The Pendle Heritage centre, some history about it, and why you need to come and visit it…

With my upcoming elfin alchemy pop-up exhibition at the Pendle Heritage centre this Halloween, I thought I’d share with you some info about this fascinating place and maybe entice you to visit me whilst I’m there.

But not to worry if you can’t pop by at the end of October, it’s such a lovely heritage centre with its unique history and character to visit at any time of year, as there’s a small selection of my elfin alchemy jewellery – symbolic wearable art made with wire, crystals, and glass – on display in the gift shop.

The Pendle Heritage centre incorporates a museum, walled garden, medieval cruck barn, gift shop, and café. The locally made arts and crafts in the gift shop, garden plants, and café help support the Heritage centre, so if you buy something here it’s a win-win, as you get something beautiful or something tasty to eat whilst supporting a good cause.

Pendle Heritage Centre was originally an old small medieval farmstead, called ‘Park Hill’ and is one of the oldest buildings in the area. In the mid-1970s the farmstead was saved from demolition and rescued by a conservation group led by Mr. John Miller, they set up a building preservation trust, now the heritage trust for the North West, and created the Pendle Heritage centre in 1977.

The aims of the Heritage Trust, a registered charity, are to restore and find appropriate new uses for buildings at risk in the North West.  Quoting the trust website: “What is a heritage centre? A heritage centre presents historical and cultural information about a place and its people in a ‘hands-on’ informal way. Pendle Heritage Centre looks at the life, history, and heritage of the places around Pendle Hill.”

In the Heritage Centre Museum you can learn all sorts:

• See and learn how the 15^th Century timber framed farmhouse was built and added to over the years to make it the building we see today
• See the kitchen in-situ
• Discover more about the families who lived in the farmhouse and the history of the surrounding area and look at some historical maps and documents
• See some of the carved stonework from the local abbeys
• Learn about the Pendle witches and their trial

It’s well worth taking some time to look around, read the info, and learn about these interesting times in our history, a world away from us today in the modern age. 

I hope these snippets about it, have intrigued you to learn more and come along for a visit. If you need more visitor info, take a look at the Pendle Heritage Centre website: www.pendleheritage.co.uk

A few comments by visitors to the museum:

“Good historical and varied information” a visitor from Fife, Scotland
“Very glad we came here” a visitor from Staffordshire
“Excellently explained, loved the story about the witches, sad tale” a visitor from Blackpool

In my next post, I share a bit more about the Pendle witches display at the Pendle Heritage centre and this turbulent time in our past.

It’ll be lovely to see you if you call by to see me and my elfin alchemy pop-up exhibition this Halloween. I’ll have a magical collection of work on display, from symbolic sculptural wirework jewellery designs to colourful sparkly unique fused glasswork.

Thanks for joining me on my magical creative journey, and reading my blog post about this enchanting place. Wishing you sparkles of light. Sam Rowena, elfin alchemy, Lancashire jewellery artist