Admergill and its boundaries.

[Stanley]

Admergill and its boundaries.
Admergill (SD 850 420) is the name of a hamlet within the valley below the bulking height of Wheat Head – this is where the East Lancashire Civil Parishes of Barley with Wheatley Booth and Brogden in Barnoldswick meet. The valley runs approximately from One Tree Hill, below the Moorcock Inn, on the Blacko to Gisburn Road, and ends at Casterclough where the boundary stream of Claude’s Clough meets Admergill Water. An ancient track ran along the Admergill stream bank, from Admergill itself, through Bell Wood to Bank End Wood and on to the villages of Over Barrowford and Roughlee.
There were two farms, Higher and Lower Admergill, within the hamlet, in 1580 there is written evidence that this area was known as "Admergill-in-Blacko, divided by an ancient ditch from the adjoining area of Blacko-in-Barrowford." Admergill New Hall (Lower Admergill) stands next to the stream of Admergill Water, one of a few remaining buildings in the valley the present Hall was built around 1611. A much earlier building, the ‘Old Hall’ stood next to the New Hall, this was known locally as ‘The Monastery’ but the ruins of this ancient building have recently been demolished. A 19th century photograph of the Old Hall shows what appears to be a 16th century building of three bays. There was originally a simple hall sited tangentially to the stream with the main entrance in the gable. A matching bay was later added and this shared the original doorway, with its pronounced Gothic arched lintel - there was no porch. At a later stage still smaller cross wing was added to the southern side and an outshut was built onto the northern side. By the time the building was demolished it had crumbled to the height of the lower window heads. Both Higher and Lower Admergill houses contain remnants of the Old Hall, stone fireplaces and door-arches have been incorporated into the internal structures.

It is thought that Cistercian monks inhabited the ‘Old Hall,’ this religious movement was founded in Citeaux around 1098. Interestingly an area upon Blacko Hillside is known as Admergill Pasture and one of the field names here is Judde Field. The name Judde, in Early Modern times, was often related to the Christian name of George. It is likely, however, that this area of land would be named in the Medieval period and therefore Judde was the shortened form of Jordan. The 1st Crusade took place in 1095, the 2nd in 1147, the 3rd in 1185, the 4th in 1202, the 5th in 1221, the 6th in 1228 and the 7th in 1244. As a consequence of these protracted incursions by the English nobility and friends, all things related to the Holy Land became fashionable, and therefore desirable. Crusaders and pilgrims returning from their journeys brought souvenirs back, some of which took the form of glass phials containing water from the river Jordan. The Christian name of Jordan became very popular around this time amongst people of a religious background, as it did amongst people of higher status within the community. The link here, between the Admergill field name and the possible ecclesiastic farming operation of the Old Hall, is pure speculation on my behalf but perhaps worthy of consideration for all that! There is also the consideration that Judde has the same derivation as 'judge' as in Judge Fields (an area in the town of Colne) or the name may have related to the fact that a 'field' in this period was an area of common grazing or turbary.
The 1581 Foulridge and White Moor map shows Lower Admergill as containing four separate buildings, built along one side of the stream bank and marked as ‘Admergill Houses.’ A later map of the Admergill estate shows an area named ‘Mill Field’ to the south of the present buildings, the presence of grooved rack-stones within the stone walls around the hall prove that there was once a corn drying operation here. It is tempting to assume that the mill field held a corn mill but across the stream there is a large circular mound in which a number of dressed stones have been unearthed. This mounds has all the physical hallmarks of an early settlement, I hope to look further into this but, at this stage it is possible that the site was a corn-drying kiln and, if this was the case, equally as likely to be the source of the rack stones. In 1801 James Hartley of Admergill was a worsted manufacturer which begs the questions as to whether he worked the mill and what period the mill dated from. Was it built purely as a weaving, or fulling mill or could it have been a converted corn mill? As a matter of interest there is no mention of the Admergill mill within the 16th century Clitheroe Court Rolls, nor is there a mention in later records. The fact that mills were an important source of income to landowners means that they were often mentioned in court and tax returns. The absence of any reference to this mill suggests that it could have been an early building – perhaps as early as the de Lacy or Poitou stewardships in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. During this period the Crown claimed Admergill in a long-running land dispute, it is unlikely that the Crown was desperate to keep an area of moorland but they would definitely value a corn mill for the income it provided. This at least a pointer towards the possible era within which the mill served the area.

An old trackway, still visible on aerial photographs, ran from the corner of Blacko Bar straight down to the mill field, the foundations of the old bridge over Admergill Water, where this track crossed over, are still to be seen. In the Pendle Witch legends Richard Baldwin, a miller, lived at Wheat Head and his daughter was said to have been bewitched by Elizabeth Southerns alias Old Demdike. It is not clear from the contemporary accounts of the witch trials as to which particular Wheathead was being referred to; Baldwin’s farm of Higher Wheathead is on the slope above the Admergill mill site whilst Lower Wheathead is below the site, above Casterclough. Either way I have often thought that Richard Baldwin could very well have worked the Admergill mill, if indeed it was a corn mill, rather than the one that he is generally thought to have worked – the one built in 1598, a mile or so downstream from Wheathead at Roughlee.

A few years ago, whilst exploring the Admergill area, the present owner pointed out a hollow that he had excavated by machine. He had unearthed a number of large stone flagstones from the foundations of this lost building, the site of which was on a circular loop in the stream some way above the hall. I carried out a minor dig on the site with my brother – however I soon had cause to revert to using a spade as he constantly complained that the heavy clay was hurting his head! We found that the building had steps leading down below ground level and large lumps of furnace slag covered the site. This would probably be either a forge for metalworking (smelted bronze waste has been recently found in the area but there could be a number of reasons for this) or a kiln, possibly for pottery manufacture. The fact that the building is situated on what appears to be a man-made bend in the stream shows that the process carried out could have been water driven, or may have required copious amounts of water. Alternatively the siting might be due to a need for a furnace to be sited away from the main settlement buildings.

