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. i k l . <\> t; ■ -M Lancashire Witches Walk filled me with trepidation ' , j ■ '. >
V By R o g e r D u c kw o r t h
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^ It was with a certain amount oftrepidationthatljoined more than 20 of my fellow walkersatthe Pendle Herit age Centre at Barrowford.
It had been some time since I hadwalkedfourteenandahalf
© milesinadayandthiswason- ly the first of four days of the 51 mile Lancashire Witches Walk, probably the biggest challenge of the nine-day
. .. Pendle Walking Festival pro- grammewhichisnowtheUK’s
largest free walking festival. The intention of the walk
is to follow, as closely as pos sible, the route taken by the Lancashire Witches on their
. way to trial and the gallows in Lancaster in 1612.
* To add to the complica tions, I had “been volun teered” to be back marker for two of the days, a job very similar to that of a sheepdog, .except often with less obedi- •
«fl>ent sheep. However, it soon became obvious thatlwaswithagroup
of like minded people from all "over the country and that this was going to be pure fun.
® We were led by Ian Thorn- ton-Bryar, the co-creator of the walk, so navigation was never a problem - well hardly
ever. Thefirstdaytookusacross
fields to Barley and from there .to Rigg of England (no idea),
^•'Higham and finally to Read Old Bridge, where a bus was
ready to take us back to our cars in Barrowford.
0 Thiswasafairlycircuitous m day with the intention of cov ering most of the haunts of the Pendle Witches. Obviously local tradition has it that virtually every 17th
century house still standing in the Pendle area was occupied
■ ■ m Much more than *1 y S r\
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by the witches, but our leader did a good job of separating fact from fiction. On the way we passed
the first of 10 milestone-like markers (tercets) spaced out along the route and embossed with a specially written poem by thepoet laureate CarolAnn Duffy, vividly describing the
witchesjourney. Afteradayoff(thewalkwas
spread over seven days, walk ing on alternate days) we re convened at Slaidburn with the intentionof being bussed
back to Read Old Bridge to startthedays walk. This didn’t go quite as planned as the bus arrived three quarters of an hourlateandwasonly spotted arriving into the village from . our vantage point on a hard , climbed rise having made the decision to do the walk in reverse. So everyone back to the start with any thought of passing the cap round for the. driver having gone out of the window. The day then took us from
Read Bridge to Clitheroe, where we pausedforlunchon
the benches under the castle under the slightly bemused ’ gaze of the Monday shoppers,
and onwards to Waddirigton and over the fells back to Slaid
burn. The third day took us from
SlaidburntoHighSalter,near ly nine miles of ancient track with splendid views on all sides. At a stop for lunch, we. watched a bird of prey which may or may not have been the elusive Merlin which inhab its these moors. It was only a speck in the distance, but since we have plenty of Spar row hawks and Kestrels near my house, I was easily able to persuademyselftKatthiswas a Merlin for the purpose of telling the story back at home that evening!
' A delightful Dingily Dell wood followed by a wide track
brought us to a rather desolate spotatDeepCloughwherewe
were due tojoiri the bus for our;' return to Slaidburn - not the ideal spot to discover that the bus was not due for another hour and that we were expe riencing the only serious rain ofthe whole walk. The final day took us from
DeanCloughtoLancasterCas- tle with a very pleasant lunch stop overlooking the Crook of Lune at the well known Wood
ies Cafe. Then on past the Ashton
Memorial where a wedding was taking place - surely a wedding in a memorial can’t give the couple much of a fly ing start - and down though the"city to our finish at Lan caster Castle where most of
us took the tour. . To be honest I wasn’t par ticularly looking forward to the castle tour since on my last visit several decades ago, our funereal guide managed
to make the sombre history ' of the castle sound even more
gloomy. ' However I needn’t have
worried. Our guide this time wasamasterlystorytellerand
managed to lift thegloombril- liantly with humour and style. That said the visit to the
cell in which the witches were keptforthelastfivemonthsof
their lives prior to execution with them all packed into a 20 square metre space can’t help but still be a very sobering ex
perience. • The witches’journey over
the 51 miles of our walk was clearly no picnic but, as they probably knew themselves, far worse was to come.
