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This video shows the Pendle Sculpture Trail, which is a 4.5km long walk, taking about 1 hour 15 minutes. Allow yourself extra time to explore the trail and enjoy the many sculptures. The entire walk has been filmed in 4K, allowing walkers to see the entire route, including where to park, eat, and drink.
Today's walk is the Pendle Sculpture Trail walk from the car park in Barley in the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire. Before we start, let's have a look at where we're walking today. We had away from Barley on the road to the Pendle Sculpture Trail and the Black Moss Reservoirs. Lower Black Moss Reservoir affords wonderful views across the water over to Pendle Hill.
Upon reaching Upper Black Moss reservoir, we turned right away from it to head up into the sculpture trail itself. There are a variety of sculptures within the Pendle Sculpture Trail, including the Magic chair, the Witchfinder, the Ceramic Column, the Black Dog, and the Chained Witches, amongst many others.
We head back to Barley along the outward route, passing by Upper and Lower Black Moss reservoirs. Stay watching until the end so you can see where to eat and drink after the walk. Back in the Barley car park, head past the toilets, where there is an information board telling you about Barley and the local area.
Head on past the Cabin Cafe, then head away from the car park along the gravel path. Cross over the footbridge where you can see the Pendle Inn and Pendle Hill directly ahead on the horizon. The Pendle Sculpture Trail we're going to look at today is set in the picturesque woodland setting of Aitken Wood. Pendle itself is situated in the Forest of Bowland on the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales and is an area of outstanding natural beauty. Then head along the gravel path and then the pavement to pass by the Barley Mow pub.
Keep on along the road to pass the Barley Methodist Church, shortly after which, at a road junction, we turn right following the Blacko sign. Along the private road, there are also signs for the Black Moss reservoirs and for the Pendle Sculpture Trail. The road is private, so please park back in the village. Head along the walled lane.
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After an initial climb, the lane flattens. Over to the left, you can see the dam at Lower Black Moss reservoir with Pendle Hill in the distance. Over to the right, you can see Aitken Wood, in which is the Pendle Sculpture Trail.
Over to the left is Lower Black Moss reservoir. It was completed in 1903, 41 feet deep and can hold 65 million gallons. It was originally built to provide drinking water to Nelson and Barley. Continue now along the lane. Pendle Hill, which can be seen over the reservoir, is 557 meters high. And it was on Pendle Hill in 1652 that George Fox had a vision of 'great people to be gathered' waiting for him, which inspired the beginning of the Quaker movement.
George Fox aside, most people, when they are up there, are just happy they've managed to climb it. Continuing on, you soon reach a T-junction where, straight over the gate, you can see the dam for the Upper Black Moss reservoir.
We turn right here to head slightly uphill to quickly reach and then pass through the wooden gate. A few yards further on, the entrance to the Pendle Sculpture Trail is reached on the right-hand side. Over to the left is Upper Black Moss reservoir, which was completed in 1894, is 31 feet deep and can hold 45 million gallons.
Again, it was originally built to provide drinking water to Nelson. We head away from the reservoir now to pass through the gate into Aitken Wood, in which is the Pendle Sculpture Trail. The initial gravel path heading up to the trail is reasonably steep for about 300 meters.
If you need a little rest on the way up, there are a couple of benches along the way that I'm guessing originally had a good view before the trees grew. The Pendle Sculpture Trail from here is sort of oval-shaped. We exit it down the track coming in from over on our left. For now, just head straight on.
As the path flattens, this is the real start of the sculpture trail. There is a leaflet available on the Visit Pendle website that sets out where sculptures are, and we'll link to that down in the description below. If you head slightly right, you reach the Magic Chair by Ben Gates. Back up on the main path, just before reaching the edge of Aitken Wood that you could see from the reservoirs below, turn left following the Pendle Sculpture Trail sign.
Immediately on your left, you'll find the Witchfinder by Martin Bednarczuk. The Witchfinder was inspired by Roger Nowell, sheriff of Lancashire, and a local magistrate at the time, who investigated and prosecuted the Pendle Witches in 1612. If you cross over the path and head towards the edge of Aitken Wood again, you reach the Ceramic Column made by Sarah McDade. Sarah also made ceramic plaques commemorating each of the Pendle witches. More on that later.
Walking back to the main path, we arrive at a couple of works by Philippe Handford, the lead artist for the Pendle Sculpture Trail, when it was originally opened in 2012. Philippe used fallen trees to create these two works. This one is called Reconnected 1. And then just a little further down is Reconnected 2. Through a few more trees, you reach the Wishing Widow by Joe Hesketh.
At the time, she also produced a series of paintings entitled 'Pendle Investigation' to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Pendle Witch Trials in 2012. A few yards past the Wishing Widow, you reach another Pendle Sculpture Trail Footpath sign, which we'll return to shortly. Before that, head to the right of it and look up into the trees. There are 16 disks, 15 with dates on and one with the symbol for time, all commemorating local happenings.
2012 and 2018 relate to the sculpture trail itself, being the original opening date and then the second phase. They also include 1652 when George Fox had his vision on Pendle Hill, 1612 Pendle Witches trial and go all the way back to 1324 when a written mention of the name Barley first appeared. We've included the descriptions for all the events in our Walks4all website, the link for which is down in the description below.
Back at the footpath sign, we now follow it. Where shortly over on the right-hand side, we reach the Black Dog by Victoria Morris and Lee Nicholson. The people behind Incredible Creations.
