Village in harmony with nature

THIS week I am still where I was last week - in the church of St Bartholomew- but I have moved from Great Harwood to the delightful village of Chipping.

The church, the village itself and the surrounding footpaths are among the most beautiful in the whole of England, never mind just in Lancashire.

Most folk have heard of the Hodder, one of the cleanest rivers in Britain, but few have heard of the River Loud, one of its main tributaries which rises on the slopes of the Fairsnape Fells. From there it flows through the lovely old settlement of Chipping and runs on to meet the Hodder at Doeford Bridge.

Doeford was once a shallow area across which both deer and travellers passed before the bridge was built. This was on the old Roman road leading from Ribchester to Overborough, near the modern Kirkby Lonsdale on the River Lune.

As I stood on Doeford Bridge I watched a heron feeding in the shallows whilst beneath the bridge itself first a dipper and then a common sandpiper flashed along. The former was carrying food for its young and the latter joining its mate in an impressive display flight.

There was probably a market at Chipping before the Norman Conquest and the word Chipping (or Cheaping) actually means a market. In the days when almost everyone except the very rich went everywhere on foot, it took a whole day to go back and forth from home to market. Trading was therefore done on a Sunday (we now seem to have come full circle) and they killed two birds with one stone by attending to their religious devotions. St Batholomew's Church was also possibly Saxon in origin and it is known that it was already ancient and was rebuilt in 1506. Although it was heavily restored in the 1870s, it seems on the whole to have been done carefully and there are bits of the church dating back to every century over a period of almost 800 years.

Chipping has many other buildings of note, including the present post office which dates to 1668 and which was the home and workplace of John Brabbin. On Windy Street is Brabbins School, which the benefactor founded in 1684 for the poor students of the area.

Brabbin made his money from textiles and there were mills powered by the River Loud and its feeder streams at least from the 18th century. One, with its water wheel still in position, forms part of Chipping's modern industry.

This is Berry's chair factory - now run by the third generation - and many of the workers are also third and even fourth generation chair makers. Villages such as Chipping are full of character and without their major employer they would die. Industry and wildlife are in perfect harmony here.

Berry's not only make modern furniture but also the traditional rush backs, which are still much in demand. The craft may date back to Tudor times when, like cotton, it was literally a cottage industry.

Chipping has always been in balance with nature and from the car park, toilets, village shops and snack bars, a network of well-marked footpaths lead out into the Hodder Valley. Go at weekends and you will see visitors at play but go midweek and you will see a village at work. Better still, go twice and enjoy both aspects of this splendid spot.

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