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Lat/Long: 53.666561, -02.577675
OS Grid ref: SD 61928 19053
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Met Tenine at White Coppice around 9am to discuss the walk.
People began to arrive at 09:15 and those attending were all
there by 9:25 so we set off up the Gorge. I began by describing
the three famous White Coppice people that they’ve never heard
of. Alfred Ephaim Eccles, Sir Norman Howarth & miss Elsie
Whitehead (1908 – 2003) who was headmistress at Withnell Fold
Primary School. |
Sir Norman Howarth |
Alfred Emphraim Eccles. |
Across the cricket ground is Rose Cottage, formerly the home of
the Whitehead family around 1920. Margaret Whitehead was the
headmistress at the local school and her daughter, Elsie, also
qualified as a teacher and later became headmistress at Withnell
Fold primary school. Elsie was also head girl at Chorley Grammar
School.
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In 1835, Alfred Emphraim Eccles built and managed White
Coppice Cotton and Muslin mill (see photo), living at Albion
Villa (now known as “Northwood”). Eccles donated land, promoting
the set-up of White Coppice Cricket Club. He also provided a
meeting room for prayer, reading rooms and a games room with a
billiard table within the factory.
White Coppice is also the
birthplace of Sir Walter Norman Howarth (1883-1950), who was
awarded the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1937 for his
groundbreaking work on the synthesis of vitamin C. |
TMiss Elsie Whitehead at Rose Cottage
in the 1920s. |
Lead Mine entrance up the gorge. |
TAs we walked upwards we could see White Coppice Quarries that
were owned and run by William Waring.
Up on the moor we
reached Coppice Stile House & Cheese press stone with its bench
mark 260.85m (855.8 ft). The cheese press is used to keep the
curds whole or stuck together.
Heading north we had a view of
the 4,000 years old. Anglezarke Round Loaf Bowl Barrow Burial
Mound. This huge mound is oval in plan and 65m at the longest
dimension. It contains around 25,000 tonnes of earth fill. It
has never been excavated. Then we came to the ancient Merestone
boundary marker first mentioned in a “Perambulation of the Manor
1697” in the Hoghton papers. |
Merestone. |
The Flowering Jug ruins. |
Merestone. |
The Flowering Jug ruins. |
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Lunch stop in the woods. |
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Down Well Lane we had a view of Ratten Clough, one of the last
moorland farms to be vacated in the 1960s. In the woods we had a
lunch stop near the stone with graffiti carving. Further on we
stopped by the ruins of New Ground where in 1861 New Ground
James Heald age 48 was the farmer. |
Heather Lea before demolition. |
Animal Byre near Blackhurst. |
One of the buildings was also and ale house called the
“Flowering Jug”. Through the woods we passed the ruins of
Heather Lea then Blackhurst Hall and the intact stables. We made
a detour through the woods to reach the ruins of Marsden’s Farm
lived in by Elizabeth Jane Dixon (1856 - 1938) who kept a diary
that still exists. |
Inside the Byre. |
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Ruins of Blackhurst Hall. |
Tenon top gatepost. |
The ford. |
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Down by the Goit were the ruins of Goose Green then we followed
the path to “The Lowe” and the Tennon Top gatepost. Back in
White Coppice we stopped at the Sunday Cafe which thankfully was
open. I had coffee and cake. |
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