If you look closely at many of the works there, you will find information signs telling you more about what the sculpture depicts. Demonic black dogs were familiar in English folklore and featured in the Pendle Witches trial, where Alison Device, one of the accused, said she carried out the curse with the help of a black dog.
Just a little further along the trail, if you look up, you'll see the Three Bats in Flight by Steve Blaylock.
A few yards further on, over to the right, you can see the Life Circle, another creation by Philippe Hangford. Back across the path again, you need to look up for this one, which is the Spider on Web, another creation by Steve Blaylock. The gap ahead in the wall is where we will pass through shortly, but before that, we'll visit the Dryad, another from Victoria Morris and Lee Nicholson.
A Dryad in Greek mythology was a peaceful living nymph or spirit that lived in trees and took the form of a beautiful young woman. It is said that they are tied to the forest or wood they lived in, and if they die, the forest will also die with them. Or if the forest is destroyed, the Dryad will fade away and die. Head back to, and pass through the hole in the wall.
Follow the next Pendle Sculpture Trail sign, but just after this one, look up to see the Owl, another work by Steve Blaylock. Heading along the path, you'll glimpse another mythical creature over to the right. Before that, though, we pass another of the ceramic plaques I mentioned earlier. The ten plaques are sited around the trail and represent the ten witches. The online sculpture trail leaflet, linked in the description below, gives you clues as to which witch is which.
Just past the plaque is the mythical unicorn, another Victoria Morrison and Lee Nicholson creation. The Unicorn is generally depicted as a pony with a single white horn that has mystical powers.
There is another quiz in the Pendle Sculpture Trail online leaflet, and the mythical exhibits have clues next to them for the answers. It's the start of March today, but if you come here in spring or in summer, the woods are filled with more wonderful birdsong. As the path bends around to the left, there is another one of the ceramic plaques.
Then the last sculpture on the trail is Chained Witches by Peter Naylor. In 2010, Peter won the Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture, the UK's most prestigious prize for public sculpture for his memorial to the 158 Squadron. The Marsh Award has been won in the past by the likes of Antony Gormley. If I had to pick one, I think this is my favourite and I think it's apt that they can look across to Pendle Hill in the direction of Lancaster, where they eventually met their untimely death. From the Chained Witches, we just continue down the track. On meeting the junction we were at earlier, we just head around to the right and continue downhill.
This was the majority of the sculptures, but there are a few more that I'll leave you to explore. Just before we leave the sculpture trail, unfortunately, I've noticed a few sculptures are no longer there. Sadly, from what I've read online down to vandalism and theft. I did record some video a few years ago, and the ones that appear to have disappeared are the Quaker Tree by Philippe Handford and the Boggart by Victoria Morris and Lee Nicholson. Back at Upper Black Moss reservoir, we turn left now to head back along the outward path. Pass through the gates, then at the T-junction head back around to the left to pass back by Lower Black Moss reservoir.
If you have any thoughts about this walk that you'd like to share with us, or find any issues with any of the footpaths used, please share that with us in the comments below. Before we head back into Barley, there's just time for one last look around.
It's not been a complicated walk today, but on our website, the route of today's Pendle Sculpture Trail Walk is set out on an Ordnance Survey map along with a GPS download for your phone or GPS device. The link to our Walks4all website is down in the description below.
Upon meeting the road, turn left, where you'll soon arrive at the first of the places to eat and drink after the walk, The Barley Mow. The Barley Mow pub is dog friendly, has a range of different menus and also serves breakfast.
It has a varied drinks menu and generally has three cask ales on the bar, so I tried a Pride of Pendle, just a shandy - I was driving and then enjoyed the outside seating that gave a view back across to Pendle Hill. Just a few yards further on, across the road, is the dog-friendly Pendle Inn. You can eat and drink in the Pendle Inn, and around the back there is a conservatory with some additional room.
Out at the front when the weather's fine and there's plenty of beer tables, or you can maybe pop inside, and on the cooler days, maybe just sit next to the fire. At the end of the walk, it would be remiss not to try a pint, so I ordered a Pride of Pendle brewed by the Moorhouse's Brewery, albeit served in a Thwaites Glass.
Pendle Inn is a Thwaites pub now with a range of Thwaites ales, but they do have local guest ales available as well. The observant amongst you may have noticed this drink footage was from an earlier walk - I wasn't driving then. So that's the Pendle Inn and the Barley Mow - the choice is yours. Back out on the road, pass again down the side of the children's play area, then head back over the footbridge next to it.
There is another information sign to then walk back along the gravel path back to the car park. In the car park. There is also the Cabin Cafe that serves alcohol, teas, coffees and cakes, amongst other things.
Just before ending today's walk, we've put together a short fly-through created using the Ordnance Survey app, the link for which is in the description below, to show you where you've been and give the area a little more perspective. We headed out of the car park along the gravel track to head over the footbridge past the Pendle Inn and Barley Mow to then turn right out along Barley Lane, following this lane up along past Lower Black Moss reservoir.
You can see Aitken Wood to the right, and then when we reached Upper Black Moss Reservoir, we turned right up into the wood and did a bit of a circle of the wood, looking at all the sculptures before heading back down and then retracing our outward path back into Barley. That ends our walk for today.
In the transcript of the video, when any mention is made of the 'description below', it refers to the description shown beneath the video on YouTube. If you wish to access any of that information, click 'watch on YouTube' on the video above, and the description will be there, on YouTube, just below the video.
