2019 was a special year on Pendle Hill for a lot of women from Stoneyholme, but it was all completely ordinary for Pendle Hill…
In January 2019 our project “Heritage Trails” received funding from the Pendle Hill Landscape Partnership’s Pendle Hill Fund, a community grants scheme which aims to support small scale landscape and heritage activity developed in the PHLP area. The Pendle Hill Fund and wider Pendle Hill Landscape Partnership is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
What that meant is that we got to go on six amazing trips over the course of the year, with the help of staff, translators, volunteers and a minibus, and experience the wide variety of landscape and heritage on offer across the Pendle Hill area, across the seasons. For a lot of us, it was the first time we’d ever been to the Pendle Hill area, even after living in the Burnley area for 30, 40 or even 50 years. “I can’t read or speak English and I couldn’t have gone on my own” says Mrs Begum, 75. It wasn’t just language barriers that stopped people accessing this popular countryside area: “I have a lot of responsibilities at home, looking after my children and elderly mother-in-law” says Rida, 42, but “I learnt so much about plants and trees and different things about Pendle Hill – having a translator helped so much!” and “we don’t get to experience this mountainous scenery that is so close by!”.
“When you go on these trips” says Rubia, 38, “you expand your world from just your house!” The important part is connection. Like Zainab, 55, says, “the project made me think about the past and the history of the countryside. It made me feel connected to family members that aren’t around anymore. It made me remember the way we found entertainment connecting to other and the landscape, not a computer screen.”
We will be posting a series on our year on Pendle hill, so maybe you can join in and enjoy your own year on Pendle hill this year, even if, for now, it is just through the computer screen!
Did you go on one of our Heritage Trails trips to the Pendle Hill area? Share it with the PendleHill Landscape Partnership on Facebook @pendlehillproject, Twitter @pendlehilllp or Instagram @pendlehilllp (or like, follow or tag! #PendleHillLP, #PendleHIll, #thankstoyou, #HLFsupported) to let them know that their funding is doing good in the community for community heritage!