Winter Hill (Lancashire) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Winter Hill is a hill on the border of the boroughs of Chorley

Chorley

Chorley is a market town in Lancashire, in North West England. It is the largest settlement in the Borough of Chorley. The town's wealth came principally from the cotton industry...

, Blackburn with Darwen

Blackburn with Darwen

Blackburn with Darwen is a unitary authority area in Lancashire, North West England. It consists of Blackburn, the small town of Darwen to the south of it, and the surrounding countryside.-Formation:...

and Bolton

Bolton

Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...

, in North West England

North West England

North West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...

. It is located on Rivington

Rivington

Rivington is a small village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, occupying . It is about southeast of Chorley and about northwest of Bolton. Rivington is situated on the fringe of the West Pennine Moors, at the foot of Rivington Pike...

Moor, Chorley and is 456 metres (1,496 ft) high. Part of the West Pennine Moors

West Pennine Moors

The West Pennine Moors cover an area of approximately of moorland and reservoirs in Lancashire and Greater Manchester, England.The West Pennine Moors are separated from the main Pennine range by the Irwell Valley. The moorland includes Withnell, Anglezarke and Rivington Moors in the extreme west,...

, it is a popular walking

Walking

Walking is one of the main gaits of locomotion among legged animals, and is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined by an 'inverted pendulum' gait in which the body vaults over the stiff limb or limbs with each step...

area, and has been the setting for mining activity, aeroplane

Fixed-wing aircraft

A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...

disasters and murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

s.

Its prominent position made it the ideal site for the Winter Hill TV Mast, transmitting to a large part of North West England. There are also a number of other telecommunication

Telecommunication

Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...

masts and towers around the summit and side of the hill for mobile phones, Professional Mobile Radio

Professional Mobile Radio

Professional mobile radio are field radio communications systems which use portable, mobile, base station, and dispatch console radios...

users and emergency services. Lancashire Constabulary

Lancashire Constabulary

Lancashire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial county of Lancashire in the North West England. The force's headquarters are at Hutton, near the city of Preston...

was the first to use the site for one of their base stations in 1950; they had to build the road and it is said to have been built by policemen.

Paths to the summit lead from Belmont

Belmont, Lancashire

Belmont is a village in Lancashire, England. It is close to Winter Hill between the towns of Bolton and Darwen. It has around 500 inhabitants and lies within the civil parish of North Turton in the unitary authority area of Blackburn with Darwen.-History:...

& Rivington in Chorley Borough, as well as Horwich

Horwich

Horwich is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, in Greater Manchester, England. It is southeast of Chorley, northwest of Bolton and northwest from the city of Manchester. It lies at the southern edge of the West Pennine Moors with the M61 motorway close to the...

and Blackrod in Bolton Borough. The summit can be reached via a short walk from the top of a road pass 2 km west of Belmont. The hill is a distinctive feature on the skyline for most of the Borough of Chorley

Chorley (borough)

Chorley is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. It is named after its largest settlement, the town of Chorley.-Creation:...

and further afield due to its unusual shape.

It offers views over the Greater Manchester Urban Area

Greater Manchester Urban Area

The Greater Manchester Urban Area is an area of land defined by the Office for National Statistics consisting of the large conurbation that encompasses the city of Manchester and the continuous metropolitan area that spreads outwards from it, forming much of Greater Manchester in North West England...

, including Manchester city centre

Manchester City Centre

Manchester city centre is the central business district of Manchester, England. It lies within the Manchester Inner Ring Road, next to the River Irwell...

, the Civic Centre in Oldham

Oldham

Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...

, Salford, Werneth Low

Werneth Low

Werneth Low is a hill in Greater Manchester, England, and a part of the Pennines. It is located on the borders of Stockport and Tameside and rises to height of...

, Wigan

Metropolitan Borough of Wigan

The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in North West England. It is named after its largest component town, Wigan and also includes the towns of Leigh, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Ince-in-Makerfield, and Hindley. The borough was formed in 1974 and is an...

and Bolton

Bolton

. In clear weather conditions, it also offers views of Blackpool Tower

Blackpool Tower

Blackpool Tower Eye is a tourist attraction in Blackpool, Lancashire in England which was opened to the public on 14 May 1894. . Inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it rises to 518 feet & 9 inches . The tower is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers...

, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Snaefell

Snaefell

Snaefell is the highest mountain and the only summit higher than on the Isle of Man, at above sea level. The summit is crowned by a train station, cafe, and several communications masts.- Views :...

in the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

, the Cumbrian mountains, Snowdonia

Snowdonia

Snowdonia is a region in north Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three National Parks in Wales, in 1951.-Name and extent:...

in North Wales

North Wales

North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...

, Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, Southport

Southport

Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...

, the Irish Sea

Irish Sea

The Irish Sea separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel, and to the Atlantic Ocean in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey is the largest island within the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man...

, Peak District

Peak District

The Peak District is an upland area in central and northern England, lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, but also covering parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, and South and West Yorkshire....

