The Lost Farms of Lancashire's Forgotten Moor

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]When I first heard there were 48 farms up here, I didn't believe it. As a kid, I'd often be up in these moors and it always just felt empty and wild, untouched. But this wasn't wilderness.

[00:00:12]This was home.

[00:00:14]Families lived up here for generations.

[00:00:17]And in order to find work, they often had to do long walks in the dark to factory shifts. No running water, no indoor toilets, just wells, wind, and hard work. So what happened? How does an entire community just disappear?

[00:00:33]Today's walk is a little different.

[00:00:35]We're heading out across Princull Mall, passing the ruins of former farmsteads and uncovering the stories behind them.

[00:00:42]You'll find some hidden deep in the woods and others scattered high on the open fell. Of course, I will leave a recommended route for you to follow if you're interested in experiencing this for yourself, but this is very much a slower pace kind of walk. and try to remember that these quiet spaces were once full of life just over a century ago. So, let's get cracking, shall we?

[00:01:03]As we head out to search for the lost farms of Brinskull.

[00:01:07]Starting in the village of Brinskull, we're following a man-made water channel known as the When the was first built in the 1850s, it wasn't the problem. Bridges were built, access was maintained, and life carried on. For decades, everything was fine. Now, at first glance, the Gate just looks like a stream. Something natural that's always been part of the landscape. But it's actually completely man-made. An engineered water course built in the 1850s to move water across the moss. It works by gently guiding water from the higher ground, collecting it from the streams and runoff across the fells and carrying it along this channel all the way down to the reservoirs at Angles Arc and Rivington. And most importantly, it was built to support entire towns and cities beyond these hills. And whilst the guy wasn't to blame for a lot of these farms being abandoned in the first place, the truth is it was the final nail in the coffin as to why they were demolished. But more on that later.

[00:02:04]Let's go and find some lost farms, shall we?

[00:02:15]So, this is the first stop on this walk and already you're stood in the remains of something that's been completely reclaimed by the woods.

[00:02:24]What's interesting about this spot is that it's actually two places, not one.

[00:02:28]You've got a farm here called Topath Wood and then later a mana house called Blackhurst was built right beside it.

[00:02:36]You could say Blackhurst grew around Topathwood. Within a few steps, you're literally walking through them both.

[00:02:44]And this is just the first set of ruins.

[00:02:47]There's many more of these hidden further up in the woods and onto the moss.

[00:02:52]I won't go into too much detail as to who lived here in all of the farms featured in this film as there are too many families to tell you about, but there is an invaluable resource that I'll mention throughout this film which neatly packages all the stories together.

[00:03:18]It's worth pointing out as well the stables here and these were part of the black earth estate and just to point out this is the track we've come down just from the stables there and if you follow this path down here that will take you to the go and to one of the bridge crossings and what's really interesting as well is this once wasn't a woodland this was a clearing this was a field heading down towards the go and into the princ valley and yeah it's still calling itself top of wood interesting so you can see Back then in the 1850s the water corporations were trying to work with the farmers. They provided them with access over the goit to get to their farmsteads. So what went wrong? Right back to the main track. We've got some lost farms to find.

[00:04:06]You know what I find really fascinating about this walk is just the sheer amount of random gate posts that you have scattered around the woods and up in the fells. Some of them, you know, would belong to the same farm. It' be, you know, gate gated entrances to fields and gardens and things like that. But, uh, yeah, it doesn't half make your imagination just go wild as to what was once there. Obviously, a gate, but what else?

[00:04:35]Talking of random gate posts, here's another one.

[00:04:40]So, we've just come from down here.

[00:04:42]We're now going to be heading up here on this walk.

[00:04:46]because there's another little hidden gem that I've got to show you. And growing up in the area, exploring these woods as a kid, this is one of the regular places that I would come to.

[00:04:57]Take a look at this, guys.

[00:05:06]So, this is what's left of another mana house called Heather Lee. Much like the mana house of Blackhurst, they did have a lot of space to play with. Like you just know this spot here was definitely their front lawn. And the author even suggests that this was once their tennis lawn. So they play tennis here. And you can just imagine the views looking out over Brinskll there with the valley below.

