Rivington pike. feb 2010
 

John Andrews who owned half of rivington moor in 1729 bought the other half from john breses that year for £1,747.At this time the manor consisited of the hall, a number of farms and the common or waste lands on the hillside.The latter amounted to 400 achres.The tenants of the manour had certain rights of turbary(cutting peat for fuel) and pasturage written into there leases and these rights were a constant souce of friction.The main reason was that the boundaries of moor common were uncertain and often disregarded.

On the 7th march 1733 two employees of john andrews seized a cow belonging to christopher horrocks of horwich,on the grounds that the cow was grazing on land owned by john andrews.Proctracted litigation ensued which eventually resolved in1737 in favour of john andrews although at considerable cost.Nevertheless the court case resulted in the boundary between rivington and horwich being properly drawn.

The tower on rivington pike was erected by john andrews ostensibly to celebrate the acquisition of rivington manor in 1729 but it could also be argued that he erected the structure as evidence of legal ownership of the moor.

At the time of the spanish armada in 1588 there is mention of the beacon on rivington pike.If the armada was sighted off plymouth sound a chain of beacons stretching the length and breadth of the country was to be lit to warn the populace.

Rivington pike tower was constructed with some of the stone from the earlier beacon and the sharp grit boulders of the hillside along with stone from the douglas stream.

The tower is 20 feet high with the external walls forming a square each side being 17 feet long.It was a single storey building with a cellor and was roofed.The inner chamber, measuring 13 feet square was heated with a fireplace.Over the years the pike tower fell into disrepair and at one stage planes were mooted to demolish the structure because it was dangerous.Fortunately the decision was taken to restore and it now receives regular upkeep and maintenance.

My visit was out of personal intrest of the area for a while iv wanted to get on top of here mainly because i wanted to know if it had a roof, oh and the great views to be had. Visited with kelvin.



Thanks for looking history taken from"old rivington and district" M.D Smith

Ha ha great stuff CC & nice history lesson:thumbs
Pigeon tower next eh ?

Could be, would be unfair to let you and morrisey do all the local towers.Nice one boboil.

Well done cc :). Great day for it too.

Nice work shaggy;)

Great work, always wanted to see these two reported.

nice one , always wanted to get on top of here myself too.anything inside then ?

Good work CC. Dom's at the w/e?

Thanks all, cossie nick all thats in there is flat footballs all broken bottles unless you can get into the basement under all the junk but i doubt it. Yeah morrisey im in, think il buy a helmet on payday.

thats mint dude, nice one!!

It starts with the doms.... next it will be the obsessed evil chimney lol :)

i hope manx:)

Pigeon tower next pleeeeeaaaaaaassssseeeee!!! :)

Nearly 50 years of travelling up/down the M61 and I still haven't had the opportunity to vist the structure that has held my imagination and fascination since I was about 6! :cry

Good work CC :)

ah i love walking up there :) Did some cycling around there at one point aswell.

Great post thanks :)

Walked past here many a time wandering what was in it. Nice one lads!

Went in the pigeon tower about 10 years ago, legit access, spiral staircase large stone fireplaces, fantastic building. Built by lord leverhulme for his wife to do her sewing in!! Locked down tight these days!

i climbed up the front a few week ago and had a peek in the window the stone spiral staircase looked indeed nice,how did you get legit access, be ace to stumble across a united utilities bloke on his way in.

I knew the countryside ranger for rivington...he had a set of keys!! It was 10years+ ago and he's long gone and don't have any contacts there anymore. We didn't go on the second floor as it's dodgy aparently but the ground and top were good.

You'd make the news for sure. would love a trip to the top of this though don't think i could stand the RF burns:flame they've been doin a load of work up there recently for the digital switch over and had a little cage on a cable for winching them to the top along with a 24/7 guard to keep an eye on it!!

I'ts been made alot more secure now since the switch over for some reason. Quite afew years ago they put fencing round the cable anchors cause some knobhead tried to saw through one of them:popcorn

I dont know why i havn't been on the roof of that thing. Been up there so many times. Deffo need to check this basement out

hello, didn't really want to open a new thread on this one cc has covered the history and your fairly limited on the pics you can get from it. but that said it did have fantastic views. visited with blino always wondered what it was like on top of there.

i would like to have a look a look at the cellar although i couldn't see any sign of it.

i was also lucky enough to be let inside the pigeon tower by a local ranger about 10 to 15 years ago it would be good to have another look inside.

http://i841.photobucket.com/albums/z...3/DSC00127.jpg

http://i841.photobucket.com/albums/z...3/DSC00120.jpg

http://i841.photobucket.com/albums/z...3/DSC00119.jpg

http://i841.photobucket.com/albums/z...3/DSC00123.jpg

nice one buddah

cheers pal always wanted to see inside from when I used to be a kid. I used to get told that it was a gate house to secret tunnels :blush that would be good though.

