Hiley i' th' Horsepasture

The walk leaves Allescholes and heads across the moor, passing Cranberry Dam, to reach Horsepasture. Cranberry Dam was built to provide water for the mill at Spring Bottom - see a later post. Horsepasture is location no. 1 on the map shown in the first post in this series on 17th August 2023.

The ruins of Horsepasture with Cranberry Dam and Walsden beyond

Horsepasture is now known as South Ramsden. The farm here has not been lived in for about 100 years and all that remain are ruins. The farm was close to the historic Lancashire/Yorkshire boundary. The first known mention of Horsepasture is thought to be in 1612. Edmund Taylor and his family are recorded as living here in the mid 1700s.

John Highley was a long-time farmer at Horsepasture and was known as 'Hiley i' th' Horsepasture'. He was the son of Thomas and Sally (nee Haigh). Thomas was known as 'Hiley i' th' Vicarage' and will feature in the next post. John was one of 11 children and was born around 1803. He married Betty Hartley in St Chad's Church in Rochdale in 1834. The couple had two children, John and James.

It is not known when John Highley came to live at Horsepasture but the 1841 Census shows him as a Farmer living there with his family and a shepherd, Robert Holt.

By 1851 the family had moved to the neighbouring township of Blatchinworth and Calderbrook in the chapelry of Littleborough. In the Census of 1851 John is described as a Farmer of 40 acres. Another son Reuben is noted on the Census form. In the 1871 Census John, a widower, is still working as a Farmer, now with 118 acres, along with Reuben, in the township of Butterworth. The 1881 Census shows John as an inmate in the Union Workshouse in Dearnley, Littleborough. He died shortly afterwards, aged 78.

In 1831 John was left a sum of £100 in his grandfather's will. This was John Haigh of Pastureside (John Haigh the Younger), John's mother's father. John Haigh was a wealthy man and £100 would have been a large amount at that time.

The remains of the stone arch of the cellar, built into the hillside. This would have been provided a very cold storage place for milk, eggs and meat.

The ruins of Horsepasture