Drive and Stroll, with Ron Freethy - today visiting Pendle

AROUND Christmas I braved the threatening weather and walked from Newchurch-in-Pendle to Sabden Fold.

Sabden Fold is one of those underrated little hamlets which was once a popular route for packhorses.

The road is now just wide enough to allow cars to pass and it is best reached by parking in Newchurch.

The name Fold is accurate because it is set in an undulation, one of many in the area.

This is wildlife country at its best and I had only just begun my walk when I spotted a weasel crawling along a stone wall and a short-eared owl flying slowly over the fields in search of small mammals.

We all feel extra hungry when the temperature starts to fall.

The term New Church is misleading because the church was only "new" in the 15th and early 16th centuries.

Before that the hamlet was known as Goldshaw Booth.

This name is of great interest when translated.

The word shaw means a wood and we can guess that in autumn the colour of the leaves would be golden.

The word "booth" meant a farm where cows were kept. Sometimes I think that the old name of Goldshaw Booth has more of a ring to it than the more obvious Newchurch.

These days the area between Newchurch and Sabden is more sheep than cow country but it can have changed very little over the years. The Industrial Revolution had very little impact here and walking through old, unspoilt Lancashire is quite a thrill.

In a few weeks it will be lambing time and as dusk began to fall I saw a dog fox climb over a wall with his huge bushy tail and rusty red fur looking quite beautiful.

Such an animal is not the farmer's friend but a Pendleside farmer once told me of his lifetime's experience with foxes.

"There is good 'uns and bad 'uns," he said. "The bad 'uns I shoot and the good 'uns I lets alone."

What he said was that there were some foxes which specialised in feeding on rabbits and other small mammals.

These animals seldom, if ever, attacked lambs. There were, on the other hand, foxes which killed hens and lambs and were a threat to farmers' livelihoods.

This particular farmer knows that foxes can be territorial and if he had a fox on his land which specialised in eating rabbits then he kept it.

If he shot it, the next fox might be more of a problem.

Another interesting fact that he told me was that in the old days farmers looked after their animals but they also had a handloom on which they wove cloth.

A loom was heavy to use - and was therefore a man's job - and expensive to buy.

The loom was therefore passed on from father to eldest son and this is the origin of the word "heirloom."

If I have a tip to pass on it would be don't forget to enjoy walking the highways of old Lancashire.

There is always something new to discover.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.