Further up the valley an old track leads to the top of the hill opposite the Moorcock Inn, near to the top of this track is a mark stone, this is carved with what appears to be a runic symbol. When the bracken grows on the Blacko-facing slope of this hill it shows rectangular shapes, linked by parallel linear lines. Above this, on the hilltop, are a group of stones that, when complete, could very well have been a circle. This area, sited at the head of the Middop and Admergill Valleys, would have been ideally placed for either a permanent or a transient encampment for the British and Saxon people. The old track descends from the hill into Admergill valley but comes to an abrupt halt. Across the bottom end of the track is a large mound, if this is a man-made feature (as it certainly appears) then it was obviously constructed after the trackway. When attempting to date this feature it has to be remembered that the Saxons built round barrows and had a tendency to re-use earlier burial mounds; what may have been a small round barrow covering a Bronze Age interment could become a large mound in later ages.

Up to the 18th century Admergill would be the nearest thing to a clustered community in the local area. Around 30 years ago the owner of Blacko Tower Farm (formerly Stansfield’s House) stated that there had always been a legend amongst local people that nearby Blacko Hill was connected to Admergill by a tunnel. Tunnel legends relating to old sites and buildings are very common, they are usually rooted in a folk memory of some actual connection between one area and a nearby site – the real connection having been lost in time the tunnel story becomes adopted.

During the 16th century Lower Admergill farm had a larger land holding than any local farm, the tenants held isolated lands as far afield as Simonstone and Colne along with the lands around Admergill, Wheat Head and Rimington Moor. Even in the 19th century the farm was shown as having well over 200 acres and employing ten men. In 1802 a number of pennies, 117 in all, dating from the time of Edward 1st (1272-1307) and John Baliol, king of Scotland, were found in the Lower Admergill area.

In later times Admergill would come to be subject to the halmote courts of the Honour of Clitheroe held at Colne, Ightenhill and Higham, and would fall within the ecclesiastical bounds of the parish of Colne. It is unlikely that Admergill was the equivalent of an ecclesiastical demesne or local ‘manorial centre,’ the Cistercians were a self-governing movement and did not hold with the manorial system. The term ‘manor’ is of Norman origin and is not really of relevance within our area of Blackburnshire, there was however a Saxon equivalent in the term of ‘lageman,’ a person who had jurisdiction over the local area.

Shortly before the Norman Conquest a Saxon by the name of Gamel held Barnoldswick. Following the conquest Willam 1st granted the lands to Berengen de Todeni who in turn transferred them to Roger de Poitou who played a key part in the conquest under William 1st. Roger held the Lordships of both Lancaster and Clitheroe.

In his ‘History of Whalley’ Dr. Whitaker states that “There was a strong tendency to secularisation of ecclesiastical property in very early times; a natural consequence of enormous landed endowments which always led either to violent resumptions on the part of the Crown or to a silent transition from patronage to property and from the character of incumbent to that of impropriator”

In the 12th century the Cistercian monks of Kirkstall Abbey held lands in the Honour of Clitheroe, they created a grange at Accrington by means of depopulating the area, this was a polite term for ‘throwing the poor off their lands. This was a highly unpopular act with the local people and, unfortunately, was a common occurrence. In 1258 Edmund de Lacy granted two oxgangs of land in Marsden (Nelson) and the whole of Barnside at Laneshawbridge to Kirkstall Abbey. In 1287 the de Laceys took back the possessions of Kirkstall Abbey within Blackburnshire (apart from Extwistle) in exchange for an annual pension. However Sawley Abbey and Pontefract Priory still retained lands there. The hamlet of Cotes in Barnoldswick was acceded to Sawley Abbey, it is possible that Admergill also came under the wing of this house.

Following the Norman Conquest local written records began to appear, as time progressed the assimilation of information regarding lands and estates was organised on a scale never seen before. This means that there are valuable records relating to the Admergill area through to modern times. To illustrate this Whitaker used records from the Honour of Clitheroe and Whalley Abbey to report a long running land dispute over the Admergill area:

“The boundaries of Pendle Forest, contiguous to those of Barnoldswick, were perambulated by the first Henry de Lacy in person on the day he delivered possession of Barnoldswick to the monks…the coucher book of Abbott Lyndlay (shows that) Henry de Lacy the second had encroached on the property of the Kirkstall monks and his successors in the Honor of Clitheroe seemed disposed to maintain the wrong. This gave rise to a suit between that house and Queen Isabella which produced the following enquiry: The jury find that Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincolnshire, had violently taken away 840 acres of moor and pasture, parcel of the commons of Barnoldswick valued at 35 shillings per annum…it was accordingly restored to the proper owners.”

To clarify this I quote from previous work carried out on the subject by the prominent local historian Stanley Graham: “In 1147 Henry de Lacy granted Barnoldswick to Abbott Alexander of Fountains Abbey to build a monastery there. De lacy made a perambulation in that year before granting the charter and noted that Admergill was part of Barnoldswick. Later court action saw the Crown imply that Admergill was rented from the Crown and therefore de Lacy could not have legally granted it. This dragged on for many years; in 1333/4 Edward 111 was ordered to return the lands to the Abbott of Kirkstall. In 1374 Edward 111 disputed the land again. Richard 11 granted out the Admergill estate in 1395 to be used as a vaccary (farm)– this showed that the Crown now regarded itself as proper owner of the area. By the 16th century Admergill was officially a Royal Manor and Kirkstall Abbey had lost their rights to Admergill.”

It is worth remembering that stewardship of the lands making up the Honour of Clitheroe was as chequered as that of the Honour of Lancaster. It is not surprising that the land dispute over Admergill occurred when it is realised how complex the politics were.

Following his successful conquest of Britain in 1066 William the Conqueror found that he had a problem with his northern subjects. He took his army into the badlands of northern England and laid waste to many areas of Yorkshire and, to a lesser extent, parts of Lancashire. Following this he decided that he needed a capable person to take charge of these areas and appointed the 3rd son of his cousin Roger de Montgomery to the post. Thus in 1071 Roger de Poitou was entrusted with the huge north west estates of lands between the Ribble and Mersey (Lancashire south of the sands) and large holdings in the Craven district of Yorkshire. However, by the year 1086 the King had reclaimed these holdings for the Crown; the reason for this is unclear but was possibly due to a rebellion, or a land exchange. By the 1090s Roger de Poitou again held the Lancashire estates along with the lands north of the sands. In 1102 Roger again lost the estates when he joined with his brothers in a rebellion against Henry 1st. The lands were then kept together as a unit and granted to Henry 1st’s nephew Stephen, Count of Bologne (later to become King Stephen) between 1114 and 1116. In 1138 the Scots army occupied the areas north of the Ribble and Ranulf 11, Earl of Chester, annexed the lands between Ribble and Mersey, eventually holding them legally between 1141 and 1149. The 1153 treaty of Wallingford saw Stephen’s son William de Warrene hold the Lancashire estates until his death in 1159, the Honour reverted to the Crown in 1164. Following the accession of Richard the Lionheart, John (Richard’s brother) was granted the Honour in 1189. The Honour of Lancaster was not exactly the same as the shire of Lancaster; the Honour was a feudal lordship of castles and dues and covered other parts of the country such as Derby, Nottinghamshire and Suffolk.

