Hiley i' th' Vicarage

The route leaves Horsepasture , going past Middle Ramsden Farm and then bearing left across the moor to the abandoned Ramsden Clough Reservoir, crossing over it along the top of the dam, and reaching Foul Clough Road.

One of the ruined farms along this road is Vicarage, which is at location no. 2 on the map of this walk shown in the first post in this series on 17th August 2023.

The ruins of Vicarage farm

There have already been two posts in this Blog about Hiley i' th' Vicarage:

10th August 2019 - Hiley i' th' Vicarage. This post was a story written by John Travis. He refers to him as John Hiley but his proper name was Thomas Hiley (or Highley).

21st August 2019 - Vicarage Farm and Thomas Hiley's family.

Thomas was the illegitimate son of Mary Highley (1761-1820). Mary was the first child of James Highley and Martha (nee Greenwood), 5 x great grandparents.

Thomas married Sally Haigh, the daughter of John Haigh (the younger) of Pastureside, Walsden. John Haigh became a wealthy man and owned a lot of land and property on the moors above Walsden, including Pastureside, Vicarage, Nicklety and Coolam. Pastureside and Nicklety feature later in this walk. Coolam is situated a little further along Foul Clough Road from Vicarage.

Thomas and Sally were given the tenancy of John's farm at Vicarage. The couple had 11 children including Reuben, featured in the Blog post of 7th May 2019 and the subject of John Travis's story 'Mother Wit', and John, known as Hiley i' th' Horsepasture, who was featured in the last post.

Foul Clough Road

Vicarage is in the far distance, near the middle one of the 3 big trees