[00:05:30]Just magical. And again like Blackhurst, it was built in the late 1800s. So not earlier like a lot of the farms. But yeah, sadly this is all that's left of Heavenly now. And apparently this was only knocked down in the sort of 1960s.

[00:05:46]So it did last a lot longer than a lot of the farmsteads.

[00:05:51]And then further up here, just show you.

[00:05:55]Got another interesting little find.

[00:05:58]Now, I promise you, we are going to find lost farms today, but I really wanted to show you these places, Blackhurst and Heavily, because they're part of the history of this woodland, and it's part of the lost farm story really. But take a look at this.

[00:06:14]Now, I have heard different theories as to what this once was. Now, I'll be honest. I always thought this was a well, and the fact that it's upstream as well from the house down there. I suspected that they would just use gravitational pull to have the water running down to them. But I have heard other theories like for example a local friend in the village, Charles, he was told this was once ice storage. Whatever it was, it's not something that I'd want to fall into anytime soon.

[00:06:41]One of the things that's good about this start of the walk in the woodlands is it's got this nice big wide carriage drive, as the author likes to call it.

[00:06:48]This road running through the heart of the woodland. And it pretty much connects you to all the farm ruins here.

[00:06:54]So, if you're not one for following maps and you just want to head to the woods and explore and try and find the farms for yourself, find this middle track here and you can't really go wrong.

[00:07:05]Further up in the woods, things get even quieter at this next lost farm.

[00:07:10]So the main track running through the woods is just there and yet literally meters off it are the remains of Newgrounds cottages.

[00:07:19]Obviously now it's mostly just rubble but you can see the outline of the terraces, the tops here looking down over the valley below.

[00:07:33]Again, you can only imagine what view they must have had before the plantation was put in.

[00:07:54]It's hard to believe this was once a small row of cottages, but today there's no clear walls, no obvious layout, just fragments slowly disappearing. The sad part is you could walk straight past this and never know it was here.

[00:08:10]I love all this on the trees. I mean, look at that. Obviously, ivy that's took a whole of the tree. Feels like I'm in the Philippines or something in the mangroves. And this is pretty much what's left of new ground cottages.

[00:08:24]Just a lot of stone and a lot of stories, no doubt.

[00:08:39]This must have been a really really lively area at one point. There would have been obviously five households, you know, full with residents.

[00:08:48]You just can't imagine it. So, what did happen? Why did the people of these houses leave this area? Why did why were they abandoned? And why were they eventually demolished? We will get to it, but we've got some more farms to find first. The story continues. So, we've just come from down here.

[00:09:08]Obviously, you've got the waterfall down there, waterfall, and this is Well Lane running up here. Now, we could just join Well Lane, and we can go and find all the farms up in the moors, jobs of Gooden. And there's also some farms as well over this side.

[00:09:24]Now, if you are looking to discover these lost farms and follow my recommended route from today, I would recommend just popping out onto Well Lane there and visiting Ripping. It's right there. You can't miss it. It's a lovely little farmstead. And yeah, it's one of the lost farms. But for today, we're actually going to be going further up into the woods before we join Well Lane because there's two farms up here that I really want to show you. Again, this is what I find interesting about this story is, you know, farms like ripping. It was relatively close to the village of Brinskull. Had decent access to it off Well Lane. Why oh why did they have to abandon the farm there?

[00:10:10]So, this is one of the tracks we're going to look through the woods. And this should take us to Heaton's our third lost farm of the day.

[00:10:19]It's also really close to another lost farm over there, Hatch Place.

[00:10:27]And here we have it, the gate post leading to Heatons.

[00:10:44]And you can see this is pretty much what's left of it.

[00:10:50]In terms of location within the woods, this definitely feels like one of the more hidden lost farms. I don't think most people will find this if they're visiting for the first time. Not without a map anyway. It's quite nice visiting this one as well because behind here you've got this big open space, a bit of a clearing within the woods. And as a kid, we'd often come up here. It used to be a rope swing off one of these trees.