Under the early rule of Henry 111 the Honour of Lancaster was run by a sheriff on behalf of the Crown; after his restoration in 1266 Henry bestowed the Honour of Lancaster, and all the royal demesne of Lancashire, upon his son Edmund - this effectively established the Duchy of Lancaster. Edmund died in 1296 and his son Thomas became the 2nd Earl of Lancaster, he married Alice de Lacy, the daughter and heir of Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln. On the death of Henry de Lacy in 1310 at Lincolns Inn, Thomas succeeded to the earldoms of Pontefract, Bolingbroke, Clitheroe and Halton.

Forty years later Henry, the 4th Earl of Lancaster, was made up into a Duke and Edward 111 created the County Palatine of Lancaster. This was largely because of Lancashire’s strategic position in the war against the Scots who had carried out many violent incursions into our area in 1316 and 1322. Palatine powers only ran within the county boundaries, the King’s writ did not take effect within the palatine although he had the final say within the Duke’s court. The King’s writ was effective elsewhere within the Duchy of Lancaster (outside the palatine bounds), this meant that the Crown had jurisdiction over the Admergill area. Henry 1V, from 1399, kept his Lancastrian patrimony separate from his Crown lands. The Queen is, of course, the present Duke of Lancaster.

Ilbert de Lacy had aquired the Honour of Clitheroe by 1102, having been placed as a reliable ‘overlooker in the North’ by Roger de Poitou, and the family retained it for over a century until, as we have seen, the estates passed into the Duchy of Lancaster. In the Domesday survey of 1085 it is stated that the vill of Barnoldswick fell within the castellate of Roger the Poitevin, this could have referred to a castle in Yorkshire or, equally, to the castle at Clitheroe. By and large however it was the de Lacy family who controlled our local area.

The complex nature of post-Norman estate holdings was obviously complex. As we have seen, Henry de Lacy granted Barnoldswick to the Cistercian monks in 1147; unfortunately he made the mistake (deliberately?) of including the 840 acres of Admergill within the grant. A dozen monks and a few lay brothers arrived at Barnoldswick, following the charter, with the intent of founding a monastery. They demolished the existing Saxon church, much to the chagrin of the local people, grumbled about the weather for a few years then cleared off to set up a new abbey at Kirkstall. Following the departure of the monks Barnoldswick remained in the hands of Kirkstall Abbey in the form of a grange. A problem later arose in the monks’ tenancy of Barnoldswick as it became apparent that Henry de Lacy didn’t actually own the area – he held it from the Earl of Norfolk but had omitted to pay the rent. Eventually Henry 11 remitted the rent and bestowed Barnoldswick fully to Kirkstall.

The township of Barnoldswick included four hamlets; two at Marton, and others at Cotes and Elwynthorpe. There were also two other ‘small’ hamlets at Bracewell and Brogden. As they did at their Accrington grange the Cistercians depopulated the area of Brogden, we do not know how many small settlements disappeared from the area at this time. It is entirely possible that Admergill was retained as a farmstead in order to run the southern area of the grange, given the long distance between the northern and southern boundaries of Barnoldswick outlying farms would have been necessary to manage the lands. Lay brothers, possibly under the supervision of a monk, would run the grange farms. In 1395 Admergill was let as a vaccary by the King to a Lancashire landowner – this may have been the end of any Cistercian involvement in the farm although it would be necessary to ascertain who the tenants were for the next two centuries to substantiate this. Somewhere here there may be a fitting explanation for the fact that Admergill Old Hall was known as The Monastery.

On July 9th 1688 Thomas Parker of Alkincotes wrote to Roger Kenyon:
"The inhabitants of Colne Parish design to move the Justices, at the Sessions at Preston, for an order to cause the inhabitants of Admergill to contribute towards the relief of their poor; by what law or rule, the writer does not understand. They neither being in the same parish or county." Parker asks for Kenyon's favourable assistance to the inhabitants of Admergill. In the late 18th century Barnoldswick Assessment there is a note concerning the assessment and collection of taxes of the hamlet of Admergill in the Constabulary of Barnoldswick but in the parish of Colne. These records show that the notaries of the 17th and 18th centuries had difficulty in placing the area of Admergill within a specific region of jurisdiction.

The fact that Admergill fell within the parish of Colne Parish Church and Whalley Abbey (the diocese of Chester) appears to be a consequence of the Admergill lands being part of the Honour of Clitheroe. We know that Admergill was within the parish of Brogden and was held by the Cistercians. Without having seen relevant records of this I can only think that the accession of Admergill to the parish of Colne was a late occurrence, perhaps around the 14 th century – certainly by the early 16th century the Colne Church records show Admergill to be firmly under its wing. Adjoining Admergill land on Blacko Hillside is the Malkin Tower Farm, by the year 1500 this was a rectory farm providing the living for the incumbent of Colne Parish Church. The Cistercians were a jealous movement in as much as they did not countenance interaction between themselves and other religious orders. It is unlikely then that they would ‘share’ the rights of the Admergill estate with the Abbey of Whalley.

There is one outstanding factor here which suggests to me that Admergill came decidedly under the power of the Cistercian tenants of Barnoldswick. That is the control of the water supply to the hamlet, the mill would need a constant, reliable flow of water to carry out any reasonable amount of work. I have mentioned the Black Dyke previously; this was more than a substantial British, or Saxon, boundary ditch – it also carried drainage water from the Blacko Hill and the water-shed of the adjoining White Moor. Aerial photographs show a number of gulleys and ditches connecting the streams on White Moor with the Black Dyke. There are also a number of cloughs and ditches connecting the Black Dyke with Admergill Water down in the valley bottom. Any one of these ditches could be used to direct water to any point of the Admergill estate, east of the main stream, or could simply be used to swell the stream for driving the mill. The actual stream of Admergill Water rises on nearby Greystone Moor, the Black Dyke also begins at this point, this meant that all the water flow down to Admergill was controlled from the lands within the control of the tenants of Barnoldswick.