, the Pennines

Pennines

The Pennines are a low-rising mountain range, separating the North West of England from Yorkshire and the North East.Often described as the "backbone of England", they form a more-or-less continuous range stretching from the Peak District in Derbyshire, around the northern and eastern edges of...

and much of the North West of England. Almost uniquely in the United Kingdom, on a clear day the summit offers a view of four national parks - The Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Peak District and Snowdonia.

The Rivington area contains remains of Lever Park and the private gardens constructed for William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme

William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme

William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme was an English industrialist, philanthropist, and politician....

in which several listed structures remain today.

History

The top of the hill has not always been bare as it is today. It was once covered by woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

that may have been destroyed by fire and it is thought that the hill was inhabited, though no remains have been found. There is a Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

round cairn

Cairn

Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...

dating from 1600–1400 BC on the hill. A stone axe dating from 2500BC has also been found in the area in the River Douglas

River Douglas

The River Douglas, also known as the River Asland or Astland, is a river that flows through Lancashire and Greater Manchester in the north-west of England...

in Tigers Clough. A flint knife and two arrowheads were also discovered.

Burial mounds

Two burial mounds are located near the peak of the hill, dating from the Bronze Age

Bronze Age

. On March 24, 1957, two men discovered "curved lines of stones" sticking out of the peat that formed a two feet high wall. The wall surrounded a raised area located in the middle of it. In July 1958, a group from the University of Manchester

University of Manchester

The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

excavated the central mound only to find it had be excavated 250 years earlier. The site was thought to have originated from 1500BC in the Middle Bronze Age.

The second mound was found higher up than the previous mound, on the southern edge of Noon Hill. The site was excavated in August 1958 by the Bolton & District Archaeological Society, revealing two lines of stones and two piles of human remains.

Two Lads

Two memorial cairn

Cairn

s on the hill are known as Wilder Lads or Two Lads. There are differing opinions on why they were erected. Details of the site were recorded in 1776 and 1883. Thomas Hampson in 1883 described 'Two Lads' as the graves of two children of a Saxon king, Edgar and recorded that Winter Hill was previously known as Edgar Hill. The cairns could mark the site on which two boys lost their way on the moor and died of exposure in a snowstorm.

Scotsman's Stump

On 9 November 1838 George Henderson, a Scottish merchant walking over the hill from Bolton to Blackburn, was murdered by gunshot along the road directly opposite where the television station now stands. James Whittle, a 22-year-old collier from Belmont

Belmont, Lancashire

, was brought to court and found guilty of murder. However, he was found not guilty at a second trial in Lancaster

Lancaster, Lancashire

Lancaster is the county town of Lancashire, England. It is situated on the River Lune and has a population of 45,952. Lancaster is a constituent settlement of the wider City of Lancaster, local government district which has a population of 133,914 and encompasses several outlying towns, including...

. There is an iron post with a plaque on the hill in memory of the victim erected in 1912, replacing a tree that was earlier planted opposite the television station. This is known as Scotsman's Stump.

Air disaster

On 27 February 1958, a Silver City

Silver City (airline)

Silver City Airways was a private, British independentindependent from government-owned corporations airline formed in 1946. The name Silver City was derived from the eponymous Australian mining town at Broken Hill, where the The Zinc Corporation was headquartered. Silver City's first commercial...

Bristol 170 Freighter (G-AICS) travelling from the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

to Manchester crashed into Winter Hill several hundred yards away from the transmitter. Thirty-five people died and seven were injured. The weather that night (note: the ICAO report states that the accident occurred at 9:15 in the morning) was so severe that none of the engineers working in the ITA

Ita

Ita or ITA may refer to:* Itá, Paraguay* ITA Software, Inc., a travel industry software firm* Italian language, from its ISO 639-2 language code* Italy, from its ISO 3166-1 country code* Aeta, an ethnic group in the Philippine Islands...

transmitting station were aware of the crash. Several feet of snow hampered rescue efforts, and a snow cat vehicle had to be diverted from the A6 to cut a path for emergency vehicles though the track had been cleared by people using spades by the time it arrived. A documentary was made about the disaster.

There have been several other aircraft crashes around Winter Hill. A two seater aircraft crashed there in the 1920s. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

an American Fairchild UC-61 Forwarder

C-61 Forwarder

The Fairchild Model 24, was a four-seat, single-engine monoplane light transport aircraft that was used by the United States Army Air Corps as the UC-61 and by the Royal Air Force...

(41-54885) of 5th Air Depot Group crashed on 7 August 1942. In the following year, on 12 November 1943, the crew of a Wellington Bomber (Z8799) from 28 Operational Training Unit, flying from Blackpool

Blackpool

Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...

to Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, were killed when it crashed just to the North of Winter Hill, on Hurst Hill

Hurst Hill

Hurst Hill is a location on Anglezarke Moor, within the West Pennine Moors of Lancashire, England. Despite a modest height of 317 metres , the summit provides excellent views towards the Irish Sea. Of more note, however, is its location between Round Loaf and Pikestones, both of which are...

