Project concludes and app launched

Here is Jennie's final illustration for the project - drawn specifically for the schools pack - it shows the Stanleys and the Marsdens viewing recent repairs to the pale.

The project has now come to a close - have a look at all the materials on www.forestofbowland.com/aleapinthepark  and from there you can download the mobile app we have created, so you can go out into the landscape and walk the line of the pale with audio commentary and images of the area as it has been over the last 600 years: take a leap in the park!

Open Day!

Our project open day on 1st December was a big success, with over 100 people coming along to find out more about the deer parks. Jennie brought along her illustrations and eveyone loved them!

 



We also attempted to build a section of pale in the wildlife garden behind the church hall which is managed by Chipping in Bloom. First we felled a branch of an old oak tree standing by a brookand then Richard Atton and Tarja cleaved it into 4 quarters - tough work!

 

 

then the uprights and rails were put in place and they made wooden pegs to hold them together

 

Well done you two!

the pale will be finished soon: all 10 foot of it! imagine how hard it would be to build 7 miles.....why not pop along to Chipping and see it?

History Pin

A Leap in the Park is now on History Pin - have a look at our channel and explore some of the other All Our Stories Heritage Lottery Funded projects that are uploading digital records of their projects. Look for our page:

The end is in sight

The project is drawing to a close now and we are working hard to get all the research materials and images into digital form so that they can be uploaded to our leapinthepark webpage (which will sit on www.forestofbowland.com) and also to our Leap in the Park app. We hope to launch both of these at our end of project celebration on Sunday December 1st, to be held at St Mary's church hall in Chipping. We will have lots of work on display and in addition Lindsey Wallace from the Harris Museum & Art Gallery will be bringing along the lovley Weld watercolours, plus Jennie Anderson will be returning to Bowland to show us the original deer park reconstruction paintings she has produced for us.

 

 

 

Weld's painting of Gibbon Bridge Farm: now a hotel

Apprentice scribes in Tudor times

This week, ten year six pupils from Brabin's Endowed Primary school in Chipping visited Lancashire Archives as part of the education work the Leap in the Park project has been undertaking, led by ex Headteacher Glynis Goldsbrough. Lots of resources to help pupils find out more about the deer parks at Leagram and Radholme, using all parts of the curriculum, are now available to download from our website
The trip was organised by Lancashire Museums Service and the children were visiting Preston to become apprentices to Queen Elizabeth I's royal scribe, Thomas Coldfield. They spent the morning learning their letters, illuminating texts, making seals and finding out a lot about Elizabethan life and the deer parks. They also had chance to go into the Archive store to view some original 400 year old manuscripts actually signed by Good Queen Elizabeth and bearing her seal. We found out how parchment was made ( ugh!) and how the beeswax seal was used to show who the important letter was from, even though many Elizabethan people could not read the text, even if it was in English!
We hope to take another class to the archives soon, so if you are at a primary school in Lancashire studying the Tudors this term, get in touch!

Our day out.....

Yesterday a group of 10 volunteers visited the Lancashire Archives to look at some of the original documents uncovered during our research into the deer parks of Bowland. We also had a private guided tour of the stacks, where all the 8 miles of precious documents are stored in monitored conditions, and then we had a go at transcribing a court roll from 1674!

A Grand day out.....

Here we are, enjoying the Bank Holiday sunshine at Chipping Show, and telling lots of people about our work on the Deer Parks

Jennie's illustrations

Here is one of Jennie Anderson's new illustrations fo rthe project - this one shows some fallow deer using a salter, or deer leap, to enter the park. 

more news...

Exciting news! Jennie Anderson's first few illustrations are now complete and on my desk - there is a sneak preview on her  Facebook page of the first three reconstruction drawings showing hunting the deer; a winter feeding scene; and driving cattle through a park gate, showing the pale in the landscape.
We will use these fabulous paintings to help interpret the project via our apps, website and interpretation panels in the near future.

