00:00Today we're at probably the most historic spot that we have ever been to on our journeys around North East Lancashire.
00:11We're at Widdup on the old road between Colne and Hebden Bridge.
00:18People know it because it has the Pacors Flubba.
00:20But we're here at the junction where two kingdoms of the Dark Ages came together.
00:30To my left, there was the Kingdom of Elmette, which was most of Yorkshire, a bit of what is now North Yorkshire.
00:40And it was based on Leeds, Leeds when it was known as Lodis, the original name for Leeds.
00:48But on my right, there was Lancashire.
00:53Of course, Lancashire wasn't a name that was used in the Dark Ages.
01:01But the whole of the area of Lancashire, part of Cheshire, and including part of Greater Manchester and virtually all of Merseyside,
01:14are believed to have been in a kingdom, or an administrative area, might not have been a kingdom, called Elmette.
01:25Oh, God, I've said it wrong.
01:27Okay, carry on.
01:28Called Turnleweg.
01:31Now, Turnleweg, it might well have been a district of Wales.
01:38North Wales was divided into several kingdoms, and it's likely that the area of what we now call Lancashire was part of an administrative area of riddance who had survived the Roman period.
01:57And when the Romans began to leave Northern England, as they did in the late 4th century, and by the early 5th century, they had left Britain altogether to defend Rome,
02:11because it was being attacked by all sorts of tribes from the east of Europe, the area was left without government, was left without an army.
02:23And so, powerful local Britons came to the fore, and some of them became chiefs.
02:32Others set up kingdoms.
02:35We know that the one in Yorkshire, Elmette, was a kingdom, until about 613.
02:41In that year, there was a battle at Chester, which terminated the independence of Elmette, which was absorbed into Northumbria.
02:51Northumbria, and Turnleweg, on the Lancashire side, also ceased to be an independent area, or an area governed by ancient rims.
03:05It was taken over by the invading Anglo-Saxons.
03:10So, 613 is an important date in our history, and where we're standing here is believed to be the boundary.
03:20We're in the bottom of the valley here at Lake Dune, and this interesting stone here is how farmers in the past used to construct their field boundaries.
03:33What would happen is, you've got four holes in this millstone grit rock, and the ends of planks would be put in there, and on the other side, where we're standing, there is another one, where you would balance them.
03:49It would have, didn't have the use of hinges in those days, so this dates back to the early 17th century, the latest, probably before that.
04:02Again, we're at Blake Dune, which incidentally is a National Trust property.
04:08I'd be interested to know what does the National Trust think of the proposal to construct 45 gigantic wind farms in this area.
04:19But we're here, looking down the valley, to the site of one of the most remarkable things in this part of the world,
04:28because there was a railway line, and we've got a photograph of the railway over this valley.
04:36Now, it wasn't a passenger railway.
04:38They constructed it to help build the Walshadeen Reservoirs, which are off to our right.
04:45And it was a very big bridge, as you'll see when we show it to you.
04:54It was made mainly out of timber.
04:56It wasn't made to last forever.
04:59You had to bring the locomotives in, construct the railway to make the reservoir,
05:07which was the property of Halifax Corporation in those days, though now it's Yorkshire Water.
05:14And we're in this tranquil little spot, surrounded by butterflies, two rivers coming together.
05:23It's famous, this part of the world, for its natural history.
05:28Not only plants, but animals, birds, insects.
05:33And numerous studies have been undertaken here.
05:37And I think it would be a tragedy if the people who would want to construct this wind farm,
05:45I did say 45 wind pylons, but I think they're only 41, which is a reduction from 60 on.
05:55But it would spoil this area out of all recognition.
05:58And it's been very popular for Burnley walkers, Halifax walkers, anywhere in the district.
06:09In fact, we've arrived and we've come across walkers all the way along the route we've been today.
06:16And it would be lost to them if they built a wind farm here.
06:21I'm totally opposed to it, but I hope that it won't happen.
06:27But an application is going in.
06:30And I understand that the government is going to determine it, not Calderdale Council.
06:36Right, we're at Blake Dean here.
06:39And the area was a small hamlet of about six houses.
06:45We've got one of the cottages is directly behind us and is now used by the scouts from Halifax.
06:55So it's still in use.
06:56But the other cottages have gone.
06:59And so, regrettably, has the Blake Dean Upside Down Chapel.
07:05Now, an upside down chapel isn't a building that's turned upside down.
07:09It is called that because in normal chapels you had to go upstairs to get into the gallery.
07:18Now, to give it its due, that was the case with this chapel too.
07:23But you could go downstairs from outside to get into the gallery.
07:30And the same applied to the chapel itself.
07:32So, you had where the people worshipped, the normal procedure was to go up a few steps into the main body of the church.
07:43But here, you could just go downstairs.
07:45So, people called it the Upside Down Chapel.
07:51Wesley came here, not to the chapel, but three times to the Blake Dean and Widow area.
07:58He preached on three occasions, on one of them.
08:02The vicar of Colne, who was not very friendly towards John Wesley,
08:10he got up a group of people to chase after him after Wesley had preached in Colne,
08:16arrested him, and they mocked John Wesley.
08:20And he made some pretty telling comments about his visit to Colne and his visit here to Blake Dean.
