Wiswell, ENG - Postcode - BB7 9DF

Description of Wiswell

Located near Whalley and Clitheroe at the base of Wiswell Moor, Wiswell is a small village and civil parish in Lancashire, England.

There were 967 people living there as of the 2011 Census.

Parochial Pendleton is surrounded by the parishes of Sabden, Whalley, Barrow, and Barrow. The parish's more elevated eastern reaches are included in the Forest of Bowland.

Governance

A former township in the parish of Whalley, Wiswell has a long and storied history. In 1866, it was officially recognised as a civil parish, and from 1894 until 1974, it was a part of the Clitheroe Rural District. When Sabden was established in 1904, it took over a portion of the parish. In 2015, the parish council for Barrow was established separately from Wiswell. The parish is part of the Ribble Valley Borough Council's Wiswell and Pendleton ward, which also includes Barrow (since 2015), Pendleton, Mearley, and Worston. In 2001, there were 1,289 people living in the ward; by 2011, that number had increased to 1,316. There is only one council member for the ward, and the current one is Conservative Party member Robert Thompson.

Amenities

These days, the village of Freemasons Arms only has one establishment of note: a pub and restaurant named Freemasons Arms, which is located on Vicarage Fold, a fairly unadopted highway. However, the original names of the village's corner store, school, and church remain prominently displayed on the facades of what are now prominent houses.

The building that now houses a pub was not constructed with that purpose in mind. The building's name comes from the fact that it was once three separate cottages and one of them was a lodge for Freemasons. The Lamb Inn, the original village pub, used to stand next to the village phone box; today, it is known as Clegg House, a private residence on the corner of Coronation Gardens. Over 150 years have passed since the Lamb Inn shut its doors, leaving Wiswell without a pub until the Freemasons opened.