Pendle is a plateau of high, airy moors covering an area of 20 square miles (52 square kilometres). To the north and east are steep escarpments, and there are several cloughs — narrow valleys or ravines — that cut into the moor. Ogden Clough provides the water catchment for the Ogden Reservoirs, which you can see to the south from the top of Pendle Hill.
The 1,827-foot (557 m) summit is marked by a triangulation point at the mound known as Big End or the Beacon (referring to a fire beacon used to signal warnings or news of important events, with a lookout posted to watch for approaching bad weather at haymaking time). Nowadays, walkers can appreciate the summit for the panoramic views it offers of coastline and hills, agricultural plains, and the industrial landscape of the cotton towns.
The hill is bare of trees and bushes, but supports tough mountain grasses, clubmosses, and cottongrass, as well as the insect-catching butterwort (along with bilberry and cloudberry, a cousin of the raspberry). Pendle's core is composed of limestone and millstone grit dating from the Carboniferous period, with the first settlements here dating to the Bronze Age (remains of 3,000-year-old stone huts having been found).
The name Pendle derives from the Celtic 'pen' meaning hill. Another intriguing name tells us more about the past: Salt Pie Farm, near Upper Black Moss Reservoir, is named after the mounds of salt provided by Cheshire mines delivered by packhorse to local farms to preserve meat during winter months.
Windy Harbour Farm, on the site of a former deer enclosure, dates to the time when the area was appropriated as part of a royal deer forest. 'Brasts', or waterquakes, have on occasion burst Pendle's hillside open under water pressure, creating Brast Clough (natural events sometimes attributed to sorcery). When winter snows thaw and leave deep snow behind in northern gullies, the shape of a witch is formed with a pointed hat and flowing robes — an eerie reminder of superstitions surrounding the area.
In 1652, a little after the time of the notorious Pendle Witches, Pendle Hill was climbed by George Fox, founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). A puritan disillusioned with organised religion who developed services involving contemplative silence for guidance, Fox recorded in his diary that he climbed Pendle Hill "with much ado" as it was so steep, having a vision on top of a great number of people "waiting to be gathered" (modern-day Quakers often climb Pendle Hill in a spirit of pilgrimage).
East of Pendle Hill, the Black Moss Reservoirs have been dug from beds of shale, holding more than 100 million gallons (450 million litres) of water for nearby Nelson, with forests of sitka spruce and beech planted around them by United Utilities.
Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.
