As part of my job I drive up Pendle Hill, home of the famous Pendle witches. Along the way there is a small barn, abandoned by time, half destroyed. One day I had Sawyer in the car with me, he was ill so had to be off school. As we passed the house I told him what it was. He asked if we could get out, hike to it and have a look around.
Thinking about it, it seemed like the perfect mini adventure. So I pulled over in the nearest lay-by and we started off to the house. Immediately he excitedly repeated that he “never thought I’d let him go really”.
We climbed up a hill and over a wall. We could see down the fields the house. Before we could get there though we had to go down the steep slope, traversing the boggy marshland.
As we walked I explained to Sawyer why there was reeds growing out of the ground sometimes walking in single file so I could test the ground in front. And we spoke of the witches and what happened to them. As we got closer we were more isolated and suddenly the adventure had a haunted feel about it.
When we arrived at the house we found the roof had fully collapsed and lay inside all bent and broken. We explored the building, trying to work out where the witch would keep her things. Under part of the roof we even found some bones. I told Sawyer they might be from one of the witches victims, but they were probably from a poor sheep, strayed to far from its flock.
After a while we made our way back up the hill, which seemed wetter this time around. All in all it was an hour out of the day but it was such a good adventure and lovely bit of exercise. It was priceless for him repeating the story to Mrs Berg at teatime still saying “I never thought he’d let me go”
Berg
Bergs Place 