—
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ENTERTAINMENT :
............. -? Thursday,0ctobor8,2015
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Festival return for award-winning accordian orchestra
ate! ENTERTAINMENT . „ Singer Elsa keeps up !iglit against
by Katie Hammond
katie.hammond@jpress.co.uk Twitter; ©clithadvertiser
Thefactthatfameandfortune hasforthemostparteluded thesupremely talented Amer ican gospel singer Elsa Harris, does not concern her one iota.
Ribble Valley Music Festival will welcome back The Cra ven Accordion Orchestra to perform a concert at Chat- burn Methodist Church lat
er this month. The next event in this
year’s Ribble Valley Music Festival is on the afternoon of Sunday October 18th' when the Accordion Orches tra return by demand after a stunning performance last
year. They have held the ti
tle of British Champions for a record seven times and perform an entertain ing concert'which shows the instruments vast flex-
ibility and sounds ranging from lush strings of a full orchestra to bag pipes, 00m- pah bands arid many other sounds. . The selection of music
that is to be performed is from many countries and includes marches, tangos, film music, classical, musi cals and even the Muppets. They will bejoined by spe
cial guest vocalist Christina Longbottom. Tickets are £8 includ
ing light refreshment and are available from Roy Por ter Butcher, Chatburn, or by callingoi254384893. Allpro ceeds goto the church.
The founding member of the Jessy Dixon Singers and the Chicago Gospel Choir has toured the globe with Paul Simon, singing on one of the greatest pop songs ever penned,worldwidehit “Bridge Over Troubled Waters". Is it any wonder then
that intense experience has defined a remarkable life for the musical arranger
who has appeared on “Satur day Night Live” and “Songs of Praise”.
■ “Playing with Paul Simon
on his world tour for eight years and featuring on two of his albums, ‘Live Rhymin’ and ‘Still Crazy’ transformed my life,” recalled Elsa, who per forms at The Grand, Clitheroe, to mark Anti-Slavery Week later this month. “It was an eight-year ex
perience which taught me so much about a man and his mu sic. 1 still cherish the memo ries of that great era,” says Elsa. “1 really didn’t realize the
full impact of those moments until years later. I was mes merized at the time. “It was like I was dreaming
it and it was the same when I played with Pat Boone, the wonderful American sing;er.” She was always surround-
ed by music, recalls the 68-year-old.. Classically trained, her. love for God, the church and
religious music, led her in the direction of gospel. In recentyears, Elsa has be
come an ambassador for anti slavery, and her debut album, “Let My People Go”, highlight ing the worldwide cause. The gospel star recorded
her album of classical songs with a Northern Soul Band. Through the Chicago Gos
pel Choir, she' promoted the work of anti-trafficking chari ties to raise awareness about modern slavery. “‘Let My People Go’ was an
extremely emotional song to make, and it is shocking that slavery is still with us in the 21st century,” she said. “My faith is very strong,
though, and after the record ing I became emotionally grateful for this blessed op portunity. “I just pray that it will be used to set people free from
captivity and the terrible bondage ofslavery”.
“I don’t expect it to be to- I’m dedicated to the cause.” tally abolished in-my life-
• Elsa Harris, The Grand, She added: “Slavery has time.butthatdoesn’tstopme Clitheroe,
October24th.Sup-
been prevalent in every gener- from doing all I can to speak port from the Grand Choir, ation, in one form or another, out and sing againstit, and £10.01200 421599.
.J
CUTHER0EADVERTISER6TIMES I /
67
Painting classes with
a maritime theme Bookings are nowbeingtak- en at Barnoldswick Library for Monday afternoon paint ing classes in October. Taking place from lpm
until 3pm in the upstairs meeting room. Sessions deal with mar
itime scenes and October 19th features a watercolour of Staithes in North York shire, famous forgiving Cap tain Cook his passion for the sea.
That leads nicely on to the
October 26th session where the topic is an acrylic paint ing of the CGSS Patterson, a late 19th Century steamer
with a barkentine rig. The cost is £9.50 per half
day session and includes all materials needed to com plete the painting. All ses sions are independent of one another. To book, call into Bar
noldswick Library, contact Malcolm on 07776 036674 or turn upas there is usually an
extra place set. See
www.malcolmm
bullock.co.uk/articles for
further information. You can also follow what
is going on by visiting www.
facebook.com/malcolm.
painting.clas _
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