A winter walk in Wycoller

Wycoller is a tiny hamlet set in the deep wooded valley of Wycoller Beck in Lancashire and was a place well known to the Brontë sisters, in fact Charlotte used Wycoller Hall as the model for Ferndean Manor in her novel, Jane Eyre.

A short section of vaccary wall, dating back to the Middle Ages when the land was used farm cattle by the monks of one of the powerful monasteries in North Yorkshire.

Wycoller Hall from the old packhorse bridge. The building has been in ruins for over 100 years and its stone has been both sold and taken for use in other local buildings. It is now preserved as part of Wycoller Country Park.

I think this one actually works better in black & white.

The ford across Wycoller Beck. The setts are very slippery so I’ve never actually walked across.

The old Packhorse Bridge is believed to date back to the 15th century. In 1970, it featured in the film The Railway Children, when Jenny Agutter was sitting in the middle of it, talking to the doctor, who had stopped his horse and buggy in the middle of the ford.

Clam Bridge is even older than the Packhorse Bridge and may even date back to the Bronze Age.

It looks very precarious but the wear along the middle shows it’s been there for a very long time. There was no chance of getting across this ford with the water flowing so quickly.

Being in a deep, dark hollow, Wycoller is cool and damp, making it an ideal place for moss to grow on everything. In low light, the moss appears to glow a vivid acid green.