Re: Hacking boat
 

According to an article in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, 5 July 1993, the ferry ran from 1686 to the mid-50s. It was a flat bottomed boat with seats round the sides. Mr Michael Jackson, a former Ribble Valley Council chief executive discovered it decaying in a barn while out rambling and had it restored. It was on display at the Clitheroe Castle Museum but took up to much space and is now in the possession of the Ribble Valley Borough Council. Standing on the Billington side of the river you had to shout for the farmer or his wife to ferry you across the Ribble, where it joins the Calder, for a few coppers. It is reputed that dogs were sometimes left to swim across to avoid payment. A long chain acted as an anchor

http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/...ckingFerry.jpg

Re: Hacking boat
 

According to an article in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, 5 July 1993, the ferry ran from 1686 to the mid-50s. It was a flat bottomed boat with seats round the sides. Mr Michael Jackson, a former Ribble Valley Council chief executive discovered it decaying in a barn while out rambling and had it restored. It was on display at the Clitheroe Castle Museum but took up to much space and is now in the possession of the Ribble Valley Borough Council. Standing on the Billington side of the river you had to shout for the farmer or his wife to ferry you across the Ribble, where it joins the Calder, for a few coppers. It is reputed that dogs were sometimes left to swim across to avoid payment. A long chain acted as an anchor Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.

http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/...ckingFerry.jpg

Re: Hacking boat
 

They say 'The Grass is Greener on the other side', but from what I remember the terrain on the other banking was sort of lumpier, marshy and full of thistles and more cow clap .. :)

Re: Hacking boat
 

well i can't remember.....then i'm younger.:D

Re: Hacking boat
 

Unfortunately, that is an argument I can't get out of. :p

Re: Hacking boat
 

Found this in my family pictures, was at Hacking Boat.
Notice the paddling shoes, I had some and they were made of rubber and pink.. :)

Attachment 18048

Re: Hacking boat
 

I farm down stream of hacking boat and my uncle is the owner of the old boat house,just to clear some confusion there was a ferry at dinckley also and sail wheel is further down stream from dinckley.The last farmer at the boat house was Harry Holden he moved away from the house near 60 years ago and the house lay derelict till 2001 when my uncle purchased it from the stonyhurst estate.

Re: Hacking boat
 

I have just been reading the posts on Hacking Boat which have taken me right back to my school days,(I think a lot of posts do that for most people) mine are happy days two or three of us and dogs walking from Clayton down lower Barnes st over to Gt Harwood up to the church and over Whalley nab then on to Hacking Boat.
One time when we went must have been a hot sumer day so we took our shirts off, i got terribly sunburnt so bad i was off school for 2 weeks,so even now i do not sit out in the sun.
When Easter came round one year four pals and dogs took a tent and went to camp out there,settling down for the night was not easy with the dogs and a tent only made for three,but we all eventualy got of to sleep.Dont no how long after we were woken up covered in ants, jumped up and ran into the river and it was freezing,when we got back to the tent we watched the ants carrying away pieces of our only loaf.
Decision made to go home.
Never been in a tent since, caravan yes.

Re: Hacking boat
 

I think the Hacking family fan the "Ferry" across the river.
Irene B (Was Davies)

Re: Hacking boat
 

Does anyone know anything about the tumulus on the west side of the river from Hacking Hall? I heard it contains the dead from a battle in the Dark Ages.

Re: Hacking boat
 

Have you seen this? from

http://catterall.net/history/celtic.html

Towards the end of the eighth century, The kingdom of Northumbria, suffered from major internal disputes, and also came under attack from Danish settlers from [ ...]. The sack of the monastic establishment at Lindisfarne was quickly followed by attacks on Jarrow and Monkwearmouth.

The Danes quickly established a foothold, settled and moved westwards across the Pennines. The [Anglo Saxon Chronicle] records a battle in 798 close to Whalley when a chieftain or war leader named Alric was killed.
" 798 ... there was a great battle on Northumbrian land in the spring on 4 Nones April at Whalley and there Alric, son of Heardbearhtes, was killed and many others with him."

The story is repeated by Simeon of Durham, and it was clearly an event of importance to the developing Ango-Saxon nations. Simeon adds the information that the battle occurred in the reign od Eardwulf 'in the region that is called by the English Billangahoth (Langho) near Walalege (Whalley) and that the fight was lead by 'Wada Dux'. Wada is apparently a local, as his name apperas in several place names near Whalley. The victory went to the Danes, and presumably Alric was their leader in this battle.

Langho is a village, close to Whalley and the junction of the Calder and the Ribble. Close to the junction, near Hacking Hall, is a large conical tumulus called the Loe Hill, 120 yards in circumference. Thomas Dunham Whitaker dug into this tumulus in 1815 and found it to be an artificial mound, but because of its size did not penetrate to the centre. Whitaker suggests that this is a monument to, or the tomb of Alric. There is hill named Wadhow four miles up the Ribble, whicvh he suggests might have been Wada's camp before the battle, nearby is the town of Wada, Waddington, Edisforth (the Nobleman's Ford) and Wiswall (the Hero's Well.)

It appears that the invading Danes had penetrated the Aire Gap as far as Whalley where they met and defeated resistance from the local Northumbrians, but their leader Alric was killed.

Of this encounter, Whitaker writes:
"Considered as an obscure village in a remote province, this testimony is honourable to Whalley. Few even of our large provincial towns, excepting those which lay claim to Roman antiquity, have any earlier record than the great register of Domesday; but our story reaches nearly three centuries backward into the Saxon era, is connected in its origin with an important national event, and attested by no private register, but by the annals of the Northumbrian kingdom."

Also http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?d...=chron&id=798a

Re: Hacking boat
 

I seem to remember we would get the bus to the De Tabley Arms & walk through the woods to the river - I knew it as Dinkley Ferry (later the suspension bridge). Seem to remember particularly the bluebells & the smell of wild garlic.

We also often did the Whalley Nab walk, had tea at the cafe by the bus station and caught the bus back to Ossy.

Re: Hacking boat
 

And I think we called the woods "Sail Wheel" woods.

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This post really does bring back memories Myself, Derek Salmon, Chris Kenyon, Mick Doyle, Anthony Wood, it was a regular trip out for us

Re: Hacking boat
 

Would that be the Derek Salmon who was injured in a car crash at Shap Fell and later died? I knew him - but not well.