This week I have been walking the route of the Leagram deer park - a 7 mile walk around the pale - and identifying sites to interpret using our mobile app. And I have also had a bit of news on Stakes Farm, mentioned in my last post. The house was probably built in the 1600's by the Richmond family, and the latin inscription above the door is translated as follows:
Now this is mine
Soon to be other's
Afterwards whose I know not
Nobody is born for himself

Walking the line around Radholme park

We had a fabulous day on Monday, testing out the route for the new walk around part of Radholme park. This is a route we are going to develop as a mobile digital app, our first at the AONB, so we are very excited about it. The app will feature a route map and directions, plus an audio commentray and a gallery of images to illustrate the area and its history.
The walk starts from the top of Hall Hill and passes through Radholme Laund, Higher, Middle and Lower Lees and down to Stakes farm on the Hodder. This is a fabulous old building which I am determined to find out more about. It featured in the John Weld drawings we uncovered at Harris art gallery, and it seems to have changed very little in the 200 years since then.

photo courtesy of Harris Museums and Art Gallery, Preston

 

The Farm appears to have been in the Swinglehurst family and there are some lovley photos of it on their family website



Discover Bowland events

For those of you unable to attend Nigel Neil's lecture on Deer Parks last month, here is a brief snippet of his talk - explaining about Royal Forests, hunting methods and the construction of the pale. The talk was enjoyed by over 20 people, and another 15 or so joined Graham Cooper on his guided walk the following weekend.
Meet us next at Chipping Show on Saturday 24th August or come along and see some of our documentary evidence for real at Lancashire Archives on Tuesday 10th September. For details contact cathy.hopley@lancashire.gov.uk

Forthcoming events.....

Don't forget our Deer Parks talk is being given by Nigel Neil on Thursday 25th June at 7.30pm in Chipping Village Hall - just turn up for a fascinating insight to medieval manors, landownership patterns and stories of some of the great characters of the area.

We also have plans to run a stall at Chipping Show on Saturday 24th August where you can have a go at place name bingo or make a deer sculpture.....and then on Tuesday 10th September we will be running a trip to Lancashire Archives in Preston to see first hand some of the documents used in the research work and to unveil some of the mysteries of archive research - including reading old fashioned handwriting, like this!

1559 Survey of the Woods, TNA DL 43/17/5 reproduced by kind permission of the Chancellor and
Council of the Duchy of Lancashire and the National Archive - photo by Dr Bill Shannon

Survey drawings

Becca from English Heritage has kindly produced the drawings from the very wet survey notes we made back in April when we surveyed a length of the pale near to Windy Hills in Leagram Park.

The aerial photo clearly shows our section of ditch and bank: the pale

and these are the results of our surveying

Forthcoming talk

This is just a quick reminder that on Thursday 27th June Nigel Neil will be giving an illustrated talk about the Deer Parks of the Forest of Bowland AONB, based on the research he carried out with others over the last two years. The talk is one of our 'Discover Bowland' series, given by local experts and volunteers, as part of Festival Bowland. It is to be held at Chipping Memorial Hall and starts at 7.30pm: no booking required, please just turn up. For more details phone the AONB office on 01200 448000.
The accompanying field trip, to be held on Saturday 29th June, is nearly fully booked so hurry up and ring us if you want to join a fascinating walk around the pale at Leagram, led by Graham Cooper.

Deer Park report published

Last week we finally managed to publish our long awaited research report on Deer Parks in the Forest of Bowland: the work that led us to set up the Leap in the Park project.

You can download a copy from: www.forestofbowland.com/deerparks and read all the detail about how Leagram and Radholme parks were developed, managed and finally dis-parked. There is also a short report about the salters, or deer leaps, around Leagram park, which we have been investigating lately.

The report contains some of the photos and images from this blog, and many more of archived material which was unearthed during the research work carried out by Nigel Neil, Ruth Thurnhill and Graham Cooper.

Depiction of a deer park on a Flemish tapestry of c 1500
from the Burrell Collection, reproduced by kind permission of Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries

Surveying the pale, in the rain

Last Sunday we carried out our first fieldwork on the deer park at Leagram, with a training day led by Dave and Rebecca from English Heritage who showed us how to carry out earthwork surveys, the old fashioned way. No GPS for us (there's no satellite reception at Leagram!) so we turned back the clock and used poles, tapes, drawing tables and a dumpy level. The only nod to the 21st century was the wonderful invention of waterproof film - which was a lifesaver as the weather was wet, very very very wet!

We hope to carry out some more survey work soon, so please get in touch if you are interested in joining us (whatever the weather).

