Following an official launch this month, Pendle Forest History Group will be working with a firm of professional archaeologists to follow historic clues found in the landscape surrounding the famous hill.

Staff from Lancaster-based Oxford Archaeology North will work with local people to provide training in research and field-surveying techniques so a picture of the area through the ages can be constructed – and all without digging a single hole!

Residents will use old records, maps and aerial photos to identify likely historic sites, initially around the villages of Barley, Newchurch and Roughlee.

Then they will pinpoint these sites in the fields where, using the latest digital technology, they will make a detailed record of their finds.

Little physical investigation has been carried out in this area to date and the information collected will be a valuable addition to Lancashire's Historic Environment Record.

Pendle Hill and the surrounding area is part of the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the work in Pendle is part of a wider project co-ordinated by AONB team. Landscape Stories is a community-led heritage project to understand and celebrate the Bowland landscape through discovering more about the people and activities that have helped to shape it.

Thanks to almost £50,000 funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and extra funding from Lancashire County Council and the Forest of Bowland AONB, over the next two years the project will work with local people and visitors to record, interpret and share information about heritage features and traditional rural industries.

If you would like to get involved with the work of the Pendle Forest History Group or would like more information about the Landscape Stories project, contact the Forest of Bowland team on 01200 426433.