Weird and unexpected places to discover in Lancashire

. (Image: Dave Hamilton)

ROCK CUT TOMBS, HEYSHAM

There is a local legend that, after being shipwrecked, St Patrick was washed ashore and set up the first chapel at Heysham sometime in the fifth century. Considering St Patrick was also supposed to have been shipwrecked on the Isle of Man and Anglesey, unless he was the world’s unluckiest sailor, there may be some doubt about this story. Regardless of how factually accurate this tale is, during the eighth century a chapel was built in honour of the saint. The remains of this chapel still stand, along with eight rock cut tombs that may also date to the same era. You’ll find six of the human-sized holes cut into the rock on the west side of the chapel and two more to the east.

How to get there: A589/Heysham road north into Heysham, turn left at the Coach House onto Longlands Lane. Continue to Main Street and park in the village car park. Walk across the roundabout from the car park, following Main Street past The Royal to the churchyard. The tombs are at the back. Regular buses run from Morecambe to the village.

Clougha Pike. (Image: Dave Hamilton)

ANDREW GOLDSWORTHY’S CHAMBERS, CLOUGHA PIKE

Andrew Goldsworthy’s artworks tend to be site-specific structures. They utilise whatever materials come to hand. In some cases these are branches or leaves, giving the sculptures a more transient nature. In others, like the three chambers, the works are made from stone and last little longer. In a remote spot like the top of Clougha Pike, this had the added benefit that he didn’t have to hike up the steep path carrying his raw materials. They were built over a three-year period between 1999 and 2001, with the artist focusing on one each year. The Duke of Westminster’s Abbeystead Estate funded the project, and it has drawn walkers to the area ever since the sculptures were installed.

If the weather turns, there is enough room for three hikers to sit and have their lunch undercover while a fourth questions their choice of friends. Opposite the car park below you’ll find Jubilee Tower, built for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee by James Harrison, a wealthy Liverpool shipbuilder. The tower has some great views over the local area, and you might just spot Blackpool Tower in the distance.

How to get there: Take the Wyresdale Road east from Lancaster, remain on the road through Quernmore and pull into the left when you see Jubilee Tower. The path up to the chamber starts at the back of the car park. It is both straightforward and confusing, especially if the weather changes, so a map and compass/navigation apps are useful. Head up the path to the brow of the hill and go over the stepladder to your left. Remain on this path, heading towards the sea. After approximately 800 metres you should see the geometric shapes of the sculptures and a path that will lead you to the chambers.

Pendle Sculpture Trail. (Image: Dave Hamilton)

PENDLE SCULPTURE TRAIL, BARLEY

Pendle will always be synonymous with the story of the Pendle Witches. In 1612, during a time of great superstition, religious zealotry and paranoia, 10 Lancashire women and two men were tried for witchcraft. Ten of the 12 were subsequently hanged, and one was acquitted. The final woman, Elizabeth Southern, died before the trial began after being kept in terrible conditions in Lancaster Castle’s Well Tower. Many of the ‘witches’ were healers or women dealing in herbs, and, rather tellingly, some of those reporting the ‘crimes’ seem to have been herbalists in the area who may have had competing practices. Others were tried for petty crimes that appear to be nothing more than personal vendettas between neighbours rather than any practising of the dark arts. Pendle-based Philippe Handford created the trail along with fellow artists Steve Blaylock, Martyn Bednarczuk and Sarah McDade. The trail was made to tell the story of the witches and contains different elements of the tale, such as the witches themselves, the tower where Elizabeth died, and other supernatural or ‘spooky’ carvings, such as unicorns, bats and owls.

How to get there: Park at 53.877727 -2.271122 and follow the lane south. Continue south on the footpath to Lower Black Moss Reservoir. Take a left here, then a right into the woods.

The Atom. (Image: Dave Hamilton)

ATOM, COLNE

Designed by Peter Meacock, Andrew Edmunds and Katarina Novomestska of Peter Meacock Projects, Atom’s structure is made from glass-fibre reinforced concrete, which has been coated in bronze. Due to the shape of the structure, it serves as a welcome place to escape from bad weather as it closes in across the hills. The artwork forms part of a satisfying walk around Wycoller Country Park, taking in the ruins of Wycoller Hall, thought to be the inspiration for Ferndean Manor in Charlotte Brontë’sJane Eyre.

How to get there: From Colne take the A56 east to join A6068 Keighley Road. Continue to the Emmott Arms and turn right down School Lane. Take the next right down Carrier’s Row, then left at the T-junction and left again to the car park. Walk into Wycoller and then take the path behind the public toilet to Atom.