The afternoon training session: drawing a cross section of the bank and ditch

Inspecting the site on a drier day: the ditch and bank, the line of the pale, is quite clear on this section of the deer park boundary near to Windy Hills

Weld paintings bring the park to life

Last month I mentioned that we had been to view some paintings of Leagram by John Weld, owner of the estate from 1866-88. We are now able to reproduce a few copies here, with thanks to The Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston. We hope to be able to exhibit these at an open day this Autumn, and to use some of the other paintings in our forthcoming interpretation materials

These two images are of Birchen Lee farm (above) and Loud Mythom

Most of the images show views which are surprisingly unchanged in the last 170 years. Many of the Leagram farm houses were re built at around this time, after a 'hurricane' destroyed many of the then thatched roofs. These 'new' farms still bear the initials GW or JW after the father and son George and John Weld.

Portrait

Here is Sir Richard - with kind permission of the Governors of Stonyhurst College

My apologies, it appears that Sir Richard was only married the once, to Maud Bold; wheras his son, plain Richard Shireburn (died 1629) had the three wives - Katheirne Stourton, Ann Hoghton and Ann Holden - one at a time ofcourse!

Rascally Sir Richard

Today I have been to visit Stonyhurst College to help photograph the portraits they have there of the Shireburn family. Sir Richard Shireburne (or Sherburne, as they spelt it then) purchased Leagram deer park in 1563, soon after it was 'disparked' and so he was an influential person in the subsequent development of the area.

Sir Richard was a rascally fellow, having had 3 wives in succession, and fathering several children both in and out of wedlock. He was also a known Catholic who managed to serve a total of 4 monarchs of varyious religious allegiance. His portrait appears wise and serene: so he was a clever man too!


Sir Richard began the improvements to the original medieval Stonyhurst manor which eventually became the grand house it is today, and he built the old Hodder Bridge nearby. He also founded a long line of Richard Shireburnes who ran the estate until Sir Nicholas Shireburne took it on in 1690. He and his wealthy wife Catherine carried out expensive renovations of the house and gardens, but sadly they had no heir and eventually Stonyhurst and the deer park at Leagram was passed to their distant relations the Weld family of Lulworth. It was the Welds who gave Stonyhurst to the college that runs the place today: it's open to the public during the summer school holidays and the house and gardens are well worth a visit. The Weld family still own the estate that once included the deer park, and reside at Leagram Hall: they are supporting the Leap in the Park project.

Sir Richard and some of his descendants will appear in our soon to be published report - so look out for his portrait! Thanks to Graham Cooper for arranging the visit and the photography today.

Beyond the pale

I've just had a wonderful afternoon out with a few friends walking part of the line of the pale - the old boundary of the deer park - at Leagram, and looking for evidence of salters. The deer park was enclosed to keep the deer inside, ready for hunting, and the pale was made of a deep ditch, planted with thorn bushes and topped with a wooden fence. A salter was a place where deer outside the park, in our case in the Royal Forest of Bowland, could leap over the pale to eat the lush grass in the park. It was built in a clever way: lower on the inside and higher outside, so that once the deer had got into the park they could not jump back out again. Here's a sketch from Jennie showing what a salter might have looked like:

We have unearthed a couple of old maps from 1595 and 1608 which show the line of the pale and the site of gates and salters, and we are trying to locate these in today's landscape.

A 1595 map of Leagram Park, reproduced by kind permission of Lancashire Archives (DDST Box 15 No.9)

We hope to survey some of the pale in detail, with expert guidance provided by English Heritage, and we are planning a workshop on Sunday 28th April so please get in touch if you would like to join in and help: cathy.hopley@lancashire.gov.uk

Discoveries at the Harris Art Gallery

Yesterday I went to the Harris Art Gallery in Preston with a small group of our volunteer researchers. We had arranged to meet the cuartor there to view some watercolours painted in the 1840's by John Weld who was the owner of Leagram Park estate: one of our deer parks. The paintings are not currently on view, so we were allowed 'behind the scenes' to see them and to arrange to have digital copies made of them.

Here we are viewing the paintings

John Weld was a fascinating man who travelled around Europe and much of England drawing and  painting pituresque scenes and church interiors. He was also an archaeologist and historian, and he wrote a 'History of Leagram' which was the basis of much of our research into the deer park.

