Forgotten Lancashire – Aspect Events

I am just back from a few days in the Ribble valley. To many people this is an unknown land wedged between the industrial heartlands of South Lancashire and the hills and (teeming) dales of the Lake District.

Unspoilt and verdant, the valley carries the River Ribble into the Irish sea at Preston. Famous for its fishing the river and its tributary the Hodder, are as untouched as anywhere in pre-industrial Britain. Staying in the picturesque village of Chipping our group enjoyed the calm and comfort of the Gibbon Bridge Hotel with its beautiful gardens.

Onwards from there to the famous Jesuit school at Stoneyhurst. Lancashire was ever a recusant county which goes a long way to explain the “separateness” of this part of England. Stoneyhurst is evidence of that allegiance. Apart from its splendid buildings, painted by J M W Turner, it houses an astonishing museum full of artefacts acquired by the order over the centuries, including during their exile in Douai. This includes illuminated hymnals, medieval textiles and a first folio of Shakespere.

Towneley Hall (also painted by J M W Turner) has a claim to fame as being the ancestral home of Charles Towneley whose collection of ancient sculptures was one of the best collections of the 18th century and is now installed in the British Museum. Thanks to a munificent bequest this house (now a museum) contains not only a fine collection of vernacular oak furniture, but more medieval vestments, rescued from disbanded abbeys and monasteries at the Reformation, as well as an art gallery featuring principally 19th century British artists.

More textiles, (well we are in Lancashire) to be found at Gawthorpe Hall. Where Rachel Kay-Shutleworth, daughter of the house, assembled a mighty collection of textiles which now amounts to 30,000 pieces, a selection of which is housed at the hall. Gawthorpe itself is of interest as the Elizabethan house was “modernised” in the 19th century by Sir Charles Barry assisted by Augustus Pugin, with whom he collaborated in the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament.

Palladian architecture is not common in this part of the world, but a fine example is to be found at Lytham Hall. The former seat of the influential Clifton family, it is the work of the Yorkshire architect, John Carr. The family are long gone, having squandered their inheritance, but the house is now rescued from institutional use by a local trust. It recently won an award from Historic Houses for its work. Particularly splendid is the plasterwork by the Cortese brothers from Italy.

Forgotten this area may be, but hidden away, untrumpeted are treasures to be discovered. But the greatest treasure is the landscape itself, dominated by Pendle Hill and its green vastness. Unwrecked Britain.