[00:11:14]And we did have some fun.

[00:11:17]There you go. There's your rope swing.

[00:11:20]So perhaps the next generation of have come here and perhaps hang out in here.

[00:11:25]But there is history in this section of the woods. And the fact that you've got those ruins just there. I do wonder how many of these kids that are playing in that rope swing and hanging out in that clearing know what was once here.

[00:11:40]I suspect very few. I wonder what that once was. A trough perhaps. That's one thing I will continue to stress throughout this film is I'm not an expert on this topic. I've read a book and I've been really interested in this whole story of the lost farms for years.

[00:11:56]And so I'm going to show you around today. But if you do know more than me on any of these stories, these little farmsteads, let me know in the comments.

[00:12:05]It'd be great to hear what you've got to say. So, we'll cut through here now and head to our next lost farm of the day, Hatch Place. So, this would have been one of the entrances into Hatch Place, another one of our lost farms for the day, but it did also have access as well off Well Lane. And like a lot of these farms, it was very much a small holding.

[00:12:25]So, we're now going to be heading up into the moors. I just want you to have one last look at those gate posts. They are pretty, aren't they? But just before we head up onto the moors, there is one other lost farm here known as White Hall and White Hole Cottages. And I'll be honest, this one I don't know. I've definitely picked the brightest day to do this. I'm really sorry about this, guys.

[00:12:50]But we'll continue.

[00:12:53]We've started now, haven't we? So here I was just admiring all these trees and I think I may have stumbled across white hall cottages.

[00:13:05]Let me know what you think.

[00:13:11]So you can see we've got the style here and that'll take us up onto Well Lane or that way into the moors. And there's also a track here that runs through the woods. a very popular walk for dog walkers and it skirts the edge of the woodland and it will pass a couple of other farms that way as well. Lost farms that is. And yet just here off it is the cottages. I didn't know that. So, having climbed that style several times over the years, I've obviously passed these cottages on many occasions. But yeah, now it's just a pile of stones and just another story that's sadly disappearing. Right, let's continue with today's walk, shall we? And shortly, we're going to be passing over what is now a rather flattened white hall farm.

[00:14:03]So here we are just off Well Lane and this is pretty much now a turning round circle for lorries but this was once where the farm was. White Hole Farm.

[00:14:15]Again, completely flattened. There's nothing at all left of this one. But if you cut through there, it does connect you to uh the cottages.

[00:14:35]And this peculiar mound here was once a semi-unken air raid shelter.

[00:14:46]How cool is that?

[00:14:48]Before we venture further into the fells, I want to pause and point out a few of the lost farms hidden in the opposite direction to today's route.

[00:14:56]First up is Ratton Cluff. The last farm here still standing just about because unlike most on this mall, it wasn't actually a tenency farm, so it was never officially demolished.

[00:15:08]Just up the track from Ratencluff, you'll find the impressive farm site of Solomon's Temple. I couldn't believe just how big this farm room was.

[00:15:18]Rumor has it during the Second World War, it was used as some sort of military training before it was eventually demolished like the rest.

[00:15:39]Solomon's temple wasn't just a neighbor to Ratencluff. You'll also find the ruin of New Temple, just a stones throw from here. There's a lot of temple in these names. Perhaps the family must have been fans of the Egyptians or something.

[00:15:57]Just look at those views. You could see for miles from up here.

[00:16:09]And then there's one more I have to show you. And this might be one of my favorites. It's so remote.

[00:16:22]Welcome to Botny Bay, also known as the summer house used by grouse shooters towards the end of its days.

[00:16:31]How beautiful is this lonely tree? By the way, another incredible view. You can see right out to the forest of Bolan quite clearly from here. There are a lot more lost farms over on this side that I won't be featuring on this film. Perhaps in the future I'll do a part two.

[00:16:54]So, that's the quick detour complete.

[00:16:56]Should we head back to the main track and continue the walk?