In the 14th century there were around 50 vills and hamlets within Blackburnshire, many of these have either completely disappeared (Birtwistle and Stocks)or have been reduced to a few houses or a farm. A common reason for this was the centralisation of agriculture under expanding farmsteads and large estates, effects of disease and crop failure, depopulation by the Cistercians and (later) the migration to industrial towns such as Colne.
It would appear that by the time of the dissolution in the 16th century Admergill was being farmed by tenants within the auspices of the Clitheroe Lordship. So there we have it; Admergill was a hamlet within Brogden, within the Constabulary of Barnoldswick and ecclesiastically within Colne. The place can still be described as a hamlet, the original extent of the estate lands ran to 840 acres comprising a fascinating parcel squeezed between the parish of Colne, the villages of Over-Barrowford, Blacko and Roughlee and the larger areas of Pendle Forest, Rimington Moor, Middop, Wheat Head, Burn Moor and the Craven district of Yorkshire.

The boundaries of the Admergill estate are ancient and obvious, large extant ditches, dykes and the pikelaw of Jackson Slack Hill (Alaineseat) define the area, when plotted on the map these boundaries show that this area must have been incorporated into Barnoldswick at a relatively late date and for a specific reason. The natural border of the parish of Brogden runs contiguously with that of Middop and then with that of Admergill (the Black Dyke). The present civil parish of Brogden, however, intrudes into the natural area of Wheatley Booth by crossing the major earthwork of the Black Dyke. I have no hesitation in suggesting that this dyke was intended by its constructors to be a major statement, dependant upon when the dyke was constructed it would have been either an inter-tribal boundary, a marker between kingdoms or a Saxon estate demarcation. The 840-acre spit of land comprising Admergill was welded to the eastern area of Barnoldswick where it does not seem to have belonged, further to this the modern map shows that the Admergill area is within the civil parish of Brogden detached.

The fact that the Crown took the trouble to dispute the ownership of this neck of the woods in the 14th centuy gives credence to the idea that Admergill had been separate from Barnoldswick township within the early Norman period. As I have already postulated, the Crown could have coveted the hamlet, with its adjoining lands, so as to benefit from the mill; the illegal granting of Admergill to the Cistercians possibly fixed the area within Brogden permanently (on paper at least). The early Norman records of the land holdings would show that the perceived parish boundary had been moved and later generations would accept this. The land dispute rumbled along for centuries and so the boundaries were immutable by the time that the issue was finally settled. Admergill is, to all intents and purposes, a hamlet within Blacko, it does not relate to the town of Barnoldswick, nor the parish of Brogden, in any physical context other than a shared boundary. I am convinced that this was the case within the early English period, right up to the Norman hegemony.

From early times the strategic significance of Admergill, at the head of the watershed valley routes from east and west, would have been obvious to local inhabitants and, therefore, I have no hesitation in suggesting (albeit without archaeological proof) that we have here a well preserved example of settlement, the continuity of which reaches back towards the Bronze Age.

Aedmawr Gill?
The Celtic languages of the British continued to be used up to the coming of the Saxon peoples whose numbers were made up of Jutes, Angles, Southern Danes and natives of Jutland. The early Indo-European culture spread across Europe and with it came the beginnings of a variety of modern languages. The Germanic language of the Saxons had its roots in the Elbe River region around 3000 years ago, apart from a distant common origin the Celtic and Germanic languages have very little in common. The ‘Old English’ language of the Saxons is ascribed roughly to the period between AD 500 up to the Norman Conquest, this language did not assimilate the Celtic language. This is possibly because of a racial/ethnic arrogance by the Saxons or perhaps the native Britons were more adept at learning English than the Anglo-Saxons were at learning the indigenous Celtic. The Old English language gave way to Middle English at the end of the 11th century and Modern English took centre stage around AD 1500.

The Saxon invaders pushed the Celtic speaking peoples out of what is now England into Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Ireland, the only one of these regions not to have an extant Celtic language today is Cornwall (the last native speaker died in 1777). This gradual cut-off in the use of Celtic descriptions for our landscape provides a useful tool in the use of etymology for dating purposes. Although the majority of place, and topographical names, have been left to us from the Saxon, Scandinavian and Norman eras, we do have a small number of Celtic names that can be readily ascribed to the older Welsh language. This method of dating is certainly not foolproof, the etymology of our native languages is extremely complex, the adoption of known languages within a specific time-frame does allow room for the ‘educated guess’ however.
The geography of our area can be seen as a good reason for our local population to remain insular, the local inhabitants were still largely of an Iron Age culture at the coming of the Saxons and would therefore retain the traditional British descriptions of their environment.

To ascribe a settlement such as Admergill firmly to the early British people is difficult at the best of times and, where etymology is the only evidence, we are largely in the realms of a 'best fit' scenario. ‘My delvings into the origins of the name of Admergill unfortunately fall into the latter category – nevertheless I will have a go!

Firstly, there is a local legend that Admergill means ‘Arthur’s Water’ – the fact that there is a neighbouring area known as Utherstone Wood (SD 855 409) is used to substantiate this (Uther Pendragon being King Athur’s father). Some devotees of the Arthurian Legends have stated that our area has strong links with the fabled King Arthur – both Pendle Hill and Blacko Hill are said to have played a significant role in the laying of the dragon spirit. However, I have been unable to find any reliable clues in the etymology of Admergill to verify an Arthurian connection. Utherstone is the coloquial pronunciation of the name which is actually Uderstone, this possibly derives from the Anglicised Celtic word ‘hudd’ for a person who works within the woods ie; the surname Huddart being ‘a keeper of animals (deer) within the woods.’ To digress, I have wondered if the name ‘hudd’ in this context was applied to the ubiquitous British deity of Robin, thus giving us Robin Hood or ‘Robin within the woods’ – this would be synonymous with the pagan ideology of the earth-spirit of ‘The Green Man,’ and 'Robin Goodfellow.' Rightly, or wrongly, I do not hitch my waggon to the theory that assigns the meaning of ‘Arthur’ to the Admergill area.

