Introduction

Stand beside the road that leads over the crest of Jeffrey Hill at the south-eastern end of Longridge Fell, with your back to the Longridge Golf Club and Cycling Association course, and look out over the valley of the River Loud towards Chipping. The land rolls away from your feet, over the dark density of Turnleys Wood, to a smooth curve of fields, stitched with hedgerows and upholstered with spinneys and copses. It has a neat, close-cropped weave, trim, orderly, quiet but for the plaintive, idiot sound of sheep and the occasional stuttering roar of a tractor.