29/03/2026
History Of Coldwell
The History of Coldwell and the Activity Centre
1592 –The first mention of Coldwell as a place name occurs in 1592 when Elizabeth I sent her surveyor, Sir Richard Shirebourne, to settle a land dispute over the boundary of the Royal Manor of Colne.
The first mention of Coldwell as a place name occurs in 1592 when Elizabeth I sent her surveyor, Sir Richard Shirebourne, to settle a land dispute over the boundary of the Royal Manor of Colne. One witness called said “the boundary goes up Walverden to Coldwell and thence to Deer Stones”. Deerstone Moor is across the fields from the car park behind Coldwell Inn.
The name is thought to refer to an ancient watering place. The location of the watering place is a short walk from the Centre left after the woods. Old tracks leading down suggest it was a halting place for travellers. It has been securely walled and gated around but here is a picture below:
Coldwell watering hole
As an item of local interest, a Robert Parker, his wife Jane and sons Robert and Henry built a dwelling which he called New House as in the book ‘Telling Tales ‘ by Marianna Michell ‘t new airse or (Purse house) but there is say that it was originally Parker House? Later generations would forget the Parker’s and speak of the building as they heard it said by the older generation. It is on the Red Spa Moor, south-east of Coldwell Inn and visible from it. All but the doorway of this dwelling was demolished in the 1920s. Today twin columns of black masonry stand out against the backdrop of the moor. On the lintel across the columns is carved the legend: Robert Parker and Jane his wife, May 2nd 1672. Robert Parker was a relation of the Parkers of Browsholme Hall near Clitheroe. A track from the road to Thursden leads across the moor to the ruin. In the recent years our groups that stay at Coldwell enjoy a walk passed the archway. This has become very popular for group photographs
Dorrway in the moors walk
prince’s trust at the doorway
snow filled doorway
The inhabitants of nearby Great Masden (near present Nelson) were indicted for not keeping in good repair the kings highway between Waterside, Colne and Coldwell. The kings Highway – the road passing Coldwell Inn now known as Back Lane – was part of a long distance North-South route from Scotland via Gisburn and Colne going back to prehistoric times. It was crossed at Coldwell by an east-west route running along the flanks of Boulsworth Hill. Today these ancient tracks are part of the Pendle Way. The well at Coldwell was probably a watering place for travellers along the two routes. In the middle ages it was certainly used by cattle crossing from the vaccary (cattle breeding station) established at neighbouring Beardsworth by the De Lacy family of Clitheroe Castle, Lords of the Manor.
The outbuildings occupied the land now covered by the car park. The farm had 33 acres. The farm house, now the Activity Centre, had a barn at the rear. The entrance to this can still be seen in the archway of stones in the wall in the large porchway through the double doors. A Cross Finial stands on the south end gable and was described in an issue of Cartwright Hall Museum (Bradford) Bulletin during 1967 as being “two stones half lap jointed into each other thus giving a cross like appearance. Two others only in the area are known to exist, one at Bradley near Skipton and the other at Silsden near Keighley. It was constructed as to be seen from any direction, marked the building as a place of refuge and hospitality.
As well as a farm, in 1841 the main building at Coldwell became an Inn – thereby giving it its name. The tenant farmer at Coldwell, one James Ormored, became the first landlord of the inn.
The Purpose of the Inn
The purpose of this was to serve travellers on the rout into Lancashire from Yorkshire especially the town of Halifax with its now famous Piece Hall to which pack horse trains went carrying cloth from the handloom weavers of Colne and district.
1790 – Approx Farm and Outbuildings erected.
1845-1861- James Ormerod landlord listed in The Blackburn standard newspaper as now has the licence for a house in Marsden, called Coldwell House.
james ormerod licence
Sometime in 1852 the farmer/landlord, James Ormored, left Coldwell, transferring the tenancy to a James Higgin who was required to pay an annual rent on the 1st February to the estate owner, John Sagar. The Sagar family, of Great Marsden, were extensive landowners in the district and had been in possession of Coldwell since 1775.
The estate at Coldwell then passed from John Sagar to his spinster daughter, Ellen Sagar. The estate at the time was described as “the dwelling house known as the Coldwell Inn together with barn, stable, shippon, yard, outbuildings and 33 acres 2 poles 22 rods”.
The layout of the current (2026 building compared to those days are as follows:
1800’s 2026
Kitchen and living room Staff offices
Bar Left of the front door
Best room/tap room Lounge
Games room, wet room passage Stable, Storage, hayloft
Dining room and kitchen Shippon and stalls
Midden Boiler room
1861-1892 -James Higgins was the landlord for a grand 31 years at The Coldwell Inn
During 1881 Ellen Sagar sold 2 rods 28 perches of her land at Coldwell to the local board at Nelson for 91 pounds 2 shillings and 6 pence for the purpose of a water works. The board reserved the right to buy further land at 160 pounds per statute acre. The estimated cost of the proposed waterworks (reservoir) was 1,500 pounds construction was to be by the civil engineers, Newton and Vawser of Manchester.
ellen sagar signing over
1892 spriing chorus in the nelson chronicle
1893-1899 – Sam and William Peel -this information was gathered in the 1980s
(1894-1895 ) – John Edmondson – During the 2024 research a newspaper article now shows that John was summoned for having prohibited hours of drinking at Coldwell, therefore showing he was indeed the landlord at that time. In this article it states one of the customers were so drunk he was unable to say his name.
1899-1900 -Seth Ormerod –During his licence there are quite a few newspaper articles of illegal gambling, underage drinking, out of hours drinking.
seth ormerod
seth ormerod
seth ormerod
1900 – 1905 -Mr Thomas Cork
1901- Nelson and surrounding areas suffered a drought and on the 20th September, the water manager informed the newspaper that Coldwell reservoir only had about 12 days of water supply left.
