Ribchester History Society

A Christmas Buffet Night was held at the Ribchester Arms.

Elizabeth and Mike Peason have lived at Hothersall for 27 years and Elizabeth has researched the history of her house and the ancient settlement of Hothersall. Elizabeth presented a talk on her findings.

As a warm-up to Halloween, folklore historian, Peter Watson, gave us an entertaining talk on the folklore of Lancashire and Yorkshire, from witches to werewolves.

Peter demonstrated a replica of a 17th century witches bottle, which he had made, and suggested that it might still be useful, given the number of active covens supposed to be in the Pendle area.

The new season kicked off with a Night at the Museum. Curator Patrick Tostevan hosted an evening with cheese and wine provided. Patrick talked about the history of the Museum as well as the early history of Ribchester before we all got to tour the Museum.

Ribchester Roman Museum

On 9th September the Iron Age came to Ribchester when the Museum held an Iron Age Day. Celtic re-enactors brought the Iron Age to life with demonstrations of food and cooking, clothing and weapons.

Walking Roman Roads. Following on from Colin Hinkley's talk, Walking in the Footsteps of Agricola, he brought it to life by leading a walk around the village. The walk started at the Museum and took in the five major Roman roads that led from the village.

We also made an impromptu visit to the Roman well in Peter Openshaw's garden and finished up with lunch at the White Bull.

Visit to Lancashire County Records Office. Based in Preston, the Records Office looks after historic documents relating to the county from about 1115 to the present day. The documents are available for anyone to view free of charge, but Ann Jepson gave us an opportunity to learn first hand how the office works and to see behind the scenes.

The Annual General Meeting included an exhibition of Field Day memorabilia and was followed by John Hilton's cine-film of the 1965 Field Day.

Roman re-enactment society, Legio II Augusta paid their annual visit to Ribchester, with talks and displays on Roman life, military displays and a demonstration of Roman artillery. This year for the first time the programme included a cavalry display.

The displays included Roman crafts, Roman cooking and a Roman field hospital. A slave gave an enlightening talk on her life in slavery.

Roy Skilbeck led a couple of nostalgic walks around the village. On both days we were lucky with the weather - despite the forecasts the rain held off just long enough.

Starting off at the Museum, we first explored the area around the church and Riverside. On Church Street we looked at the weavers' cottages and paid a visit to the weaving shed in Marc Mallam's garden

We finished up in the Ribchester Arms.

The Ribchester Local History Society display in the Field Day marquee attracted a lot of interest.

Displays included The Roman Roads of Ribchester by Colin Hinkley, Roman British Food by Ann Ward, and a selection of photographs and documents from Roy Skilbeck's collection.

Walking in the Footsteps of Agricola. Colin Hinkley guided us through his explorations of the Roman Roads around Ribchester with a talk and a slide show.