[00:17:02]Fascinating stuff though, right?

[00:17:13]And just through the gate before we head off up the track, you'll find another one of our lost farms on today's walk.

[00:17:19]This is Whittle's farm. And how beautiful is it with that ticker tree there. Absolutely stunning location for this farm. You can't really miss it.

[00:17:30]It's right there by the top of Edgate Lane and Well Lane. And I'd argue they've got one of the best views, if not the best view of the lot.

[00:17:52]Now, we do need to keep our eyes peeled along this track because we are going to be passing two farms on our right shortly. So, having read the book by David Clayton, the lost farms of brinsmore, and I'd highly recommend it actually if you're interested in this topic of the lost farms, I've been really eager to pin a lot of these uh these farms on a map. So, I've been using what three words and outdoor active for, you know, for mapping my roots towards these farms. And yeah, I'm just really excited now to to find the ones that I've never been to before. It still amazes me how people were able to live upon these moss and start families and make a living up here. It's just incredible. I think naturally as the world progressed and evolved and were able to, you know, install gas and water and sewage in the the busy towns and cities, inevitably these farmsteads up here in the fells, they were just going to get left behind, weren't they? They were very traditional and simple structures. They didn't have any of that in place and nor could they get it up here either. It was just too remote really. And so ultimately the farms that have survived around here are the ones that have got easy access to those things. So they're on busy main roads down, you know, obviously down in the villages. And yeah, that's one of the reasons why a lot of these these farms did become inhabited eventually, but it's not the main reason why these farms were eventually abandoned and demolished. We will get to that shortly.

[00:19:25]Now, I have decided to go off pie and try and find this rather remote farm up on the fell and it's called Sourmill Hall.

[00:19:36]Now, there might be an easier way to find it than what I'm doing right now, but it is open access land this, so you are free to roam on it at your own risk.

[00:19:48]So, it's quite bobbly and lumpy and wet, boggy in places, but I believe there's a farm around here, so determined to find it. And that's the beauty of GPS mapping, isn't it? you know, I can pin it on a map and just follow it until I till I get there.

[00:20:09]That's what I'm doing.

[00:20:18]And there we have it ahead of us. That I believe is Sour Milk Hall.

[00:20:25]Now, I'll be honest, I don't know a great deal about Sour Milk Hall.

[00:20:30]Again, it looks like another big one.

[00:20:32]And you can see clear boundaries. Got the surrounding fields to this place. And again, what a view.

[00:20:40]But yeah, the the location just how remote it is and exposed up on the fells that it is. Really poor access to it as well. You can just see how this would not have been practical as we're moving into the 20th century. You know, all the convenience was over there in the village. the trading, everything was going on in the village and over in the town of Charley and obviously Blackburn as well. And you're just too remote here. Nothing is going to be easy if you're living up here and everything is progressing down there. So that's Sour Milk Hall. Next up, we're heading to another remote farm that I haven't found before and that's called Calico Hall. It looks like I should be able to follow this stone wall and that should lead me to the next place. Hopefully, it's kind underfoot.

[00:21:31]It does look like there's a bit of a track here that runs along the Stonewall edge. So, we're in luck. Now, one thing that I do really like about the book, The Lost Farms of Brins Moore, is the author does go into a lot of depth sharing the stories and all the different people that lived in these properties. And he'll cover, you know, over a number of years as well, solely from like the early 1800s to, you know, the early 1900s. And it's just fascinating for me. It's fascinating seeing the statistics. So for example, you had a lot of families living upon these moors in these farms who lived till they were a decent age. We're talking 80s, in some cases ' 90s, but definitely 70s. So they were living for a long time. And not only that, they were having a lot of kids, which I suppose that was a sign of the times, right? We were we didn't have contraception and things like that back then. But these kids were relatively healthy. The families were healthy. They were obviously doing a lot of exercise, living on these, you know, remote areas, having to walk long distances for work, for food in some cases. Um, and from a young age as well. And yeah, I found some of the statistics really interesting. Um, I mean, one thing that did stand out for me was just how young the people living in these houses were starting work. We're talking age 12, 13, and they were starting to become full-time employees. And so these kids were working from a really young age, 6 days a week, and a lot of the work was down there. So they were having to walk a few miles every day just to work. It's just unbelievable. I mean, now, you know, you'd be lucky if you get a 16year-old working part-time at the weekends. It's just the way it's gone.

