Wiswell is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Ribble Valley Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. Its council is based in Clitheroe, the largest town. The borough also includes the town of Longridge and numerous villages and surrounding rural areas. ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England, close to Whalley and

Clitheroe Clitheroe () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Ribble Valley, Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England; it is located north-west of Manchester. It is near the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for to ...

at the foot of Wiswell Moor. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 967. The parish adjoins the other Ribble Valley parishes of Pendleton,

Sabden Sabden is a village and civil parish in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England. Sabden is located south of Pendle Hill, in a valley about three miles north west of Padiham. The parish covers , of which is occupied by the village. It lies in t ...

, Whalley and Barrow. Higher areas of the parish, east of the village, are part of the

Forest of Bowland The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells and formerly the Chase of Bowland, is an area of gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England, with a small part in North Yorkshire (however ro ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is one of 46 areas of countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Since 2023, the areas in England an ...

(AONB).

Toponymy

The name Wiswell is commonly spoken as wizel. The true pronunciation is more like 'wize-well' consistent with the original spellings of "''Wyswell''" or "''Wiswall''". There are several theories about the origins of the name. It is said to take its name from Old Molly's Well, a local landmark, later to become known as Wise Woman's Well (Wise Well). Alternatively, 'Wis' could have been part of the name of an

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

personal name.

History

Vicarage House, on Vicarage Fold at the southern edge of the village, dates from the 17th century. A Grade I listed structure, it has been described as "the most interesting building" in the village.

Governance

Wiswell was once a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in the ancient parish of Whalley. This became a

in 1866, forming part of the Clitheroe Rural District from 1894 to 1974. Parts of the parish transferred to

on its creation in 1904. It has since become part of the borough of

. In 2015 Barrow was split from Wiswell to form a separate parish council. Along with Barrow (since 2015), Pendleton, Mearley and

Worston Worston is a small linear village and civil parish in Lancashire, England. The village is north-west of Pendle Hill, east of Clitheroe, and is in the Ribble Valley district. As it is only a small village, with a population of 76 at the 2001 ce ...

, the parish forms the Wiswell and Pendleton

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

of Ribble Valley Borough Council. The ward had a population of 1,289 in 2001, rising to 1,316 in 2011. The ward elects a single councillor, who currently is Robert Thompson of the Conservative Party.

Amenities

Wiswell village pub-restaurant - geograph

Today the village only boasts a pub/restaurant (Freemasons Arms) located on Vicarage Fold a pretty unadopted highway. However, there used to be a small corner shop, school and church; the names of each still stand on the original buildings but they are now prominent houses in the village. The property in which the current pub operates was not originally designed as a public house. It was formerly three small cottages one of which was a

freemasons Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

' lodge, which is how it acquired its name. The original village pub, the Lamb Inn, was located adjacent to the public phone box, but no longer exists and is now known as Clegg House, a residence on the corner of Coronation Gardens. The Lamb Inn closed over 150 years ago and Wiswell was without a pub for some time as the Freemasons did not open until considerably later on.

Population

Towards the end of the 19th century about forty per cent of the people who lived in Wiswell left to live elsewhere. This was probably related to job losses (through the temporary closure of the Barrow mill) and significant employment opportunities elsewhere. The British census figures taken every ten years from 1801 to 1871 show the population changes. The census uses the highway from Whalley to Pendleton to divide Wiswell into 'West' and 'East': ;West: :Wiswell township (part of) in the parish of Whalley. All that part of the township of Wiswell which lies on the Western side of the highway leading from the town of Whalley to the village of Pendleton and which passes through the town of Wiswell Barrow">nd includes Barrow ;East: :All that part of the township of Wiswell which lies on the Eastern side of the Highway leading from Whalley to Pendleton including Briggs farm, Busskens Hill, Wiswell Hall, Wiswell Eaves and the remaining cottages on the Eastern side of the Highway. In the censuses from 1801 to 1841, the population rose sharply and stabilised between 1841 and 1851 at about 750 people. Following this the population declined sharply to about 420 in 1871. The change in population in the 1850s was dramatic. It seems likely that the Barrow Print Works closed for a time after 1851 or at least significantly reduced its workforce. Notes in the 1861 census highlight "a decrease in the population of the Townships of Wiswell and Whalley which is attributed to the discontinuance of employment in the Printworks."

References

Notes Citations

External links

Wiswell Conservation Area AppraisalLight Clough SSSI
{{authority control Villages in Lancashire Civil parishes in Lancashire Geography of Ribble Valley