Lancaster
Walk from Barrowford to Lancaster Prison
You cannot drive along the Salt Road. It is only for walkers (and grouse shooters!) to walk in the footsteps of those poor people.
Spare a thought for those poor people, who may have been called 'witches' in common language. They liked being called that because it gave them unforeseen powers against those more powerful than themselves.. That then got re-interpreted for all sorts of ends.
They were sent from Barrowford to Lancaster Prison and the generally accepted route was Sabden via Clitheroe over Waddington Fell, on to Slaidburn and up the Salt Road (just a track now) to Caton. A.Wainwright described it as the best moorland walk in England, but it's is hard to see how the Pendle Wretches would have enjoyed the view.
No 6 on the Salt Road,
looking towards Pendle in the distance
Commemorative Tercets created by Carol Ann Duffy
Pendle Witch Walk shows where each of 8 Tercets are found, including one on Salterforth.
on the left is No 6 is in remembrance of Elizabeth Device, with a view of Pendle in the distance.
Clitheroe Castle Tercet No 4
This 'Salt Road' is one of Wainright's favourite walks, but would have been no fun for those poor people, as all but one was very poor, trudging over this path, or bumping around on a cart, to their deaths.
This means they did not go through the Trough where the coach tours have to go, as the Salt Road is impassable. You will see signs for a Lancaster Witch Trail that make the same mistake for the sake of car convenience.
Mind you , it is likely taht the Judges Roger Nowell and Nicholas Banister did go through the Trough, stopping at the Three Fishes and the Inn at Whitewell (check out)
Lancaster
Judges Lodgings - "The former home of Lancaster's witch finder has been given a reprieve after a death sentence caused by council cuts."
Perhaps the most famous resident was Thomas Covell, a former Lancaster mayor and the notorious 'witch finder'. It was Covell who locked the witches in the Castle dungeons during the Pendle Witch trials in 1612.
A stone cross bearing his name still stands outside the Lodgings 2ptsThe Trails were held before Roger Nowel and sometimes Nicholas Banester, Esquires, two of his Maiesties Iustices of the Peace, within the said Countie. Full description of the trial are in 'Dicoverie of Witches' by Thomas Potts. Gutenberg in August 1612.. A more readable modern version
The trial procedures were the same as for any other offence - they weren’t ducked . It meant the guilty were hanged like other criminals and not burnt at the stake. Ten of the witches/wretches were found guilty and sentenced to death.
The site of the ancient Gallows Hill is where prisoners were brought from the Castle to meet their deaths.
The name of this area is Golgotha - the only place in the UK to be named after where Jesus Christ was crucified. In the late 1880s there were 22 houses mainly occupied by 'laundresses' and reminiscent of 'Magdalene' laundries.
"The exact spot of execution is not marked, but it was here, with that glorious view, that the Pendle Witches were hanged on August 20th 1612. It is thought that the hanging was carried out by putting the noose around the prisoner’s neck while they stood on the cart which brought them there, which would then be moved away, leaving them dangling."
Gallows Hill
In 1998, a petition for a Royal Pardon was denied. Another turned was down by government in 2008. Another attempt by local brewery Moorhouses in 2012 did not get very far.
"Moorhouse’s has built a successful brewing business with beers themed on the fascinating legend. But we too have become increasingly convinced that back in the 1600s there was a gross miscarriage of justice; that the accused were made an example of because of the harsh social climate and a ‘show trial’ that hinged on the evidence of a young girl...It appears that Judge Nowell groomed this young girl in to creating evidence against her whole family. "
