See menu on right for past events from other years
2024
- 7 Dec. Winter talk 3 & AGM – George Holden 1723-93 of Tatham Green: inventor of the tide tables that helped to revolutionise British maritime trade. Mike Winstanley & Melinda Elder
- 23 Nov. Winter talk 2 – Postponed because of adverse weather
- 9 Nov. Winter talk 1 – Robert Hall and the Cantsfield family. John Wilson
August 2024 Summer field trip: Millhouses & Mealbank
Eighteen members enjoyed a(nother!) sunny afternoon for our second summer walk, this time led by Millhouses resident and THS secretary Mike Winstanley. We started at Lane Head, briefly a public house in the nineteenth century, then headed down Millhouses main street to the site of the old mill. Despite having been in use well into the twentieth century, very little remains of the mill itself, though a stone pillar is still standing – it supported the timber launder carrying water to the overshot mill wheel – and the mill after-race can be seen though the vegetation. From here we followed the river and road to investigate an old path leading down to the Hindburn where the rocky bed forms a ford. There is Ordnance Survey and anecdotal evidence of a long-gone footbridge here, once used by Millhouses residents walking up to the former chapel near Higher Broadwood, but no convincing sign of exactly where it might have been.
With time pressing, a planned field path route was discarded in favour of a quick march down the road to Hindburn Bridge, and then along the drive to Gamblesholme, a former farm in an idyllic setting. In the garden, we were welcomed by its owner; he first lived at Gamblesholme in the early 1940s, and was able to answer our many questions about life there over the intervening 80 years. From there, a short, sharp climb through fields brought us to Far Mealbank farm, and just beyond, to Mealbank farm, where we admired Tatham’s most magnificent and ancient oak tree, and the fine views across Lunesdale. There remained a short walk back to Millhouses down leafy Agnes Ing and Trinket lanes, each prompting speculation about the origins of their names.
Our thanks to Nigel and Mary for car parking, and to other local residents for permission to access some private areas.
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June 2024: Summer field trip from Greenhall
A dozen members were treated to a sunny and fascinating afternoon in the company of THS stalwart and lifelong Greenhall resident John Wilson. His farmhouse home is a listed building with many intriguing and unusual features, including a 1673 date stone. John described how this farm, like others in Tatham Fells, would originally have been created as a curvilinear enclosure of a small area of the “green” – rough moorland fell – as long as 800 years ago. He has researched changes in ownership over the centuries, before his grandfather became tenant and, from the 1930s, owner of Greenhall.
A short walk took us to Ringstones, where two houses – at one time distinct farms and both with date stones – stand next to the cobbled yard. From here we followed a field path to Lanshaw, and on past the site of a locally notable 1938 car accident to the open fell and the attractive Willy Close barn by Slaidburn Road. Then down to Moorcock, once an alehouse, albeit briefly – though long enough to have been the scene of a police raid in response to reports of illegal selling and consumption of alcohol on a Sunday. In a pre-bicycle age, the policeman must have walked miles to this remote spot, doubtless tipped off by a zealous Sabbatarian neighbour annoyed at the weekly flouting of the law.
A short walk on field paths returned us to Greenhall, where much-needed refreshments awaited.
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