Hacking boat

Flypjp said:
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.
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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/?do=get&type=chron&id=798a
 
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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.
 
This post really does bring back memories Myself, Derek Salmon, Chris Kenyon, Mick Doyle, Anthony Wood, it was a regular trip out for us
 
lol1944 said:
This post really does bring back memories Myself, Derek Salmon, Chris Kenyon, Mick Doyle, Anthony Wood, it was a regular trip out for us
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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.
 
During the war I used to travel from Accrington to Whalley with my Grandmother. We used to walk across the fields to the Ferry sometimes we would stop at a farmhouse that served salmon meals. Does anybody remember this ?
 
I stand to be corrected here but I have always thought that Hacking Boat and Dinckley Ferry were two different places, Hacking Boat being at the confluence of the Ribble and Calder at Calderfoot and Dinckley Ferry being where the Dinckley footbridge now spans the river Ribble below Hurst Green. As I say, I stand to be corrected on this. Yours Taddy
 
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