A more viable explanation of the name, probably the most viable to many people, is simply ‘Eadmer’s Gill’ where Eadmer would be the Saxon head of the settlement. Alternatively we could have Ead Mere Gill where ‘mere’ is either the Anglicised ‘mercle’ meaning ‘boundary – possibly a stream boundary’; the later connotation of ‘mere’ describing a water-related area; the Celtic ‘mer’ meaning to ‘rub away or do harm’ or the Old English ‘mare/maere’ (from where we get our ‘nightmare’) meaning ‘goblin’ . The naming of a settlement, or topographical feature, after the Saxon occupier was common practise (unlike the Normans who took the name of an area and applied it to themselves). There are many precedents for this in our area, a couple of these being Elfwin-thorpe (a lost hamlet in Barnoldswick), Eller’s – slack (Elslack), Ele’s-sagh (Elle's-shaw (wood), now Sand Hole at Foulridge), Hamel’s-don Hill (Hameldon Hill at Hapton), Barnulf’s-wick (Barnoldswick) and Pada's-ham (Padiham).

In the west of Lancashire, near Garstang, there is a place called Bleasdale (SD 570 450), nearby stands a stone circle dating approximately to 1800 BC, the circle is situated on an area of land known as Admarsh. The church at Bleasdale is dedicated to Saint Eadmer, a Dark Ages saint who does not appear in the Church’s later official ‘Saints List.’ This is possibly because Eadmer would be canonised before close scrutiny became the norm in later times. It would appear that the words Eadmer and Admarsh both have a common derivation from the Celtic ‘Aedmawr.’ In their book “Lives of the British Saints: Part One” Gould and Fisher state that Aedmawr originates in the Old Irish word ‘oed’ which became ‘aedh, aodh and haodh.’ These names appear to relate to the Brythonic Celt ‘udd’ and the Latin ‘dominus’ thus giving the meaning of ‘Great Master’ to Aedmawr.

It would appear that there was a Welsh Prince named Aedd Mawr who controlled certain British lands sometime in the Early Medieval period. I have read that an Aedd Mawr was the founder of the modern Druid movement – I have also read that the Druids had no singular founder! Just above the hamlet of Admergill is a deep, tree filled clough known as Wiccan Clough, it has been suggested by local people that this refers to the ‘White’ or ‘Old’ religion and must have had a Druidic connection. The only suggestion I can offer here is that a local dispute between landowners in 1560 ended in the court ordering one of the protagonists to ‘…remove the wicken that he has wrongly planted’ the wicken being a small plantation of willow trees on the Holme at the Water Meetings. I have also seen a 19th century record where a hedgerow is referred to as ‘the wicken.’ The ‘clough of trees’ would at least seem to offer a viable explanation for the clough carrying the Wiccan name. It would be no surprise if this context of the word ‘wicken’ is related to the term ‘wicker-work’ used to describe woven willow items.

Further to the suggestion that Admergill possibly derives from the early Aedmawr it is worth mentioning that on the land of nearby Malkin Tower Farm is a very large hollow feature known as both Haynslack and Mawkin Hole (SD 866 424). These two terms appear to eminate from different periods within our history although they both exactly describe the topography of the site. The hollow is funnel-shaped with a narrow mouth, it is situated hard up against the ancient Lancashire/Yorkshire County boundary along which the Black Dyke stream flows. In the bottom of this hollow, at the northern end, is a natural spring, this has been walled around at some point in the past. The site falls within the very eastern-most tip of the Forest of Pendle. The Haynslack name has two derivations; the first is from the Saxon where ‘haie’ means ‘a hedged place.’ The word ‘slack’ is commonly used in our area for a description of ‘a hollow – especially on a hillside.’

Aerial photography shows that the outer lip of the large hollow has been ‘thrown-up,’ in other words it had a man-made banking around the rim. This could very well have had a wooden pale fence surmounting it, running around the perimeter, and thus providing an excellent enclosed area in which to hold animals. The fencing could have been carried into the Norman period when the forest was a deer hunting ground, it was common practise to provide enclosed areas within the forest, with gaps (or leaps) in the fencing to allow deer to enter the enclosure but not escape. Enclosures for holding livestock were also used from the Neolithic period and this hollow feature, ideal for the purpose, would have had a long continuity of use.

The other ‘hay’ or ‘heyn’ connotation is from the Scandinavian ‘heyne’ meaning ‘a body of fresh water.’ This is also interesting as the funnel shape of the hollow would easily hold a large amount of water, a small dam across the mouth would enable the stream within the hollow to fill it to at least a few feet in depth. This would form a shallow lake with enough depth to act as (say) a fishery. This hollow is near to Malkin Tower Farm, this was once the rectory farm of Colne Parish Church, it was common practise for ecclesiastic houses to have a fishery in order to boost their food supply. As a matter of passing interest at this point, it is worth mentioning a possible origin of the name Malkin - Maelecan is a double diminutive of a Celtic word with the meaning of ‘shaven one’ suggested to commonly apply to a monk. Malkin was an ecclesiastic settlement from at least the 15th century, to qualify for a Celtic name it must have been either a British ecclesiastical site or the Saxons assimilated the name into their own language and it passed into later Middle English.

The alternative name given to the hollow feature of Mawkin Hole is the old local name given to the site and is shown as such on a Malkin Tower Farm deed. The name of Maw is difficult to pin down within this context as it had a Celtic origin but became assimilated into the later English languages. Mawr is a common word in Welsh and is often associated with topographical features such as hills (Bryn Mawr), here it means ‘great.’ By the time of the Saxons Maw had replaced the Old English word ‘maga’ which had the meaning of ‘stomach or open mouth’ – figuratively this gave a description of ‘yawning chasm,’ an extremely apt name for our hollow. Moving into the Middle English we have an explanation for the term Maw-kin in ‘gaping-like’ and Hole meant just that, hence we have the accurate topographical description of ‘Gaping Hole.’ There is also the temptation here to suggest that the ‘kin’ could be ‘king’ giving ‘Maw-King,’ as we have the possibility of a Welsh Prince at Admergill this is worth a fleeting thought, it appears to be rather fanciful, however.

In the early 1400s a popular card game, known as Maw, was introduced into England from Ireland, I have no idea why the game was so named. It is very unlikely that we have in this use of the word Maw a fitting reason for the long-puzzled over origins of the name 'Malkin Tower' – the fabled central site in relation to the famous Pendle Witch Trials of 1612; I intend to cover the whole of this subject, in detail, in a separate piece.