[00:23:31]But back then these kids were grafters and they were grafters from a young age.

[00:23:35]I think as well seeing the types of jobs that these people were doing, not just the kids but the adults as well. So initially they were farmers, you know, they were all running these small holdings. They had, you know, really small acreage, but they'd obviously have sheep on there and they they'd collect the wool, shear them and collect the wool and sell the wool, trade the wool, or they would do lots of uh loom weaving themselves. So they do that by hand at home and then obviously trade in in the villages and that worked for a good good number of years. But then once the factories came into play, it was, you know, it was a ticking time bomb really because the factories were able to do mass production really cheap as well.

[00:24:16]And these handling was just couldn't compete. And so that's why the kids were shipped off to work in the the lively towns and villages because that's where the work was. And oftentimes those kids were bringing their wages home to support their families because these families were potentially still rearing young children or they were they were farming to some degree but not bringing in a great deal of money. And so all farms need need managing, right? So the kids would go off and bring in a wage to support the families. You just wouldn't get that anymore. You just don't get that anymore, do you? It's crazy how times have changed. And this was only 100 years ago. Another thing that I found really interesting was the guys who own the moors. So this was the park family. They owned the moors at some stage and this is when the tenant farmers were all up here on the moors.

[00:25:07]And they also owned the the mills and the factories as well. So they were not only taking bringing in a rent from their tenants, but they were also providing jobs for their kids. And that's mad, isn't it? I mean, the reliance on this one family to ultimately make the economy work in this area. To me, that's risky. And it wasn't the ultimate downfall of what happened, but it certainly didn't help that they were these families were totally reliant on the Park family. But one thing I will say about the Park family to their credit is they weren't they weren't bad people, right? They provided jobs and they also as a parting gift when they finally sold up all the land was they gifted brinsal baths and brins baths attracted a lot of folk from around you know this these parts of Lanasher and into Greater Manchester now. So people were walking from places like Horitch to go to the swimming baths.

[00:26:14]That's how good Brinskll baths were back then. And Brinskbass is still there next to the lodge and it's still used by a lot of the locals.

[00:26:23]And yeah, it's amazing, isn't it? I did not know anything about this until I uh read the book, The Lost Farms of Brins Moore. Now, it is tough sledding this bit. I'm not going to lie. I've continued to follow the stone wall here because looking at the map, this should lead me to the next ruin, Calico Hall.

[00:26:47]But it's not easy. It's very lumpy. And I can imagine if it was really wet, I'd be even slower. I don't think it's helping that I'm talking to the camera as well, not focused on where I'm walking. But I thought I'd kill some time and tell you some bits of history cuz I found it fascinating. Anyway, and again, this is all in the book. I am not a an expert on this topic at all. I've just been doing a bit of reading and yeah, it's like I say, it's all in there. Do you know I've actually been out for hours. I got here sort of midm morning and I thought I'd spend the first couple of hours in the woods and then spend the whole afternoon up here in the fell, but it's just not happened that way. Partly because I've been nattering away to people. So, I've been chatting to people about the lost farms and why I'm here today. And I bumped into an old school friend, Charles, and we had a good chat and he tried to correct me on a few points about the lost farms cuz he's been told different things about different areas. And it's just great. I I've really enjoyed this whole topic, if you like, and doing my research and planning this film today and this walk. I just think more people need to know about this. And the fact that these farms are so close to the main tracks, the busy popular paths around here, it's just mad that people don't know what's here, right? I mean, I didn't know for a long time. And yes, I would play around some of the ruins as a kid in the woods, but I didn't know the history. And now that I'm interested in stuff like this, I just wish there was more guidance and information directing people to these places. I really hope we don't forget our history. And talking of history, I think we found our next lost farm. This, ladies and gentlemen, is Calico Hall.

