00:00For Bygone Burmy today we're in Billington. Now Billington is a village
00:07sort of adjacent to Worley but separated from Worley by the River Calder which
00:14we're looking at now. In the background is one of the most well-known bridges in
00:20Lancashire. It carries traffic between the two villages and there
00:27are medieval passing places on the bridge although it's been rebuilt several times
00:33since it was constructed. Now as we're here in Billington I wanted to say a
00:40little bit about the name because the name is quite interesting. Now I'm
00:44interested not in all of the name because the first part of the name is
00:49is disputed but the ing tun bit a tun is a small community around which was built a
01:00fence. Tun does not mean town. People often think that tun means town like tun in
01:08Luton for example or Bolton. It's not that it means a small community might only be a
01:15single house with a fence around it. So that's what the first part of the word but
01:20the interesting bit is the ing bit in the middle. Now the ing bit is Scandinavian
01:28not Anglo-Saxon but Scandinavian for a dwelling. So Billington probably means a an
01:39individual within the first part of the name his house and land. So it's a an early name
01:49which probably was formed in the seventh or eighth century and is one of the
01:57earliest place names around here. Of course Wally is much older but by the time you get
02:04to Burnley which is about ten miles in that direction there's only one ing village and that
02:14is Paddyham which was Pad-ingham originally and that dates the community to the seventh
02:22eighth century. We're standing outside Chew Mill which was a corn mill. It's now been converted
02:31in two houses and there's a farm there. A few little businesses as well. But the real reason for us being here is that the Battle of Billington which took place in 798 took place here. The actual description is that it took place on Billington
02:52Billington Moor which was beside Billington Moor which was beside Billington Wood. Well the trees around us are the remains of Billington Wood. It was a battle between the King of Northumbria who was Ethel Wolf who faced a rebellion from a man known as Wadda. Now Wadda is described in the archives.
03:21as Dux. D-U-X. Now Dux is the word from which Duke has come these days. So he's sometimes known as Duke Wadda. But in those days the Dux was the leading official in Britain after the Romans left. So for two or three hundred years he was the leading local official.
03:48And he must have had some title other than Dux because he was described as being a noble or an elder man. And he is reputed to have been involved in an assassination attempt which was successful against Ethel Wolf's predecessor.
04:12Anyway the battle took place here. Anyway the battle took place here. We don't know a great deal about the battle with the exception that it is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
04:21And it is also known that Duke Wadda died. Duke Wadda was defeated and he went into exile. But that's as much as we know. Local historians have often speculated that Wadda Hall which is in Waddington which is supposed to be...
04:47Both names are supposed to have come from Duke Wadda.
04:53We're in the village here. Just above the River Calder. On the road side. There's a little community hub but it's right behind me.
05:02It was built as a Methodist chapel. An Ebenezer as you can see on the name plate. And it was constructed in 1879. And one of the benefactors was George Foster who was a calico printer.
05:20He was a partner in the Calico printing works in Saddam. He was a partner of Richard Cobden, the MP. He was a statue of Richard Cobden in Manchester.
05:33But I just feel this is... Its use might have gone or almost gone as a chapel. But it's got a community use as a community hub. It's one of the best ones I've ever come across.
05:47We're in Billington Village here. And behind me is the Judge Wormsley. Which was a pub and hotel. Closed. It's now a facility for young children.
06:03But Judge Wormsley wasn't born here. He was born very nearby. Clayton was where his father owned land. His father had land also in Wishton.
06:17And he became, Thomas Wormsley that is, a judge in the reign of Elizabeth I and James I.
06:28Now he was suspected of being a Catholic. But he was one of those men who, if he was, succeeded in life.
06:36Because he built a huge fortune in activities in the legal profession.
06:44Had some very important jobs.
06:49One of them was involvement in the trial of Robert Devereaux, the second Earl of Essex, who led a rebellion against Elizabeth I in 1599.
07:04The trial took place in 1601, just before Elizabeth died. Devereaux was found guilty. And if I remember correct, was executed.
07:13So he was involved in big cases. But he's well known amongst Catholic historians for trying to keep decisions that Elizabeth I's sister, Mary, Mary I, otherwise Bloody Mary, made in favour of Catholics.
07:33So he put his reputation on the line to help Catholic families. And did so quite successfully.
07:43Anyway, his fortune went into the Dunkenhof, which is a hotel, locally. And we will include an image on it.
07:54We've now come to an area that's known as painted wood. Now, in the past, it's difficult to believe when you look at how peaceful and quiet it is, that it was an industrial area was this.
08:07Not in that it had loads of factories. The buildings that we see, largely hand loom weavers cottages and the Wally area was one of the centres of the hand loom weaving industry.
08:21In the days when the weavers were making woolen cloth. It then expanded into the era of cotton. But these little cottages were the homes of the weavers.
08:37They took in the yarn from a spinner and brought it home and wove it into cloth in these little cottages here.
08:47The ones behind us are a little later, but just looking down the road where we are now, there are some really good examples of hand loom weavers cottages,
08:59which are mentioned in all of the books on hand loom weaving and so they should be, because they're exceptional examples.
09:06And the village that we're in is a charming little village too.
09:11Behind me is a row of houses with an odd name. It was a row of houses, but I think now it's been made into two. There are originally four or five houses there.
09:24And it's called the Margery. It's right on the banks of the Calder, the same river that runs through Burnley.
09:32And I've never been able to work out how the Margery gets its name. I've looked the name up. It obviously is a girl's Christian name.
09:42And it also is a surname, so it could be connected with somebody who lived there. And apart from that, I don't know.
09:50It does need a little bit of smartening up, but it used to be a very smart property. And it's surrounded by the plant that made Wally's fortune in the past.
10:04You can just see in front of it, the tall flat plants. They are members of the Salix family, or Salix family. And they produce wicker for baskets.
10:18And they were, Burnley had a Salix industry, the Salford Hotel, that's how it gets named in Burnley.
10:24They made wicker baskets, not for shopping, for commercial use.
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