It is perhaps of interest to note that the settlement of Admergill is the only one to carry this name in the whole of our islands, the Saint Eadmer and Admarsh sites at Bleasdale are the closest in name and are not very far in distance to the west of Admergill. It is possible, according to the etymology at least, that Admergill shares a commonality with the Bleasdale site.

Admergill may also share the same name as Utherstone Woods. This would not surprise me in the slightest, Utherstone is a short walk down the valley and, with the Water Meetings earthworks below, Ring Stone Hill sitting adjacently and the number of Roman coins found here, the two sites must have shared a common history. In the valley between the two sites is the ancient camp of Bell Wood at Casterclough (SD 850 419). I do not know the date of this camp, its present name suggests 45 to 300 AD although this shows only the date of its last being used. It is likely that Water Meetings, Casterclough and Admergill would be occupied over a common period and it is unthinkable that there was no interaction between them. It would be satisfying to see proof that the three sites are connected and that Admergill was actually inhabited by a Celtic noble of very high status - and was therefore an important area within our history.

It may be worth mentioning that the Gaelic word Aidmheil means ‘faith or religion’ and another Gaelic word (of the same root) Admhail means ‘acknowledgement.’

Boundaries
In most of the preceeding observations boundaries have figured prominently. Their importance throughout history cannot be overestimated; house, settlement and Kingdom required a definitive boundary, one so obvious within the landscape that it would make the statement to outsiders “thus far and no further!” Back into the mists of time the elders of a community or settlement would define and oversee the construction of their ditches, dykes, hedgerows, walls, mark stones and fences. Land that may have been hard fought for needed to be retained, new settlements needed to be bounded in order to make a statement to possible interlopers.

When a settlement had been occupied for a number of years its boundaries would have been fixed, it was then necessary to maintain these features, ditches had to be kept clear, hedgerows laid, stream courses managed and mark stones monitored for any signs of interference. It was vital that future generations of the community were aware of the history and extent of their settlement boundaries, this necessity gave rise to the ancient tradition known as ‘beating the bounds.’ This is where the village elders would take the villagers, including the youngsters, on a tour of the settlement limits. The head-man would carry a gaily decorated staff and tap on the mark stones with it; this would later become the village Maypole. This annual outing, carried out on a certain day of each year, would ensure that the community-owned land boundaries were known to each following generation.
Another variation on this tradition came to have a specific role in the exchange of specific parcels of land, as later cultures took precedent the ownership of land passed more into the hands of the individual, as opposed to the community as a whole. Settlement boundaries were still perambulated as in ‘beating the bounds’ but land appropriation also needed to be fixed – this was done by a procession around the land in question. Again, local people of a high status would accompany the new landowner and vendor around the boundary in question and a narrative analogue would be used. This took the form of a spoken deed, this became a form of property charter, henceforth an annual procession around the land established a right of tenure. The final words of the deed were “and by performing this service we hold our lands.” Remnants of these deeds can be seen even in the 19th century where written deeds contained the phrase “and by a rod out of court came…….” Where the rod was a staff upon which a testament was sworn, hailing back to the origin of the staff used in the boundary procession.

Many myths have grown from this form of oral deed making, they usually take the form of a large landowner granting lands to the underprivileged. An example of this relates to the Royal Forest of Knaresborough; John of Gaunt grants land to a cripple named Havera by quoting the following:
“I, John o’ Gaunt
Do give and do grant
To thee Havera
As much of my ground
As thou canst hop round
In a long summer’s day
Havera selected St. Barnaby day, June 11th, and began to hop around the land at sunrise. As the sun vanished at the end of the day he had almost made a complete circuit, he threw his crutch to land on his starting point and was therefore awarded the land – this led to that part of the forest becoming known as Havera Park.

A similar story relates to West Witton in Yorkshire; on St. Bartholomew’s an effigy is made by the young people and this is carried, or rather dragged, up and down the village whilst they shout:
In Penhill crags He broke his rags
At Hunter’s thorn He blew his horn
At Capplebank Stee He broke his knee
At Briskill beck He broke his neck
At Wadham’s end He could not fend
At Briskill end He made his end
This suggests a procession of sorts around place names along the local boundary.

Other cultures employed the tradition of encircling their land or property, the Egyptian Pharoahs walked around a fortified city as part of their coronation ceremony. Indian rajputs would circumambulate a temple during its consecration; also Thai and African kings made the circuit of their palace at their enthronement. Hittite and Malaysian rulers had to travel around their dominions in order to establish a right to them.
Throughout our history five main boundary types were employed, these are political, defensive, estate, parish and farm; within these main categories were less important divisions such as field boundaries. The purpose of the latter was two-fold; firstly a ditch around the perimeter of a field would carry water and therefore act as useful drainage. Secondly the banking thrown up from the excavated soil was reinforced with stones and then a hedge (frequently thorn) was planted on the top, this provided an excellent visible boundary that was also highly stock-proof.

Many of our national tribal boundaries have been identified by the finds of Celtic coinage and also by the written evidence of Roman historians. The actual boundary ditch, or dyke, did not always form the definitive tribal extent as there could be a zone of no man's land up to 20 miles in width. Late Iron Age boundary zones were commonly used to make ritual deposits. These zones were usually river valleys or areas of wetland, these areas have produced important concentrations of flint tools, metalwork and single coins. Numerous finds of this type have been uncovered over the ages from the River Ribble
Iron Age tribal boundaries survived into the Saxon period and, in some cases, form the present county boundaries, most of our parish boundaries were established by the 11th century AD when many tribal frontiers were incorporated into local administrative boundaries. The Romans kept many tribal boundaries to mark their 'civitates,' these formed the main units of Roman local government. Following the collapse of Roman rule in the early 5th century AD many earlier Celtic territories in the north and west reasserted their independence, this ensured a good continuity of boundaries from the iron Age and Early Medieval kingdoms.

Most ecclesiastical parishes were established during the 10th and 11th centuries AD. Late Saxon ecclesiastical parishes very often follow boundaries of Roman and pre-Roman times but these are difficult to prove due to the lack of written evidence during the Early Medieval period. In some areas Roman villas have been found next to the parish church and manor house within settlements. Anglo-Saxon land and ecclesiastical charters detail estate boundaries from the 7th century, many hundreds were translated into English and show grants of land from the king to individuals or monastic establishments.

