Ribble, River and Valley: a local and natural
history
by Malcolm Greenhalgh
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Carnegie Publishing Ltd (15 Oct 2008)
ISBN-10: 1859361358
ISBN-13: 978-1859361351
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Carnegie Publishing Ltd;
Limited edition of 100 copies
(15 Oct 2008)
ISBN-10: 1859361811
ISBN-13: 978-1859361818
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Around twenty-five miles north-east of the county town of
Lancaster, nearly 550 metres above sea level, a tiny spring arises under the shadow
of the famous Three Peaks. This is the source of the river Ribble.
Along with tributaries of immense variety and interest - the
Hodder, the Calder and the Douglas - the Ribble flows through some of the most
beautiful and historically important landscapes in the country, finally to meet the
sea twenty miles west of Preston. Anciently the Ribble formed a political boundary
between north and south, as well as an important routeway from east to west; and
today it still marks a stark contrast between rural countryside to the north and
industrial landscapes to the south.
In this unique and important new book, Malcolm Greenhalgh
combines local history - Iron Age hillforts, Roman camps, monastic farms, ancient
crosses in churchyards, farming practices and land use - with a comprehensive and
authoritative account of the area’s wildlife and how it has changed over time. The
result is a book which explains, with rare clarity and insight, how the countryside
we know and love came to be as it is today, as well as how human intervention has
moulded many disparate landscapes in different ways over the centuries, right up to
the present day. 
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