Singing Ringing Tree. (Image: Dave Hamilton)

SINGING RINGING TREE, BURNLEY

High on the moors, overlooking Burnley, the Singing Ringing Tree is a sound sculpture harnessing the power of the wind as it blows through a series of galvanised steel pipes. The work was part of an ambitious series of four sculptures commissioned by the East Lancashire Environmental Arts Network and collectively known as the Panopticon. It accompanies the Halo and the Atom along with Colourfields in Blackburn, created by artist Sophie Smallhorn, who integrated it into a former cannon battery in Corporation Park. The pieces were made as a symbol of the area’s regeneration, and it was hoped they would become 21st-century landmarks that would stand the test of time.

The Singing Ringing Tree was created by architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu of Tonkin Liu and stands three metres tall. The pipes are a mix of structural and visual elements, along with pipes tuned to various pitches over a range of different octaves. The result is a strange, somewhat discordant harmonic as the wind blows through the pipes.

How to get there: Take the A682 south, go over A682 and take a left at the brown sign ‘Tree Panopticon’. Keep on this road as it bends; eventually, you will meet a semi-circular car park on the left. You should see the Singing Ringing Tree down the winding path from here.

HALO, HASLINGDEN

Halo is another in the Panopticon series commissioned by the East Lancashire Environmental Arts Network. Resembling a fire pit or UFO, it is an 18-metre-diameter steel lattice structure on a tripod, with a series of fairy lights positioned across the underside. It occupies a commanding position on the top of Top o’Slate, a former landfill site above the town of Haslingden in the Rossendale Valley. The ‘fairy lights’ consist of low-energy blue LED lights powered by a turbine, making Halo visible at night for those approaching from the A56.

Designed by John Kennedy of LandLab, there are footpaths leading from the sculpture out to Cribden Hill and over to Rawtenstall in the east.

How to get there: From the Co-Op on St John’s Street, Haslingden, take a right onto Regents Street, left onto Church Street, left onto High Street, right onto Higher Lane, then a right onto Cribbden End Lane. You’ll come to a pull-in and Halo will be above you.

RIVINGTON TERRACED GARDENS, HORWICH

Once the grounds of William Hesketh Lever, this was one of the grandest gardens in the country during the early 20th century. Lever could be considered the Richard Branson or Jeff Bezos of his era, a self-made millionaire who made his fortune as the co-founder of Lever Brothers/Unilever, a company that still exists today. He set up the business with his brother in 1884, initially as a soap manufacturer, and quickly started exporting to both sides of the Atlantic. Although the gardens are a shadow of their former grandeur, there are still echoes of their past. There is a trust in place that is slowly bringing the gardens back to life, but it is a slow and costly process. This is part of Rivington’s charm as it retains a lost quality.

How to get there: Head off the M62 at junction 6 and go west into Horwich. Go past the Aldi on Chorley New Road, then take the fork between the two pillars on the right onto Lever Park Avenue. Follow the road to Great House Barn and Go Ape, then take a right-hand turn to park in Rivington Hall Barn.

ANOTHER PLACE, CROSBY

From a distance, it’s impossible to distinguish the 100 cast iron figures that make up Antony Gormley’s Another Place on Crosby beach from real people. Once your eyes adjust to them and you realise what they are (and that they all look the same and never move), they take on an unsettling beauty. The scale of the artwork is vast, spanning over two miles between Waterloo and Blundellsands. Adding to the disquieting nature of the work, depending on the level of the tide some of the figures can be fully submerged or completely exposed, being revealed and hidden as the sea rises and falls. In a move that some may deem narcissistic but Gormley insists is more egalitarian (we are all the same under our clothes), all the figures are based on his naked body. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the figures have had a mixed reception, with the coastguard being the most vocal. Their main concern was not coming to the aid of a statue but rather visitors being cut off on sand flats as the tides came in.

How to get there: There is parking on the seafront near the Coastguard Office, L23 8TA, or you can take the Merseyrail train to Hall Road and walk to the seafront. The figures stretch from Blundellsands in the north to Waterloo in the south.

ORMSKIRK PARISH CHURCH, ORMSKIRK

Ormskirk Parish Church, along with St Andrew’s Church in Wanborough and St Mary’s Church in Purton (both in Wiltshire), is one of only three churches in England to have both a spire and a tower. However, while the other two have distinctly separate towers and spires, St Peter and St Paul’s Church is uniquely unusual, with its tower and spire appearing to be joined together. There is an apocryphal tale that explains why the church has both, and indeed why the town is called Ormskirk. It is said that Orme, a Viking settler, wanted to build a kirk, or church, in his new settlement. His two sisters (in some stories, his daughters) quarreled over whether it should have a tower or steeple. After a protracted argument, Orme decided he would appease both siblings by building both. While there may have been a Viking called Ormr who settled here, the story about the two sisters is completely fictional.

How to get there: Easily found in the centre of Ormskirk at the junction of Derby Street West and the A570.

Park in Finnegan’s Square car park on Southport Road..

Weird Guide, published by Wild Things Publishing (Image: Wild Things Publishing)