Pendle Hill is in the east of Lancashire, England, near the towns of Burnley, Nelson, Colne, Brierfield, Clitheroe and Padiham. Its summit is above mean sea level. It gives its name to the Borough of Pendle. It is an isolated hill in the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Commo ...

, separated from the South Pennines to the east, the

Bowland Fells Bowland at its most general most often refers to: * Forest of Bowland, an area of barren gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England, with a small part in Yorkshire * Trough of Bowland, a valley and high ...

to the northwest, and the West Pennine Moors to the south. It is included in a detached part of the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

History

The name "Pendle Hill" combines the words for hill from three different languages (as does Bredon Hill in Worcestershire). In the 13th century it was called ''Pennul'' or ''Penhul'', apparently from the Cumbric ''pen'' and

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''hyll'', both meaning "hill". The modern English "hill" was appended later, after the original meaning of Pendle had become opaque. A Bronze Age burial site has been discovered at the

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used ...

of the hill. There is an ancient local legend that the Devil once jumped from

Hameldon Hill Hameldon Hill is a Carboniferous sandstone hill with a summit elevation of , situated between the towns of Burnley and Accrington in Lancashire, England. It is listed as a "HuMP" or "Hundred Metre Prominence", its parent being Freeholds Top, a ...

to an outcrop overlooking

Sabden Sabden is a village and civil parish in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England. Sabden is located south of Pendle Hill, in a valley about three miles north west of Padiham. The parish covers , of which is occupied by the village. It lies in the ...

, on the southwest slope of Pendle, leaving footprints in the sandstone. Here he gathered rocks in an apron, and after proceeding the short distance to Apronfull, threw a boulder aimed at Clitheroe Castle. At that moment the apron string broke causing the boulder to land near

Pendleton Pendleton may refer to: Places ;United Kingdom *Pendleton, Lancashire, England *Pendleton, Greater Manchester, England ;United States *Pendleton, Indiana * Pendleton, Missouri *Pendleton, New York *Pendleton, Oregon *Pendleton, South Carolina *Pe ...

and creating the pile of rocks atop the slight prominence there. The hill is famous for its links to three events which took place in the 17th century: the Pendle witch trials (1612), Richard Towneley's barometer experiment (1661), and the vision of

George Fox George Fox (July 1624 – 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. The son of a Leicestershire weaver, he lived in times of social upheaval and ...

(1652), which led to the foundation of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) movement.

Quakers

In his autobiography,

said he had a vision on Pendle Hill in 1652, during the early years of the Quakers: Pendle continues to be linked to the Quakers, who take pilgrimage there and use the name for the Pendle Hill Quaker Center for Study and Contemplation near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Witches and the supernatural

The story of the Pendle witches is a notorious and well-documented example of cases brought against alleged

witches Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have use ...

in 17th-century England. The area is popular with ghost hunters after Living channel's show '' Most Haunted'' visited it for a live investigation on

Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...

2004. The show's presenter, Yvette Fielding, said it was the scariest episode they had made. Pendle Hill was the subject of episode 12 of the "How Haunted?" podcast. Pendle Hill and the surrounding area are the setting for 1951's classic ''Mist Over Pendle'' by Robert Neill, and also for the fourth book in Joseph Delaney's '' Spook's'' series, called ''

The Spook's Battle ''The Spook's Battle'', written by Joseph Delaney, is the fourth story in The Wardstone Chronicles series. It was released in America in March 2008, and is titled ''Attack of the Fiend'', as the fourth book in the ''Spook's'' series. Plot Tom ...

''. "

The Witchfinders "The Witchfinders" is the eighth episode of the eleventh series of the British science fiction television programme '' Doctor Who''. It was written by Joy Wilkinson and directed by Sallie Aprahamian, and was first broadcast on BBC One BBC ...

", the eighth episode of the eleventh series of the British science fiction television programme ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'', takes place during the 17th-century Pendle witch trials. To mark the 400th anniversary, in January 2012 local artist Philippe Handford created a huge installation by putting '1612' on the side of Pendle Hill using of horticultural fleece.

Geography

Topography

Pendle Hill is separated from the nearby main bulk of the

by the

River Ribble The River Ribble runs through North Yorkshire and Lancashire in Northern England. It starts close to the Ribblehead Viaduct in North Yorkshire, and is one of the few that start in the Yorkshire Dales and flow westwards towards the Irish Sea (t ...

. This isolation means that Pendle Hill is in fact the most prominent child summit of Kinder Scout, far away in the Peak District, rather than a child of Ward's Stone, the highest point in Bowland. It is included in a detached part of the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Pendle Water, which runs through Ogden Clough, has its source on the summit plateau, heading southwest before turning back to the east as it falls into the Ogden valley. It joins the Lancashire Calder near Burnley, a few miles upstream from the confluence with

Sabden Brook Sabden Brook is a small river running through Lancashire in England. It is long and has a catchment area of . Rising just to the west of Newchurch-in-Pendle, Sabden Brook moves westward through its well-defined valley past Sabden Hall to the vi ...

, which drains the southwest slopes of the hill.

Mearley Brook Mearley Brook is a minor river in Lancashire, England. It is approximately long and has a catchment area of . The stream rises on Pendle Hill and heads northwest, descending through Mearley Clough, passing Little Mearley Hall and crossing under ...

cuts a large clough onto the northwest face, with its tributaries and those of

Pendleton Brook Pendleton Brook is a small river in Lancashire. The brook rises on Pendleton Moor and flows through the village of Pendleton, travelling north west to Higher Standen, then west past Standen Hall. From there, Pendleton Brook flows south of Cli ...

draining this side directly into the

Geology

The sloping plateau summit of Pendle Hill is formed from the Pendle Grit, a coarse

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

age sandstone assigned to the Millstone Grit Group. It overlies a thick sequence of Carboniferous Limestone beds. In chronostratigraphy, the British sub-stage of the

period, the ' Pendleian' derives its name from Pendle Hill where an exposure in Light Clough is taken as the type locality. Much of the lower slopes are mantled by thick deposits of glacial till or boulder clay dating from the last ice age. The historic decomposition of sphagnum

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

on the hill has led to it being covered in peat. The steep slopes of its eastern and southern flanks have given rise to a series of

landslip Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environments, ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

A circuit of Pendle Hill from Barley
* Computer generated summit panoram
Pendle Hill

Images of Pendle hill on Flickr
*
Devil's apronful, Pendle Hill
{{Borough of Pendle geography Hills of the Forest of Bowland Geography of the Borough of Pendle Marilyns of England Geography of Ribble Valley Quakerism in England