Antondotreks

Expeditions, Navigation, Guided Walks and Trekking

Hartley House, home to a Greenwood Family

Haslingden CraneOut for a walk around Calf Hey reservoir next to the lost village of Haslingden Grane. This is on the north western edge of the West Pennine Moors. We came across the farm buildings of Hartley House overlooking the valley. This house probably dates back to Elizabethan times, gradually being extended with farmers cottages.

The farms were very small, just a few acres, so the families would have had other sources of income. In the 18th and early 19th centurary, some of the houses were extended to house handlooms, but as the mills grew that living declined.  In 1881 a William Greenwood (no relation, or a very very distant one) lived in one of the small farm buildings with his wife and eight children. He had 7 acres and supplemented his living by working at the quarry across the valley. His wife probably kept the animals and grew a few crops while William joined his father (William Snr living next door with his son and grandson) on the 20 minutes walk to the Musbury Heights quarry.

Next door to the two Greenwood farmhouses lived John Lord, a clog maker, and his family, who had moved around east Lancashire before recently arriving in Haslingden Grane. He also had a small farm while his eldest daughters worked in the Cotton mills, probably walking down to Helmshore with Williams eldest daughter Sarah.

20180802_142324Today, the houses are derelict after being bought by the council in 1900 to clear the way for building the reservoirs. The village below and the farmland was flooded and eventually the quarry was worked out. So the quiet scene in the photograph is mostly a man made landscape.

Today they called off the hosepipe ban, despite the very low level in the reservoirs. The low levels in these reservoirs mean it will still take a while before water levels are back to where they should be though. Our hot dry summer is not over yet.

 

4 comments on “Hartley House, home to a Greenwood Family

  1. Pingback: Hartley House, home to a Greenwood Family — Antondotreks – My Greenwood Family Tree

  2. Nas Haque
    August 3, 2018

    You have had a lovely walk and the weather has been kind.

  3. bowlandclimber
    August 6, 2018

    That was interesting, as usual, were you able to trace any of your family to those houses?
    I did an extended walk round the reservoirs a couple of years back and was intrigued with the history of the area. https://bowlandclimber.com/2016/07/04/haslingden-grane-three-reservoirs-round/

    • antondotreks
      August 6, 2018

      Hi, I was intrigued to look into it when I found out we shared a surname. But if we are related it will be back into the 18th century. The Greenwoods moved out from Hepstonstall a long time ago, mine to North Yorkshire sometime in the 17th C.

      For such a man-made environment it has a lot of interest in a small area.

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This entry was posted on August 3, 2018 by in Blog, Out and About, West Pennine Moors and tagged , , , , .
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