[00:28:45]It's a whopper, isn't it?

[00:29:17]Calico Hall is is definitely more remote once again than Sourmill Hall. So access up here would have just been a nightmare, especially in winter. and the miles that these these families would have had to make just to get to where the main trade was happening. It's just inevitable, right? This was just not going to survive. Not unless they had better access.

[00:29:40]But for me, something still lingers and that is why demolish these farms? Why come why get rid of them completely? And you'd think over time with the improvements and of access obviously road infrastructure, transport, some of these remote homes would have been accessible eventually. I mean, you've seen the main track running up great hill there. I mean, that could have been a road leading to a house like this. And yet, for some reason, when these houses were were abandoned, completely demolished. So from Calico Hall, we've just got two more farms further up into the fell up towards the summit of Grey Hill before we loop back around down towards White CPU and back along the the Go to the woods again. It was around this point that I realized this film wasn't going to be finished in a single day. Not the way I'd been stopping to video and nattering to folk along the trail, but with the sun beginning to drop, I still wanted to show you the two highest farms on these fells.

[00:30:43]We've made it to our next lost farm on this walk, Drink Waters. Now, whilst this is one of the lost farms, it's definitely one of those that is visited the most just because, well, it's on the main track leading up to Grey Hill. So, lots of people pass by here. There's a bench where you can sit and have a picnic back there. And there is information on drink waters here as well for those passing by.

[00:31:18]So there you go guys, still ruin of drink waters.

[00:31:24]Again, you can always find more information about these places through the book and obviously the uh the information board here as well. So you can have a look at that whenever you like. For me today, we're going to crack on and reach the next farm on this walk, Great Hill Farm. And this is definitely one of the most remote, probably the highest lost farm on this route. And this is one of those that most people walking up here won't even know about.

[00:31:50]Mainly because it's located just off the main track leading up to the summit of Great Hill. So, people bypass it altogether.

[00:32:01]The summit's just up there, but if you head down here, you'll spot our next loss farm.

[00:32:15]This is great hill farm. And have I saved the best till last?

[00:32:31]Well, with sunsets like this, it's got a really strong case.

[00:32:36]I think of all the farms we've visited so far, this one hit me the hardest.

[00:32:43]Just how far from civilization it felt.

[00:32:46]The middle of nowhere, high up on the hillside, fending for themselves for the most part.

[00:32:54]perhaps with the help of one or two neighboring farms.

[00:32:58]Can you imagine raising four, five, six children up here? They must have been a hardy bunch. And what's inspiring is some of them didn't want to give up this way of life even whilst everything was seemingly progressing miles from home.

[00:33:14]Which begs the question, were these tenant farmers forced to leave? I know when we think about remote locations, places like this, we're going to think of harsh weather conditions. So, torrential rain, wind, fog, you name it, heavy snow. They will have experienced it all here. But on days like today, nights like tonight, they would have got scenes like this as well. And that that's magical.

[00:33:42]Time to call it a night.

[00:33:46]So, we're back up here a week or so later to finish this incredible walk.

[00:33:51]And trust me, there are still many more farms to find on the way back towards the goit. After leaving Great Farm coming off the fell, we passed three more of the lost farms. Grimes, Heapy Moore, and Cop Style.

[00:34:06]To be honest, Grimes and Cop Style are easy enough to spot. Most walkers will pass right by them. But sometimes I do wonder how many people actually realize families once lived right here.

[00:34:20]Long houses like this were once the heart of Upland farms, built as a single structure where both people and animals live side by side.

[00:34:30]Typically, the building was split into two halves. One end for the family with simple cooking and living spaces and the other for livestock such as cattle and sheep.

[00:34:52]So that was Grimes. This was their neighbor, Copper Style.

[00:34:57]If you're walking up here, you can't really miss this ruin. The views up to Great Hill, Rivington, Winter Hill, and back towards White Cppus makes this particular farm location extra special if you ask me.

