I have a number of extracts from the Clitheroe Court Rolls relating to the area around Springhill in the 16th century. They describe a steady stream of residents amerced for allowing their beasts to trespass, failing to maintain highways, illegal encroachment of land etc. The impression is of trying to eek out a living in a not too hospitable environment, and it must have been pretty chilly in winter with ill-fitting doors and windows.

I often wander over Chapel Hill and the other fields behind Springhill and sometimes wonder how the landscape may have changed over time. In some ways probably relatively little. The land was enclosed early, the fields relatively unimproved as the land is poor quality pastoral land and the 'highways' still in poor condition, at times masquerading as a river. This far away land, 200 yards from Springhill but 4 centuries ago, is surprisingly close in many ways.

But I'm grateful for double glazing…