Wycoller

This wonderful village is full of history and atmosphere, it takes you back in time. Wycoller (from the Anglo Saxon Wic-Alr, meaning dairy farm among the alder trees) is delightful. This Lancashire village was virtually abandoned, but is now regenerating and becoming a highly popular visiting site.

In the 15th century the Wycoller area was a sheep farming & weaving community, however it was the coming of power looms that led to the village's decline. In the 1890's there were plans to create a reservoir by damming Wycoller Beck, that fortunately never materialized.
'The Friends of Wycoller' were established in 1948 in an effort to preserve Wycoller Hall and the village. In 1973 the village and surrounding countryside became a designated Country Park. Wycoller Hall is thought to be the inspiration for Ferndean Manor in the novel Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte.
The Brontes spent much of their life in Haworth, close to Wycoller. The Hall was built by the Hartley family at the end of the 16th century but by the early 1900's much of the Hall was unoccupied, or left to fall into disuse, until restoration work began in 1950.
Seven bridges cross Wycoller Beck. Three of the most important are :-

• Pack-Horse Bridge, a twin arched bridge which originated almost 800 years ago, and has been reconstructed over the centuries. Sally Owen, mother of Wycoller's last squire has led to the bridge's alternative name - Sally's Bridge.
  
• Clapper Bridge is close to the ruins of Wycoller Hall and may date from the late 18th or early 19thC. Grooves in the bridge from the weavers' clogs were allegedly chiselled flat by a farmer whose daughter was fatally injured on the bridge.
• Clam Bridge is possibly more than 1000 years old and is listed as an Ancient Monument. It is a single slab laid across Wycoller Beck. In 1989 and again in 1990 the bridge was swept away and cracked in two. It was since repaired and replaced in 1991.

Click on above thumbnails for a higher resolution.

Links
Information/History

Click on above thumbnails for a higher resolution.

Search gallery for more photos of Wycoller