[00:35:16]Hippie Moore, on the other hand, is slightly different. It's more remote, tucked away off the main path. Put it this way, you wouldn't just stumble across it. You've got to know where to look. Once you find it, it's the same story. A home on the hillside, miles from anywhere.

[00:35:39]Like a few of these farms, I'd never been to this one before.

[00:35:44]There's that many stones still here. I think you could have a go at rebuilding Heapymore Farm.

[00:35:57]And that concludes the mall and farms.

[00:36:00]Let's head back down towards white copus alongside the towards Brinskllwoods.

[00:36:06]And yes, we've got to talk about why these farms eventually just disappeared.

[00:36:14]As I've stated many times in this film, by the late 1800s, life was changing.

[00:36:19]The mills down in the valleys were offering steady wages. Shops were being built, railways, gaslighting. It was a different kind of life forming and I suppose in a way farming alone wasn't enough anymore especially up on the fells. But even then some families still wanted to stay. They were healthy. They were used to the land. And in hindsight with time, better roads, new transport, you can imagine they would have made these places work for them. But sadly, they never got that chance.

[00:36:52]Coming off the fell approaching white cppus, we now turn off right, picking up a track that runs just above the goit.

[00:36:59]And yes, even here there are more lost farms.

[00:37:09]Coming from farming stock myself, it's hard to take it in really just how many homes once filled this landscape.

[00:37:38]We're on the home straight now, almost back at where we started. And there's just three more farms to show you.

[00:37:44]Firstly, we're looking for goose green.

[00:37:47]Not an easy find buried under all this bracken.

[00:38:13]A completely different feel to this farm down here in this valley, but equally just as beautiful. So that's Goose Green. Where's the next one? As for Fur Farm, well, this one is well and truly off the beaten track. And on the day of filming, I wasn't able to locate it. In fact, I had to return another day just to go scouting up in the moors in the hopes of finding it. I even got the drone up to have a good look around. And I did manage to locate a few potential spots because it looked a bit more barren in those areas and a bit more green. So potentially a moss would be there. But then just as I brought the drone in, something magical happened. I looked down at one of those potential locations and no word of a lie, there it was, a little rob, a little deer, and he was looking up at me and it was just like he was telling me that is where Fur Farm is. So, of course, I ventured down there and there it was, fur farm.

[00:39:14]Now, this was definitely a hard find.

[00:39:16]The hardest of them all, in fact, but worth the struggle for that moment with the road book.

[00:39:27]I'm so glad that I found it and I've been able to share it with you today.

[00:39:30]What a location for a farm, right?

[00:39:34]Fur Farm has a real uniqueness to it.

[00:39:37]Easily one of my favorite lost farm locations. And that brings us back to the with just one more farm to find.

[00:39:44]And talking of the goit, we now need to get into the real reason why the majority of these farms were demolished.

[00:40:04]When the go was first built in the 1850s, it wasn't a problem.

[00:40:10]Then in 1897, there was a major outbreak of typhoid down in Maidstone Stone Kent.

[00:40:16]And as you can probably guess, it traced back to contaminated drinking water. And it changed everything.

[00:40:25]The government pushed for stricter protection of water supplies across the country. And suddenly it wasn't just about reservoirs. It was about the entire catchment.

[00:40:35]And so all of this land here at Brinskll Moore was cleared and purchased compulsory.

[00:40:41]The Park family who own much of the land here were forced to sell. And so through the backing of the government, Liverpool Water Corporation took the lot.

[00:40:52]And the tenants, well, once their agreements ended, they were forced to leave, too. And just like that, generations of families gone from them all.

[00:41:06]But here's the part that I can't quite understand. Is the buildings themselves, they were demolished straight away. Why did they do this? Was it to stop people from returning? Was it really to protect the water supply permanently?

[00:41:22]Or was it simply just to remove risk?

[00:41:25]abandoned buildings with kids exploring, having fun. They just didn't want accidents on the land perhaps.