Saxon Medieval estate boundaries were marked by a two-fold ditch - this was hollow way formed by a double ditch several feet in width and several feet below the modern surface with high banks. These ditches were very often back-filled at a later date and incorporated into the field, this means that a parish boundary may run along the line of a single hedgerow. Very often this hedgerow will run across country for miles with other hedges run up to it, but never across it. Such hedgerows invariably comprise massive earthen banks which support a number of different tree species, these can be used in a formula to ascertain the boundary age.

Saxon estates formed the basis of later ecclesiastical parishes and often share a considerable length of common boundary with them, these were prominent natural, or man-made- features. Where a later parish appears to be out of context in relation to its siting it is advisable to employ the use of a tithe map, rather than accept present day civil parish boundaries as these are later political limits. Admergill is a case in point here, the civil parish boundary does not appear to fit the estate and forest boundaries.

Identifying Saxon and Norman farms can be done only where they are a single unit working a clearly defined block of land, this applies to the Admergill site. On open field systems around ancient nucleated villages the lord's plough strips were generally on the best land but were often intermixed with those of the local villagers. The demesne can be identified as this was the farm owned by the Lord of the Manor and was commonly the largest, richest, most fertile, best drained farm within the parish. The demesne farm was usually located near to the parish church and manor house, the farm house often contains remains of Medieval structure - this is not always the case however.

The tithe maps of our area commonly date from around 1843 and show boundaries as they existed at this time. Although some boundaries will have change over time, Saxon and Norman boundaries can be traced with a little detective work. Where a boundary on the tithe map follows a man-made, or natural feature, such as a stream, hedge or lane - and they coincide with the parish boundary - then this would be the original farm boundary. A nice example of this can be seen on the ridgeway (SD 850 405) at the very top of Pasture Lane, this runs from Barrowford to Roughlee. The ancient ridgeway track runs straight for around a mile and a half and is very likely to be a Roman road. It carries on from Ridgealing Farm, across Pasture Lane through the field gate and onwards to Utherstone Wood. The track agger is still apparent as a single ditch and bank, the old raised road construction can be followed for a long way. The banking along here is the parish boundary between Roughlee-in-Wheatley and Barrowford.

Demesne farms on larger manors frequently included deer parks for the provision of sport and meat. Most of these were oval in shape but the local topography would dictate the final layout. The park would be around 30 to 200 acres in extent and contained woodland and pasture surrounded by an earthwork bank. The ditch was on the inside and would be topped by a palisade fence, wall or hedge with occasional leaps to allow for the movement of deer. Most Medieval deer parks were broken up in the 16th and 17th centuries and separated into farms, the boundaries of these frequently include parts of the original park boundary.

Place-names can signify a boundary area, the villages of Rimington and Twiston are an example of this, the Twiston Beck was the old Northumbria/Mercia boundary. 'Rim' appears to have the same root as the Middle English 'renge' where a 'rengeyerde' was the term applied to a temporary farm fence, erected each year by itinerant workers, to keep stock from growing crops. Renge being 'ring/rim/lip' and yerde being 'an enclosed area.' Twist is the Old English 'twixt' meaning boundary and ton is a 'settlement.' Extwistle near Burnley has the same meaning but is more difficult as we have 'twist'' but also the Old English 'wistle' meaning 'the junction between two manors.

Boundary Markers
Of the various methods of boundary construction the most visible ones left to us are mark stones, ditches, banks, walled banks and ancient hedgerows.Mark stones vary in size from pudding stones measuring one foot in height to massive boulders. Above the size of a boulder (say four to five feet) the stone becomes a standing stone. Care needs to be excersised in dating the latter as many 'standing stones' are actually Medieval boundary stones as opposed to the menhirs of the Neolithic Period. These boundary stones are almost always found on moorland and are often incorporated into the stone walls, or stand right next to the walls. Marker stones are more difficult to date as they have been employed as boundary markers since time immemorial. Seeing a large boulder in the middle of a field, it is natural to dismiss the object as a glacial erratic and give it no more thought. Some of these large stones are, in fact, erratics, some have broken away from a rock outcrop, some have been brought into the area for reasons known only to the people who carried this out. Given the fact that man has walked amongst these stones, scattered around the landscape, since the retreat of the last ice-cap, it is my personal opinion that no stone has remained untouched. Many stones were cleared from prospective crop-land whilst the most favoured were used as markers, the purpose for this, in many cases, has being lost within the mists of time. No doubt these stones were used as way-markers to guide the ramblings of Paleolithic Man, as trackway markers to aid the movement of traded copper, tin, flint tools,stone axes and salt within the Neolithic and Iron Age periods The Romans used mark stones, some of these mila stones are still in situ.

As settlement progressed boundaries were constructed, and enforced, but the movement of people across settled land was still necessary, trade routes, inter-tribal tracks and footpaths could not be closed. Of the smaller mark stones I have come across by far the greatest number mark the spot where two footpaths cross or where a footpath crosses a boundary (usually now a style in the wall). A nice example of a path/track mark stone stands on Slipper Hill, half way along the path from the canal up to Colne Edge (SD 876 415). An impressive stone of the large boulder variety stands in the corner of a modern (improvement) field at Prospect, off Lister Well Road (SD 869 448). The most impressive stone of this type can be found behind Narrowgates Mill near the village of Barley (SD 824 403) - this is a huge limestone boulder almost identical to the lakeland boulder found at Higham and moved to the grounds of Towneley Hall as an exibit - this, of course, meant that the purpose for the original siting of this five-foot stone football will never be known.
Medieval records make many references to 'merc stones, marchstans' etc, the town of Nelson was fromerly known as Great and Little Marsden, the name Marsden grew out of the earlier Merclesden. It is possible that this description, applied to valley below the large monolith now known as Walton's Spire. At least it was a large monolith until it suffered at the hands of one Reverend Wroe-Walton! Standing as it does on its own artificial hill this stone is a landmark for many miles around and must rate as the most important structure of its kind in the whole area. As a matter of interest the stone stands exactly between the highest points of Pendle and Boulsworth hills, these being the most important hills in our area. It is interesting to note how close are the words mark, merch and march to the words market,mercet and merchant, especially as Medieval markets were centred around the market stone, this later had a shaft added to become the market cross. There is also a relevance in the fact that the god Merc-ury had the emblem of a standing stone.The use of stones for bargaining is well documented, a 'bargain stone' stands near to Ball House at Foulridge. During the outbreaks of the Black Death traders from outside a village would pay for goods by placing their coins in a pool of vinegar, held in a hollow in the stone, these 'plague stones' are probably the same as bargain stones and market stones.

