West Pennine breakdown

These moors smaller in scale than the Southern Pennine moors, more varied and slightly less boggy! An exciting range of archaeology can be found there, much of it from the early industrial revolution; water driven mills, usually in ruins and small mines for lead, cobalt, coals and many other minerals. There are thousands of abandoned farmsteads just above the altitude for successful farming.

Architecture is uniquely Lancastrian with locally quarried stone. There are lots of poetic place names, like Oswaldtwistle (local pronunciation "Ozzeltwizzel") and Ramsbottom (local pronunciation "Sheep's arse"). I've worked with local photographer Angela Nield whose work captures the local atmosphere perfectly.

The name "West Pennine breakdown" refers to a bluegrass music form which features a series of breaks played by different instruments, in this case sax, flute and guitar.