if you stand in front of that, looking towards the Dovecote tower (pigeon tower) about 800mtrs to your right, there is an entrance / vent shaft to a mine, walk about 50mtrs and there is another, both have now been capped though, BUT, if you walk a bit further (well a lot further) to the edge of the hill in the undergroth, there is a big gaping entrance, never had the balls to go in though.

i would think dovecote is pretty much the same as it was when you last looked, with the sewing room now having a chair in it, the floor was replaced a few years ago

You got a map link to that entrance?

I've not, i know it's there though as we used to spend a lot of time up in that area, we used to sit in the opening smoking weed in my much younger days. I'll be over that way in a week or so, i'll nip to it with my gps and get it on google maps for you.

also,driving up to dovecote on that god awfull road (i think it's belmont road), between the farm house and the tower, there is a "S" bend in the track, with a fence to your right and a dry stone wall to your left, if you look over the wall, you are kind of looking looking down towards the res between two hills, on the hill to the right, between the trees, there is a mine or some kind of cave entrence there too.

Just give us a rough idea on google maps as i am pretty familiar with the area.

sounds interesting give us a shout if your going for a wander up ther.
my partner in crime is still out with a broken arm.

the one i've only seen from a short distance away was here - http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&...ed=0CBkQnwIwAA

as you look down the hill, it is in the hill to the right.

buddah has posted a link to the 2 vent shafts i was on about that have now been capped in this thread here - http://www.nwex.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7619

as for the other entrence, there is only poor quality pics on google earth, and i cant quite work out what is where, but for a rough idea for now, the bloke on the right of the picture in the link buddah posted is pointing in the direction, there was a wide entrence with a pile of mud / soil in front of it in the side of a steep hill if you walk in that direction,, the pile of mud looks like landslide that ran down and landed in front of the entrence, i should point out though, it was a good 15 or 20 years ago we used to hang about on there,

the one i've posted a google maps link to above, i saw earlyer this year while up at dovecote tower

that google link doesnt work, paste this into googles map search - 53.615868,-2.536447

cheers for that reddood thats some good info. i think the one with coordinates might be capped im pretty sure i think ive seen what looks like its a filled in hole but i could be wrong it still very worth taking a look.
there's one a bit further down near wilderswood that also looks like a capped hole. but on the shooting range there is a small cave/mine on there that's still accessible.

i think another trip up rivington is calling very soon, let some of this water dry up for a few days.

I was walking the dog up rivi about 2 weeks ago and decided to have a quick look to see if i could see anything mine related. I found the 2 capped ones plus a flooded one all roughly within about 500 meters ish around here 53.626597,-2.537123. but couldn't find anything of the other you mention redood. There are what looks like the remains of small stone buildings around that area as well that i used to assume would of just be used for sheep or shepherds. But now makes me think if they could of been used by the miners as temporary shelters instead of walking back down in bad weather.

I did find this as well which im not quite sure of what it is 53.624873,-2.541661.

I've replied to your PM, but i would have to go and have a look for my self to be sure what is where. it's a long time since i've been out and about around there.

Exellent pics on top of beacon' always wondered what was inside!
The toecutter has been inside pidgeon tower many years ago, the door was secured by an ancient padlock that funnily enough was the very same as one that i had.
Twas easy to replace and gave me access for many months over winter,
once inside you climb a spiral stone staircase into the second floor room that was brim full of old school desks and chairs, i would carry these to the top floor where the is an enormous fire place!
It was lovely and cosy lookin out through the long gone leaded windows on the peasants bellow'' until the firewood ran out and my lock was replaced by the authority that were the carers for this daunting place.
The acces is a little more secure these days, but not impossible'' suffice to say i may have the urge to re-kindle my memories inside.
Where there's a will' toecutter will show the way...

Big howdy to all moochers and searchers!!!

Amazing job :cool1 This has been on my "to do" list for to long. Any sign of the cellar in there?

No but there that much rubble in the bottom you would have to dig about. We was on it again last week end i was looking in from the top but i don't really fancy getting inside it it would be pretty tricky getting out.

hahahahahahaha amazing.

Im so glad it got posted up, you wouldn't believe how close I've been to taking my rope up there. It always looked like a tree was growing out of the top of it or something on google earth.

At least the spectre horseman didn't come :rolleyes:

Brilliant stuff. Always fancied a look in myself. How did you manage it? Ladders?

Re: the pigeon tower, it has been legit unlocked at periods in the last 20 years.