The Characters of Whitworth (via SVR)

Diana Hamilton, Spodden Valley Revealed Project Manager, shares a Spodden Valley Throwback with us…

We have recently been contacted by the wonderful Naomi Kenyon – a member of the Spodden Valley Revealed steering group and teacher at St John with St Michael Primary School in Whitworth. Naomi wanted to share these fantastic images of students from her school last year, investigating Spodden Valley Revealed character bags. To see all the images and read more about the pupils investigations, head over to the Spodden Valley Revealed blog.

The Limersgate Pamphlet (via SVR)

Spodden Valley Revealed artist in residence, David Chatton Barker, has been exploring part of the ancient highway, pre-dating medieval time, running between Rochdale and Clitheroe. He walked from Bull Brow in Rochdale centre to Hades Hill, above Shawforth. From the birthplace of the Co-operative movement to a Prehistoric Barrow, the contents of which included an urn containing the burnt bone fragments of a woman, along with her tools and talismans. The trackway passes many interesting sites, joining the dots of a well worn route by foot and hoof over many many centuries.

The walk was around 6 miles in length and took 5 hours due to conversations, documentation and lunch. The journey was photographed, filmed and audio recorded.

Read more about this fascinating journey on the Spodden Valley Revealed blog.

For Peat’s Sake! (via SVR)

More creative investigations from our Spodden Valley Revealed artist in residence, David Chatton Barker…

To read the fascinating story of peat, visit the SVR blog.

The Famine Tower – Episode Two (via SVR)

If you enjoyed reading The Famine Tower – Episode One, the story doesn’t finish there… Our Spodden Valley Revealedartist in residence, David Chatton Barker, delves deeper in Episode Two, sharing with you the only known evidence of the building of the ‘Tower of Babel’. You’ll also find a poem and fascinating film by David that celebrates the story.

A reminder… at the end of Episode One, David told us that the only known evidence he had discovered about the building of the tower was from a booklet of newspaper cuttings collected by a Rochdale amateur antiquarian named J. L. Maxim…

Read more on the Spodden Valley Revealed blog…

The Famine Tower – Episode One (via SVR)

Aetiological monuments of hope for a future/past unknown… more from our Spodden Valley Revealed artist in residence David Chatton Barker…

…There is another much lesser-known endeavour carried out by 30 to 40 out-of-work mill operatives who carted stone to the top of Brown Wardle Hill (SD899187), which stands 1,312 ft above sea level on the South Pennine moors in Whitworth (on the other side of the valley from Rooley Moor). This massive quantity of stone was used to construct a monumental tower over several months, eventually reaching the grand height of 28ft and known by seemingly very few people as The Tower of Babel…

Read more on the fascinating history connecting Haslingden flagstone, the Lancashire Cotton Famine, the American Civil War and the construction, perhaps, of a monumental tower on Brown Wardle Hill in Famine Tower – Episode One on the SVR blog.