Owen's "Ancient Laws of Wales" states that " ....there are three other stones, for which an action of theft shall lie against such as shall remove them: maen tervyn (meer stone); maen gwyn gorsedd (white stone of session); maen gobaith ( a guide stone); and his life shall be forfeited whoever shall do so." The Saxon word 'haran' was used in description of stones, later being refined to 'hoar stones' and then 'old grey stones' - we have a number of examples of these in the Grey Stones at the top of Pasture Lane, Barrowford, Greystones Moor below Weets Hill and Hoarstones in the village of Fence. Saxon moots, or local court meetings, were held in the open air, usually at the site of some distinguished feature such as an ancient thorn tree or large stone. An Anglo-Saxon Gospel account for the Herefordshire area records "Note of a Shire-mote held at Aeglenoth's Stone in the reign of King Cnut, at which were present the Bishop Athelstan and Sheriff Bruning........and all the Thanes in Herefordshire." Every sovereign of England (except for Queen Mary) has been crowned on the ancient stone beneath the coronation chair at Westminster Abbey. Tradition relates that this stone dates back to at least 503 AD where it was used in its role as a sacred mark stone.

The old stone crosses dotting our countryside were, in the main, wayside markstones untill they were hijacked by the clergy and Christianised, usually by grafting a shaft with a cross on the top into the original stone base. Walton's Monument must be one of the most blatant examples of this practise in the country. The stone at the cross-roads has always been a rich source of myth for the folklorist, Annel Cross (SD 816 426) on the crossroads below Pendle at Colne gate, is no exception to this. Funerals would pass this spot and the coffin bearers would lay down the coffin and say a prayer at the stone, this was the spot where the local gibbet was hung for many years. The stone has been moved from the cross-roads for some reason, it is difficult to find as it now lies on the nearby moor.This, of course, is the fate of most early, and later, mark stones - although some farmers have always held these stones in great respect, many others have simply destroyed, or moved, them. It is not uncommon to find large boulders in stream beds where they were rolled by a farmer intent on reclaiming the ground upon which it once stood. This is a relatively late phenomena, as late as the 16th century the Clitheroe court Rolls show that the halmote courts were fining people heavily for moving 'merkstans.' Of course, where a large stone stood in the way of a prospective field, and was not part of an obvious boundary, then no one would object to it being moved or broken up.The 'frog stone' by the Admergill Beck (SD 856 426) is another example of a large surviving boulder, this lay on an ancient track traversing along the slopes of the valley, up to the Moorcock area, however, the stone is now perched on the very edge of the encroaching stream and will soon be lost.
Trees would have been an important method of marking a boundary, especially where high visibility of the siting of the boundary would be required. Holly and hawthorn were an obvious choice of tree where cattle and sheep needed to be contained, many ancient holly hedges still exist in our more rural areas, those at Malkin are a case in point. I have seen it suggested that the presence of Scots Pine trees is a good indicator of an ancient site, I do not know how accurate this is although I have noticed that this tree only seems to occur in deep gulleys. At Heynslack, near Malkin, a deep gulley carries the Black Dyke stream and forms the Pendle Forest and county boundary, within this gulley are a number of Scots Pines. The deep gully carrying Admergill Beck,on the road bend near the Moorcock Inn (on the Blacko to Gisburn Road), has many Scots Pines. There are also a number of these trees on the old road banking at the cross roads on Wheat Head Lane - this is where the ancient route over to Rimington Moor and Middop crosses almost at the brow of Wheat Head Lane. Scots Pine trees seed themselves vertically, this leads to their remaining extant in one particular area for a very long time, this method of reproduction is also aided where the tree grows in a sheltered situation, such as a deep gulley.

In 1580 a local court heard an oral testimony from a local man who described the boundaries between Admergill and Barnoldswick, he stated that the boundary ran up to "the thorn by John Hartley's house to Hanson's Dike newk then over Blackomownt." By cross-checking the modern boundaries with the 1581 map of Foulridge and Whitemoor I have placed the thorn as being at the corner of what is now Pasture Head Farm - the building that stood on the site of the present Pasture Head was obviously occupied by a John Hartley in the 16th century. The map shows this tree as 'the thorn at Heynslack,' which corroborates the importance of the tree as a boundary mark. This also shows the importance of individual trees where particular mark points were necessary, this particular thorn marked the spot where the boundary from Foulridge (north-south) met the boundary of Standing Stone Lane (east-west). In a field behing Malkin Tower Farm is an unusual feature, a very old thorn tree growing in isolation on a plinth of stone. The stones have been deliberately formed into a protective wall around the base of the tree which now stands around three feet above the ground level. I have puzzled over the reason for this for many years until very recently, an aerial photograph from the Second World War shows that there was a full hedgerow of hawthorn trees in Heynslack bottom, only a single specimen now remains. It is possible that the 'walled' tree could have been the sole survivor of a full hedgerow, maybe having been saved as a sop to superstition. If the tree had been atop a walled ditch banking then its present height is easily explained - it would have been in this position originally, a wall being built around it would ensure its survival. To our modern way of thinking this seems a trifle bonkers but it has to be remembered that thorn trees were highly respected by our forebears. It was extremelly bad luck to damage a thorn never mind actually cut one down. A number of folk tales are related to the species, it was known as 'the fairy tree,' where one was situated near to a spring then it was thought to be the gateway to the water spirit. It would not surprise me, therefore, if a farmer in the Middle Ages thought it prudent to leave at least one tree alive when removing a hedge. Neither would it surprise me if this solitary tree was alive in the Medieval period, possibly having been used as a local moot site - in all probability the Malkin Tower Witch brood would know this tree very well.

John Clayton. 27 Apr 2005

[Stanley]

Bumped to remind us we have it on the site.

[Stanley]

I doubt if there is a better history of Admergill anywhere. John did a good job here!