Quernmore (pronounced ) is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

City of Lancaster The City of Lancaster () is a local government district of Lancashire, England, with the status of a city and non-metropolitan district. It is named after its largest settlement, Lancaster, but covers a far larger area, which includes the to ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, England. It is located about east of Lancaster. The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

of Quernmore had a population of 532 recorded in the 2001 census, increasing to 567 at the 2011 Census. Apart from Quernmore itself, the parish also includes Brow Top, once a local crafts mecca, now

barn conversion The conversion of barns involves the conversion of old farming barns to structures of commercial or residential use. Responsible residential conversion According to the United States National Park Service, a medium-sized barn with sufficient extan ...

s. The village consists of a small number of residential properties, mostly farm houses, nestling in the bottom of the small valley of the

River Conder The River Conder is a river in the English county of Lancashire. The source of the River Conder is a spring at Conder Head on Black Fell near Littledale, from where the stream briefly runs north, then west through Cragg Wood. The river then sk ...

. The valley has an ancient history. In 1970 a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

pottery

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

was unearthed near the

Friends Meeting House A Friends meeting house is a meeting house of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), where meeting for worship is usually held. Typically, Friends meeting houses are simple and resemble local residential buildings. Steeples, spires, and ...

, and other kilns have been discovered in the local vicinity. In former times, the slopes of

Clougha Pike Clougha Pike ( ) is a hill in the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, England. From the west it looms over the Conder Valley, the city of Lancaster and Lancaster University. It is visible from as far away as Barrow-in-Furness, South Lakeland mou ...

which forms the eastern wall of the valley, were mined for millstone grit to form quern stones. There was some small scale coal mining and charcoal production. The valley also has two surviving

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

s, one on the slopes towards Littledale and one at Conder Mill whose

mill pond A mill pond (or millpond) is a body of water used as a reservoir for a water-powered mill. Description Mill ponds were often created through the construction of a mill dam or weir (and mill stream) across a waterway. In many places, the c ...

now is used as a fishery. Quernmore was at one stage a

Royal Forest A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...

. The

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

chapel lies at the heart of the community but is smaller than St Peter's, the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

church which lies isolated next to Quernmore Primary School. There used to be one public house whose address is still the ''Temperance Hotel''. The name used to be the ''Dog and Partridge'' (this name can still be seen on the electrical substation, 100m to the south). It became the ''Temperance Hotel'' after the construction of the

Thirlmere Aqueduct The Thirlmere Aqueduct is a 95.9-mile-long (154.3-kilometre-long) pioneering section of water supply system in England, built by the Manchester Corporation Water Works between 1890 and 1925. Often incorrectly thought of as one of the longest tun ...

, completed 1894, as a consequence of the rowdiness of the

navvies Navvy, a clipping of navigator ( UK) or navigational engineer ( US), is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasionally (in North America) to refer to mechanical shovels and ea ...

working on the aqueduct. The public house closed in 1900. The premises became the post office and village store until closure in 2008. The largest residential property is Quernmore Park, built in 1795 by the architect Thomas Harrison. Quernmore lies within the

Forest of Bowland The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells and formerly the Chase of Bowland, is an area of gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England, with a small part in North Yorkshire (however ro ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of ...

, although it is outside the historical area of the

Lordship of Bowland The Lordship of Bowland is a feudal barony associated with the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, England. The lordship fell into disuse between 1885 and 2008, during which time it was widely believed to have lapsed; it was revived in 2008. In 1 ...

. The village was the first connected to the

Broadband 4 Rural North Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN, read as "BARN") is a community-led project to bring high-speed broadband Internet connectivity to domestic FTTH and business properties in rural Lancashire, Cumbria, Allen Valleys (North Pennines), Cheshire ...

high speed broadband network.

References

External links

Villages in Lancashire Civil parishes in Lancashire Geography of the City of Lancaster Forest of Bowland {{Lancashire-geo-stub

See also

References

External links