[00:41:34]Whatever the reason, it definitely brought a finality to it. The decision was made and sadly, a lot of these farms were lost forever.

[00:41:44]For a long time, this story was largely forgotten until recently when this book pulled it all back together.

[00:41:54]the lives, the names, the names of the places, and since then, even BBC's country files feature the story. And like you've seen throughout this film, you can now find small information boards at some of these sites.

[00:42:08]Collectively, all these things have helped. And hopefully this film adds something to it as well. If I can encourage just a few of you to visit, look for the lost farms and enjoy walks here, I've done my part for maintaining the legacy of these lost farms. History like this just shouldn't be forgotten.

[00:42:24]One of the most fascinating parts of this book is the diary extracts at the back. And what's special is that diary is linked to one of my favorite ruins up here. And here it is. We've saved the best till last in my opinion. Welcome to Marens.

[00:42:48]Whilst growing up, I wasn't necessarily interested in the lost farm story. I didn't know much about it. I did spend a lot of time in these woods and up on the fells. And this is one of my favorite places to come with the family dog at the time, Millie. We would spend hours here. And yeah, it's just a magical little setting. I would read books here and listen to music and just basically chill out on on the ruins here, not really knowing the full story, the extent of what went down here and the people that lived here. But now I know it's actually made it even more magical because I've not just got my own stories from spending time here, but I've been able to learn about the people that lived here as well many, many years ago.

[00:43:33]And it's not just Millie. I also bring Henry here now as well. In fact, it wasn't that long ago that I was making a film in these woods with Henry on a snowy walk. And the goal was to make it to this ruin. So, I've already featured this ruin on my channel before Marens's.

[00:43:49]I just love it. I really, really do.

[00:43:51]Sadly, a lot of the farm ruins were just completely demolished, flattened to the ground. But with Marston, you've still got that supporting wall there. And it just allows you to envision the home and the the life that they lived here. You can see the tracks that lead to this place. And they go off in all directions and they connect Marsden to other to other farms. So living in such close proximity to one another, you can imagine them trading and obviously supporting one another as well, especially those farms up on the fell, the ones that were exposed and remote during snowy, harsh winter conditions, they would have really need each other.

[00:44:31]David also put together a walk section in this book, and they are a lot more manageable. They're broken up into yeah, shorter walks basically. And uh yeah, if you're interested in in following some of his recommended routes, they're all in this book. I must also stress I am not being paid to promote this book, but I will provide an Amazon link in the description below. If you do decide to purchase it, Amazon will pay me a very, very small commission, and that'll be much appreciated, but it's really not the goal of this video. Put it that way.

[00:45:00]Besides, it wouldn't be a very good sales technique to give away a free copy in the comments, would it? In fact, I'm that passionate about this story, I've purchased several copies of this book, and I'm going to give one of them away to you. I'll be giving it away as a spot prize and I plan to pick out my favorite comment on this video over the next couple of weeks. So, if this film meant something to you or if you've got your own connection to these places, I'd really love to hear it. These farms may have been demolished, but they're not forgotten. And maybe, just maybe, by walking these paths, this is how we remember them. And lastly, if you are interested, I've actually pinned all of the lost farms I've been to and shared them through my my Patreon group, and that's in the uh the Fel Folk Field Guide. It's pretty much got all my recommended hidden gems, hotspots, cafes, accommodation. Pretty much anything that I've experienced and I want to share with you guys, I've pinned it and shared it through Patreon. So, if you're interested, check that out. I'll leave a link in the description below.

[00:45:58]or simply scan the QR code which is on the screen and that'll take you directly to Patreon. And just so you know, anything that I do make through Patreon is invested straight back into making more films like this. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to reading all your thoughts in the comments below. But that's it for today's adventure. Thank you so so much for watching and I shall catch you on the next one. Tada.

[00:47:04]I am.

[00:47:21]Heat.

[00:47:32]Heat.

[00:47:41]Heat.

[00:48:02]Heat.

[00:48:07]Oh, hey.

[00:48:35]Oh, heat.

[00:49:16]with