BEATING THE BOUNDS

Centuries ago parishioners walked round their parish bounds beating each of its corners with birch twigs – principally on Easter Sunday. Some places in England still maintain this tradition. I devised these walks so that you can do it for yourself – a singularly useless exercise were it not that Pendle is an exceedingly beautiful area so that the walks are a good day, or half-day, out in their own right.

Pendle has 15 Parishes and 4 towns and was formed by the local government re-organisation of 1974. Three of these were formerly part of Skipton so magically, overnight, Yorkshiremen became Lancastrians the unacceptability of which signs on the former boundaries proudly proclaim!

The population of the parishes is in almost inverse proportion to their size so that the smallest number live in the second largest parish. However the best walks are not necessarily in these remoter areas – the walks round the towns of Colne and Barnoldswick are particularly good. Nelson, Brierfield and Reedley Hallows are largely built up so these walks only take in the more rural parts of the area – but they are still good ones.

Pendle’s towns were largely formed by the industrial revolution and its countryside is mostly peat on gritstone suitable only for reservoirs and sheep and grouse moors. It is hilly, and often boggy, so good boots are almost always essential.

Today, you can recreate these walks using the guides in this website. But first CLICK HERE to go to an overall description of them.