, Anglezarke Moor

Anglezarke

Anglezarke is a sparsely populated civil parish in the Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England. It is dominated by reservoirs that were built to supply water to Liverpool, and a large expanse of moorland with evidence of Bronze Age settlements...

. The following month, 24 December 1943, an Airspeed Oxford

Airspeed Oxford

The Airspeed AS.10 Oxford was a twin-engine aircraft used for training British Commonwealth aircrews in navigation, radio-operating, bombing and gunnery during the Second World War.-Design and development:...

(BM837) of 410 Squadron crashed on the hill. Other crashes have included several Spitfire

Supermarine Spitfire

The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...

s, Hurricane

Hawker Hurricane

The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...

s and a Gloster Meteor

Gloster Meteor

The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' first operational jet. It first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with 616 Squadron of the Royal Air Force...

which crashed in 1953. In September 1965 a RAF De Havilland Chipmunk flew into the hill in cloud, without serious injury to the crew. The last crash occurred in October 1968 when a Cessna 172

Cessna 172

The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is a four-seat, single-engine, high-wing fixed-wing aircraft. First flown in 1955 and still in production, more Cessna 172s have been built than any other aircraft.-Design and development:...

force-landed between Winter Hill and Rivington Pike

Rivington Pike

Rivington Pike is a hill summit on Winter Hill, part of the West Pennine Moors, overlooking the village of Rivington in Lancashire, England. The nearest towns are Chorley and Horwich. The Pike is a prominent local landmark which derives its name from the Old English hreof plus ing meaning the rough...

UFO sightings

UFO

Unidentified flying object

A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...

s have been reported on Winter Hill over the years. In 1950, one witness described seeing a "dark flat iron shaped object hovering close to the ground". He later described having an encounter with a being that later returned to a craft before disappearing. In 1999, in what became later known as the "Murphy Incident", a farmer said he saw an object hovering over his cattle field. On investigation, the object moved away towards Preston and the farmer later reported the incident to the police. The farmer returned to the field and discovered the object had reappeared. The farmer reported the incident to the Manchester Aerial Phenomena Investigation Team (MAPIT), who investigated the incident for several weeks. While MAPIT was conducting an investigation, they alleged they were being followed by a man in a vehicle. The farmer reported that he was warned by officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was a United Kingdom government department created by the Board of Agriculture Act 1889 and at that time called the Board of Agriculture, and then from 1903 the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and from 1919 the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries...

. The farmer has not been traced since the incident, though the farm remains and the current owner has not spoken about the incident.

The UK government first released previously classified information

Classified information

Classified information is sensitive information to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of persons. A formal security clearance is required to handle classified documents or access classified data. The clearance process requires a satisfactory background investigation...

on UFO sightings in May 2006, one picture appeared to show an unidentified object over Winter Hill.

Nearby hill summits

Name	Locality	Elevation Elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
Winter Hill ^†	Rivington	456 metres (1,496 ft)
Counting Hill	Smithills/Belmont Belmont, Lancashire Belmont is a village in Lancashire, England. It is close to Winter Hill between the towns of Bolton and Darwen. It has around 500 inhabitants and lies within the civil parish of North Turton in the unitary authority area of Blackburn with Darwen.-History:...	433 metres (1,421 ft)
Two Lads Hill ^†	Horwich Horwich Horwich is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, in Greater Manchester, England. It is southeast of Chorley, northwest of Bolton and northwest from the city of Manchester. It lies at the southern edge of the West Pennine Moors with the M61 motorway close to the...	389 metres (1,276 ft)
Noon Hill ^†	Rivington	380 metres (1,247 ft)
Crooked Edge Hill	Horwich	375 metres (1,230 ft)
Rivington Pike	Rivington	363 metres (1,191 ft)
Adam Hill	Horwich	360 metres (1,181 ft)
White Brow	Horwich	358 metres (1,175 ft)
Whimberry Hill	Belmont Belmont, Lancashire Belmont is a village in Lancashire, England. It is close to Winter Hill between the towns of Bolton and Darwen. It has around 500 inhabitants and lies within the civil parish of North Turton in the unitary authority area of Blackburn with Darwen.-History:...	340 metres (1,115 ft)
Egg Hillock	Belmont	328 metres (1,076 ft)
Brown Hill	Rivington	325 metres (1,066 ft)
Brown Lowe	Smithills	325 metres (1,066 ft)
Burnt Edge	Horwich	325 metres (1,066 ft)
† Denotes walker's cairn Cairn Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas... or similar.

External links

Website devoted to Winter Hill
Computer generated summit panoramas Winter Hill index
Tunnels and Mines of Winter Hill
Free PDF Book: Carboniferous Fossils of Winter Hill & surrounding areas
Winter Hill movie download

Note (15/08/10) www.winterhill.org is not a valid domain.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.