has a few modern bits....... One thing I did discover was a lovely tree-lined walk along the Calder at the back of the Abbey. Wandering among the ruins you see this medieval wall with later windows. In front of it stood the kitchen and infirmary. On the dissolution of the abbey, most of the stone was used by the locally-powerful Assheton family to build a manor house and the windows represent the remains of what must have been a very impressive long gallery. And here, not accessible as owned privately by the RC church of all people, is the laymen's dorter (dormitory). Historic England have listed it as at risk 'Category A - Immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric; no solution agreed'. That is all I can find........an absolute disgrace. We next had a look inside the lovely parish church St Mary and All Saints. The roof of the nave is Fifteenth Century, but the roof of the chancel seen beyond the rood screen is the original roof from when the church was built in the early Thirteenth Century. Remarkable. An interesting brass bears the figures of Ralph Catterall and his wife, the man in armour of the early Tudor period, kneeling at a prayer desk with nine sons behind him, and facing his wife, who kneels at another desk with eleven daughters. The inscription reads: 'Of yr charitie pray for the sowllys of Ralfe Catterall esquire, and Elizabeth, hys wyfe, whyche bodies lyeth Before this Pellor and for all ther Chylder sowlys whyche Rafe decesyd the xxvi day of deceber ye yere of our Lord God MoCCCCCoXVo, on whose sowlys Jhu. have mercy Amen.' Twenty children! The triple sedilia is Early English from the early thirteenth century. The choir stalls were carved for the Abbey about 1430 and we just had time for a brief look at the misericords. 'Great British Churches' draws attention to "a blacksmith attempting to shoe a goose that is being held in some kind of frame. On the left are all his tools in gorgeous detail, although I don’t know what some of them are! On the left you can see his bellows, the nozzle poking into what appears to the furnace with a chimney. Why is the smith doing something so absurd? There is, again, wording beneath - something probably unique to Whalley. It paraphrases the mediaeval proverb that meddling in other people’s affairs is about as useful as trying to shoe a goose." There were several private pews Also a door knocker thought to be from the original church door ie Eleventh Century Norman. We just had time to have a white wine and nuts in Whalley Wine Bar (excellent), before catching the bus home. A very relaxing and interesting afternoon.
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August 2023
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