Home to Horwich

I arrived in Horwich on a late evening train from London on Friday, May 13. Dad, Uncle Colin and Chris greeted me at the train station for a brief hello before calling it a night. Saturday I was reunited with Amy and Paige! While Grandma Renee was not turning ninety until Wednesday, we celebrated her birthday on Saturday. Emma planned a wonderful party of friends and family with lovely decorations and a cute cake. The party’s highlight was a WWII singer who entertained the crowd with wartime songs of love and patriotism that Gran Renee sung along to for every song. Sunday was a low-key day with a brief trip to an indoor market with many stalls to wander between.

On Monday, our group went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. We saw old locomotives, early nineteenth century textile machinery and did children’s science experiments. Tuesday we went to Smithill’s Hall and Coaching House. We ate lunch in the coaching house that has since been converted into a restaurant with Ivy and John. Following lunch we toured the stately home that now serves as a museum. I have multiple memories of eating at Smithill’s from previous trips to Horwich, but the tour of the hall was new and highly interesting. Our guide spoke to us about the home’s history and explained the significant of woodwork all the way to additions made to the hall from the Middle Ages to Victorian times.

Wednesday began with a walk from Rivington Barn up to the Pike. The Pike was originally part of a communication system dating from the Normans. It is a large stone tower that stands alone on a hill and would be set on fire as a warning to everyone of an impending threat. The watchman on a neighboring pike would see the blaze and lite his own post as part of the communication chain. After making it to the top of the hike to see the views of Horwich and surrounding fields, we headed down to Rivington Barn for lunch hungry and muddy. In the afternoon went to Bolton’s Museum and Aquarium. The museum consisted of three smallish galleries of Egyptian artifacts, paintings and sculptures and finally an exhibit on Bolton’s development with an upstairs of various taxidermy animals. The “aquarium” was a rather pitiful room of tanks that reminded me of the fish section of Petco. As Wednesday was Gran’s birthday, we went to dinner with the entire family at a British carvery (equivalent of an American buffet).

The next day was a spent driving around northwest England’s countryside on a mystery murder tour. In the 1600s, Pendle was an English village that hung several supposed witches. The mystery tour was based on the geographical region around Pendle stopping in church graveyards and going down footpaths. The drive was gorgeous with stunning scenery of Pendle Hill, sheep and cows and the villages of Newchurch, Barley, Barrowford and my favorite of Downham. Friday was another really enjoyable day of caves in Ingleton and the Skipton market and castle. In the caves, we walked about a mile into the earth to see calcified limestone and other geological scientific terms I have forgotten the names of! It was damp, dark and really cool. At some parts we had to fold in half to fit through the tunnel. Skipton market was nothing to right home about, but the castle was a highlight. It was built as a small residential castle, yet it was still fortified enough to hold off Oliver Cromwell in a three year siege during the English Civil War. We saw its kitchens, banqueting hall, dungeon, chambers and lookouts.

Today, Saturday, was my last day in Horwich. We went to Camelot theme park with the entire family and spent the day on rides with the occasional threat of rain. Today was bitter sweet. I said good-bye to my English side of the family for a period I know will at least be several years. It was great to get to know them as an adult, but disappointing to know it will be years before I have the opportunity to see them again. This is especially sad to me now that we have developed relationships separate from just the familial association of my dad. My eyes watered but I smiled saying, “see you in a few,” even though that "few" means a few years.