10 Bowland and Pendle Hill

BOWLAND AND PENDLE have long been jointly designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. An isolated upland area, just west of the Pennines, it is within an hour's drive for more than five million people in East Lancashire and West Yorkshire. In increasing numbers they come to enjoy its unsullied landscape, unpolluted rivers and virtually intact rural heritage. In the deep little dales between its heath-capped hills, the villages and farms, of local stone, look like outcrops ...The Forest of Bowland was a royal hunting ground in which no king ever hunted, though the royal connection lingers through the Duchy of Lancaster. The Parker family of Browsholme owe their surname to their ancient association with a deer-park. Pendle Hill, which stands in grand isolation, was described by a 17th-century poet as a 'rownd cop, surveying all ye wilde moore lands'. In the 17th century the famous Pendle Witches flourished. Living on the south side of the hill, they were not true hill folk, but a report of their trial at Lancaster adds to the rich traditions of the area.