We hope to be able to display copies of some of the paintings on our website, and to trace some house and family histories related to them and the tenants of the park. If possible we will arrange for the originals to be on view at an open day in Chipping which we are planning for later on in the year.

further research and sketching

What a glorious day here in Bowland today, the oystercatchers are calling and Spring is in the air!

Back at the deer park we are continuing to research our two parks at Radholme and Leagram, and focussing interest on the late 15th century. Jennie is drawing reconstruction illustrations to include some local families and places too. We have decided to set them in the 1480's when Edward Stanley was the park keeper and our schools pack will include some role-playing about him, his family and local villagers. This will tie in with the primary school history curriculum which focusses on the Tudor period - and it is great for me as I am in the middle of reading Hilary Mantel's books about Thomas Cromwell, largely set in 1535! Sadly, Henry VIII never visited our Royal Forest, but  the books do give you an idea of what England was like at that time.

We are also continuing to look into the boundary dispute between Richard Shireburn, who owned Leagram Park in 1608, and the Master Forester of nearby Bowland Forest. We have a wonderful map from The National Archives which was drawn up to help resolve the argument, and it is very accurate. In the coming months we will be using it to do some field surveys to map out the line of the pale and the many deer leaps that appeared to exist along it. If you'd like to get involved in this, please get in touch: cathy.hopley@lancashire.gov.uk

Have a look at one of Jennie's sketches of leaping fallow deer on her facebook page

Wintry weather

Whilst the snow continues to fall here in Bowland, we are planning further research and field work which will take place over the next few months.
Members of Chipping History Group are keen to look into farm holdings and tenancies on the Leagram Estate, much of which lies within the old deer park boundary. This will give us some idea of when and how the park was subdivided into fields. We hope to visit Lancashire Archives in Preston and also the records of the estate held at Stonyhurst College in order to investigate this. There are also some interesting paintings of all the Estate farm buildings dating from the 1840s which are kept at the Harris Gallery in Preston which we would like to look at. Our field work here will be to identify the old 'deer leaps' marked on a map from 1608 to see if we can still find traces of them on the ground today.

Radholme Deer Park today (photo by Graham Cooper)

Research work on Radholme Park includes trying to find out more about what happened to the park area between 1660 and 1835, and our field work will focus on checking sites identified on old maps to see if they are of relevance to the deer park.
If this all sounds like interesting stuff, why not get involved by contacting cathy.hopley@lancashire.gov.uk. You can also come along to an illlustrated talk by Nigel Neil at Chipping village hall on Thursday June 27th, and a guided walk by Graham Cooper on Saturday June 29th - book your place now by contacting the AONB office on 01200 448000

Interviews with Jennie

Whilst Jennie was visiting us we had a chat over dinner at the Inn at Whitewell, which lies within the old deer park at Radholme.
Listen in on Jennie explaining how she intends to draw a Hunting Scene and also Why digital? for this kind of project. You can also hear more about how she got into this fascinating profession in Jennie's Biog

Archaeological illustrations

This week we have been out and about exploring the deer parks with Jennie Anderson who is an archaeological illustrator. Jennie is going to draw some reconstruction images which the project can use to help people imagine what the deer parks looked like back in the 1420's. These will focus on people doing things - like mending the pale, the park boundary; herding cattle through the park gates; and of course, hunting the fallow deer! Jennie will also be re creating views of the parks, so we can see the changes that have taken place over the last 5-600 years. Although the weather has been wild, wet and windy, its been a great opportunity for us to work with a professional illustrator.

Project Launched!

The Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) are delighted to be one of the first groups in the UK to receive a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) All Our Stories grant. This exciting project, A Leap in the Park, will tell the story of two medieval deer parks which once existed near to Chipping and Whitewell.
In the Forest of Bowland AONB a group of volunteers have been researching the origins of the deer parks and their impact on the landscape. This grant will now enable more people to get involved and to explore this fascinating heritage. Guided walks and workshops will help people to discover the remains of the deer park boundary - or 'pale' - and to look into the history of place names and farm and family names which link the original park with the modern day landscape. Digital walking guides and a website, plus a pack for schools will also enable people to discover more about the heritage of this special area for themselves.
We will post to the blog to keep you up to date with exciting developments as they take place!