Clitheroe 422324 (Editorial), 422323 (Advertising), Burnley 422331 (Classified)


www.clitheroeadvertiser.co.uk


Clitheroe Advertiser &Times, Thursday, September 27th, 2007 19


by Natalie Cox THERE is one Ribble Valley


.:.^ .C:rarnbng other destinations to indulge his passion:


... _ , ; ^ j ; ^ ^ ('Gayes/here tend to be a bit smaller and less <^$Rl§Sant with bad visibility undenvater, then you Spain and Florida where the under­


visits places more remote tharithe mooii/ . V^ wallr passages are bigger.With that you get big- Grindleton’s Rupert SkorupkaTs a.pave .diva-. , ger depths and the lengths get longer so you need who has travelled down underground' tfirinelsT more advanced equipment.”


I


that may have existed before the pyraimds,%ere. ’Over the past seven years Rupert has refined built.


resident for the past decade, Rupert started cay- “The technology is a cross between what is ing at the age.of*12;.--'..*


Originally from Bradford, but a Ribble Valley propulsion vehicles to aid his expeditions, - used for space exploration, commercial diving


After a few years he decided he wanted to go and items we develop ourselves,” he said,


further afield) to places where few people had And describing the difference between his type previously been.


of cave diving and the type holidaymakers might With underwater pools - or. sumpsprevent- try hesaid: “It is the difference between having a


ing him exploring'any further/Rupert decided to kick about in the park to being in the premier invest the timejand money to become a cave league.” diver.


" rs&... . . been before./ -'


The thrill foKhim is'goirigwhere no orfelse has . yourself,” added Rupert. “With scuba diving '• >


. “Gave diving is having complete reliance on /~there;is more than one person involved, but


He hastrayelled’to France, Spain aiid RLdrida; because’ we are going to such depths and dis­


tances you are completely on your own. We have contained project so the Fellowship awarded me to put in proper commitment, running, training £2,500 which helped towards my equipment.” and keeping fit, putting in money and time train- On his latest underground expedition, Rupert ing with the gear to build up to the necessary lev- again reached the limit of his air mix and has j,]s »


plans to return again at Easter in his bid to “go his diving techniques using rebreathers and ^ /ling Fellowship, i ’ % -v :-w


| One of Rupert’s most recent trips to Cantabria where no one has ever been before”. inWorthern Spain was funded with money He said: “I t is possible that the sump could jLwatded|jirough the Kinston Churchill Travel- come up into a dry system with formations that could go on for miles, but if it stays undenvater


For Itupeft it marked a^etunrivisit.to Cueva that-is just as good to me because my light will del Molino - a cave he' first'explored 12 years ago. - ‘•be the first that has ever been there in a place Where the dry cave ends, the'passage contin-. ^millions of years old and it is not often you can


ues as a huge underwater tunnel and i t is-., say thatf - c Rupert’s eventual aim to explore the unknown"'" “You Always want to know how far you have system which carries the water.


gone and the direction you have been in so that “No one had ever been in it before,” he said. “I the next generation of cave explorers will have


had my first dive there in 1996 and since then I some information. I always put a guideline down have been back, but I’ve reached the limits of my to follow back to the start point so I can measure technology and equipment. You have to go the distance travelled and I have a compass to through the cave to get to the sump pool so you plot the direction and depth so I can produce a have to carry a lot of gear. Even though this has map with reasonable accuracy which can be been a major undertaking I was doing it as a self- plotted against the surface.”


at the Pendle by Peter Dewhurst


A N EW T o o ^byh is tor ian- Jo hn - C layton^takes a re a l is t ic and detailed look a t the lives’ and deaths of the Pendle Witches.


. His marathon research means he has


found unique information about.the’: unlucky 13 - and there are a whole-, series of questions which he has found evidence about. And that includes the mystery of where Malkin Tower - home ’ of Old Demdike-was located. The Pendle writer has already made


a major contribution to historical research on the early days of the area in his book “Valley of the Drawn Sword”, published last year. Now “The Lancashire Witch Con­


part of Blackburnshire! And it shows that many of the family names com­ mon here now were around centuries


••ago.'' / . - The forest was riot just woodland, of


-course. I t was initially a royal hunting ' ground with open spaces as well as trees. Agriculture and.weaving were impor­


t a n t industries then. • ' Enclosures led to the demand for land, arid that is one area Mr Clayton feels could have had a major input in persuading the likes of landowner Roger Nowell to subjugate the so-called witch­ es and their families. There are also questions about


whether Catholicism was a cause of the case against them, when Protestantism was to the fore. Mr Clayton has done a great deal of


spiracy: A History of Pendle Forest and the Pendle Witch Trials” continues the saga, picking up the story from the Nor- ; man invasion of 1066 and taking it through to 1612, when Pendle’s “witch­ es” were tried and hanged. It starts with a fascinating history of


the Forest of Pendle.Mr Clayton has carried out a massive amount of research, and the result is a great deal of background covering the period leading up to the witch trial. While “Valley of the Drawn Sword”


research into the family histories of the 13 who faced the witchcraft charge in


v1612. And/the research is not easy. Names cairie be spelled in a variety of ways, making them look like completely


■ different?fafriilies. The phonetic approach in church records suggests, for instance, that the “Device” family were actually “Davies”. There were, of course, many fears of


was predominantly based on archaeolo­ gy - evidence left on and under the ground - the new book uses documen­ tary research - church records of births, marriages and deaths, and court hear­ ing archives including the long-lost hal-■: mote court at Higham. You can learn a lot about the area’s .


histoiy - how Whalley was the parish church for the entire area and Clitheroe was the administrative headquarters for medieval Pendle. You also find out that, in those days, we weren’t even Lancashire - we were


witchcraft aeross the area. “Witch bot­ tles” - aimed at keeping the evil from the home - were kept in houses across the area. One was discovered behind a fireplace in Trawden in the 19th Centu­ ry, as the book records. As well as the Southern/Devices,


.there are.histbries of others including the.Whittles - Chattox’s family - the Nutters of.Roughlee (but NOT Rough- lee Hall) and the Laws of Halifax, one


:of whom was a victim of “witchcraft”. There are family trees, too. There is a sound assessment of the


trial and the arguments which suggest the prisoners were witches. And then there is the Malkin Tower


mystery. Was it in Newchurch, or was it erature. But the research Mr Clayton Blacko? Mr Clayton takes a long, hard has carried out means it is a unique


■look at the issue, and while he cannot; studywith a lot of new information*: prove it, he does come up a lot of cir- - -y . “.The Lancashire .Witih Conspiracy”-


{cumstarilial evidence which suggests is published by Barrowfbr'd Press at the location was... well; read the book to £14.95, and is available at Peridle Her- find out!


itage Centre, Barrowford; Colne Book It is not an easy reidJ- .there are 300 Shop; Badger Books, Burnley; and


pages and a lot of facts to take on board. Northern Life in Nelson. Or you can Many recent histories of: the witches order through the website: www.bar- have tended to be based on previous lit- rowfordpress.co.uk


For Ribble Valley news online go to.., www.clitheroeadveriiser.co.uk


Oops, a. slip of the pen!


AN unfortunate slip of the pen last week led us to report in an article ' 'about the new,owners of Downham


' Post Office th a t the village was famed as being the location for the TV series “Where the Heart Is”. Thanks to those who pointed out


th a t i t should, of course, have referred to “Born and Bred” being filmed in the picturesque village. I t was also the setting for the


film, “Whistle Down the Wind”, which featured a number of local children.


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