Old Laund Booth

Old Laund Booth is a civil parish in the Pendle district of Lancashire, England. It has a population of 1,459, and contains the villages of Fence and Wheatley Lane. Old Laund Booth was once a township in the ancient parish of Whalley. This became a civil parish in 1866, forming part of the Burnley Rural District from 1894 (until 1974). Until 1898 when the parish was enlarged, part of Goldshaw Booth and a detached area Higham with West Close Booth, divided the township into two parts with Fence in the eastern and Wheatley Lane and Old Laund hall in the western. In 1935 the civil parish of Wheatley Carr Booth was abolished and the area also joined this parish. The parish adjoins the Pendle parishes of Roughlee Booth, Barrowford, Nelson, Brierfield, Reedley Hallows, Higham-with-West Close Booth and Goldshaw Booth. Higher areas of the parish, north-east of the villages are part of the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). According to the United Kingdom Census 2011, the parish has a population of 1,459, a decrease from 1,586 in the 2001 census.

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Fence, Lancashire

Fence is a village in the civil parish of Old Laund Booth, Pendle, Lancashire, England, close to the towns of Nelson and Burnley. It lies alongside the A6068 road, known locally as the Padiham bypass. The parish (which includes the adjoining village of Wheatley Lane) has a population of 1,586. Fence is a small village along 'Wheatley Lane Road', It abuts the sister village of Wheatley Lane. Because of this, Fence and Wheatley Lane are often referred to together as 'Fence'. The present village now terminates to the west past St Anne's church, where the new bypass cuts the line of the old road. Fence was in the Hundred of Blackburn. Up until late medieval times, it lay in the Forest of Pendle, the hunting preserve of the King. The name of the village, is derived from the fact that an enclosure was erected in the area, within which the King's deer were kept. This became known as the "Fence", and the community that built up around it over time took the name. In 1507, Henry VII "surrendered [the parcel called the Fence] to the use of the tenants of Higham, West Close and Goldshaw Booth, to be held by them and their heirs for ever." The first mention of Fence, is in a document of 1402, as 'Fens in Penhill'. Being near Pendle Hill, Fence has a long shared history with other Pendleside villages, and the Pendle Witches, some old local surnames are shared with the historical witches; for example, the Nutter family name. Cuckstool Lane, which runs south from the War Memorial was the original site of the village ducking stool, where (the story has it) suspected witches were immersed in a pond, or more likely 'cuckolds', those suspected of adultery. Hoarstones, which lies inside Fence, was the site of an ancient stone circle, and also the starting point for the 1633 witchcraft trials (see the entry under Wheatley Lane). The older properties on the village consist largely of small stone built cottages, with later housing developments from the 1960s onwards. There is unbroken countryside with fine walking country to the North to Pendle Hill and surrounding areas. The villages are served by St Anne's church (CoE), two Methodist chapels and a primary school.

Wheatley Lane, Lancashire

Wheatley Lane is a village in Pendle, Lancashire, England. It is close to Nelson, Barrowford and Burnley. It lies to the north of the A6068 road, known locally as the Padiham bypass, or "The New Road". Wheatley Lane is an extended village consisting of a ribbon development along 'Wheatley Lane Road' and abuts the sister village of Fence. The present village has now effectively absorbed the original hamlets of Wheatley Lane and Higher & Lower Harpers. Historically, it lies in Old Laund Booth, in the Hundred of Blackburn. Up until Late Mediaeval times it lay in the Forest of Pendle, the hunting preserve of the King. The older properties on the village consist largely of small stone-built cottages, with some later Victorian terraces and some 1950s council properties. Since the 1960s the remaining open fields on either side of the road have been developed for housing. There is unbroken countryside with walking country to the North to Pendle Hill and surrounding areas. There is a Methodist Chapel and attached primary school in the village, and to the east, on the edge of the village, one of the few remaining Inghamite Chapels, which has an extensive graveyard. It is the burial place of Thomas Whitham who won the Victoria Cross in 1917. Local tradition has it that the Harpers Inn, a local hostelry, was also originally built as a Methodist Chapel, but when the money ran out, it was sold and completed as a pub. The original name was the 'Who'd have thought it'. Sports are catered for by Pendle Forest Sports Club Archived 9 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Wheatley Lane has links with the Pendle Witches. In 1633, Edmund Robinson of Wheatley Lane reported that he had been taken by a witch to a barn at Hoarstones where he had seen 40 witches engaged in various devilish activities. He subsequently identified 19 witches and they were sent to trial in 1634, including Jenet Davies, a witness at the 1612 trial, and the daughter-in-law of Alice Nutter (one of the previous Pendle Witches). However, the judge deferred sentence and sent seven of them to London for further examination; only three survived the ordeal. After an enquiry all 19 were acquitted and Robinson later admitted that the story was a fabrication.

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Mee-mawing

Mee-mawing was a form of speech with exaggerated movements to allow lip reading employed by workers in weaving sheds in Lancashire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The noise in a weaving shed rendered hearing impossible so workers communicated by mee-mawing which was a cross between mime and lip reading. To have a private conversation when there were other weavers present, the speaker would cup their hand over their mouth to obscure vision. This was very necessary as a mee-mawer would be able to communicate over distances of tens of yards. It was said that each mill had its own dialect. The British comedian Hylda Baker used mee-mawing as part of her stage and radio act in the 1950s and in the 1970s and 1980s, Les Dawson and Roy Barraclough used this as part of their Cissie and Ada act.

Brierfield railway station

Brierfield railway station serves the town of Brierfield, Lancashire, England and is on the East Lancashire Line 2+1⁄4 miles (3.6 km) east of Burnley Central railway station towards Colne (the terminus). The station is managed by Northern Trains, who also provide all passenger trains serving it. The station is unstaffed and only has basic facilities (no waiting room, just a shelter and a modern ticket vending machine), though there are passenger information screens, timetable posters and a long-line PA system in place to provide train running information. The platform has step-free access from the adjoining street.