By 1903 the Coldwell Inn had begun to acquire a bad reputation as the chief gambling centre of the district,
1903– John Storey, a labourer employed at Coldwell drowned in the Coldwell reservoir. He was seen outside taking off his coat and said’Ill let them see whether i cant do it or not’ . A witness replied ‘ What are you going to do? ‘ . He replied’ I am going to swim across the reservoir’ He swung over the reservoir gate and the witness did not see him again. Another witness saw him in distress. He went to his assistance. Before he had got far he was seized with cramp and had to return. He tried again but he had sank when he was about a yard off. He dived in but found it impossible to reach him. The deceased was recovered 2 days later.
1905-1906 – William Middleman
1906-1922- Donald Fraser
1918- Horace Pickles (aged 420 a discharged soldier was found dead in the shippon. He was known to the Inn with visits for food and drink. On that day he had a conversation with him in the shipponand he said he felt unwell. He was found dead the day after. The cause of death was heart failure brought on by anemia.
1922-the big police operation and raid – a Nelson magistrate was describing gambling at Coldwell as having become “a great blot not only on this town of Nelson but upon the social life of the whole district”.
The local police had made many previous efforts to close down the operation. Wives complained their husbands were squandering money they could ill afford there, and were selling their wives and daughters jewellery and the shirts of their backs (literally) to raise stake money. To counteract it a massive police operation took place at 3pm on Sunday, 22nd of October 1922 involving 96 sergeants and constables who converged on the district in 3 waggonettes following a tip off from PC Blackledge (Bolton diversion) who had temporarily lived Rutland street, Colne, and posed as a gambler. The gambling site on this occasion was a hollow between a rock outcrops on Deerstone road not far from the inn. Well paid lookouts were in position all around. Pies, peas, to***co etc. were on sale. Gambling took the form of betting on the drop of a coin with full and half sovereigns in use. Warned by the lookout the gamblers, over 100 men from as far afield as Blackburn and Bradford, tried to scatter as the police moved in, but 52 were arrested on site or after a chase across the moor. Amongst them were professional people including doctors. Subsequent fines amounted to 1800.
1922-1926- Ernest Fraser (son of Donald)
1924- Fire at Coldwell –Mrs Isabelle Fraser was awoken after 11pm by dense smoke in her bedroom. She was terrified to find that her escape was cut off as the staircase was in full blaze! Her first thoughts were the safety of her 2 little children. She rushed to the window but couldnt open it. So she smashed the window. Then took bedsheets and tied them together. After fastening one to the iron bracket outside the window, she slid down to the pavement below. She rushed for a long ladder in the outbuildings, and then climbed back into the bedroom, after battling the smoke, she first took one of her children out, covered them in a blanket, carried him to the window and down the ladder. Her courage undaunted, she returned up the ladder for the other child. Ernest had been away on business but returned shortly after to find his home on the verge of ruin. There was also a sad fact that the pet dog was missing evidently perished in the fire.
fire at coldwell inn 1924
1926 – John Cack obtained the licence from ernest Fraser
1929-1935 – somepoint William Clegg/ John Cook
1931 – somepoint Daniel Crowther – this has only come about due to a newspaper article with some possible fraudulent records and payments for cows, as it also appears he also was the local farmer?
1935 -James Alma Hartley –Marion Sycamore’s father pictured below. Marion has visited us a couple of times, explaining where her horse was kept. See 2024 when we hosted her book launch.
There is also mention of a James Glenthorne Smith that may have resided at Coldwell when it was closed.
1941 -After serving travellers and locals for just 100 years, the Inn at Coldwell closed and the building was abandoned as a dwelling.
1942 -1944 For a time in the second world war the local Home Guard used the empty building as a base when, so the story goes, it was feared German glider troops were planning to attack the reservoirs and poison the water.
1962 – Eventually Massey’s Burnley Brewery withdrew the license for use at the new Hour Glass public house at Walton Lane, Nelson.
1963 – North Calder Water board purchased
1974- North West water board took ownership
That year the cross form the roof went missing
Derelict for over 40 years During the 1940’s -1980’s the building at Coldwell stood uninhabited. As time passed it decayed into a ruin, almost sinister in appearance, such that on bright moonlit nights or when storm winds and driving rain swept the moors the loan traveller could be excused an irrational glance in his rear view mirror on passing close to the old building’s blackened walls, gaping windows and half open rotting door. Had he ventured round the back in daylight hours he would have found a bed of nettles surrounding the broken doors to a gloomy barn where sheep took shelter.
1985 – Don Kitson and Elsie Marshall’s vision to transform the Inn . They envisaged a new life for the old building: that of an Activity Centre for physically and mentally disabled, and for the constructive rehabilitation of selected young offenders. Subsequently, plans were made and the major task begun of finding the necessary support and the not inconsiderable finance in grant and donations, a story in itself.
1989 – Coldwell Inn Activities Centre Project became a registered charity. In the July, after 4 years of complex and often difficult preparation on all fronts, the Coldwell Inn opened its doors to a new life as an Activity Centre
first group at coldwell
1997 – The cross was found by chance in pieces in a garden in Nelson. It was repaired and put back in its place.
Donald Fraser (now 81 years old in 1997) revisits Coldwell. He was rescued in the fire that destroyed his home at Coldwell when he was 8 years old) . He recalled ‘ As I look at the building as it is today my mind goes back in time 73 years to when this was a cobbled farmyard. My sister, as she grew older, would run from here down the road to meet me from school. When men came to drink and chat at the Inn in the evening my father would have a ring board in the taproom. This had hooks on it, each with a number. The aim was to go round the board with as few rings as possible. These rings were made of rubber. Usually there was the click-click sound of dominoes being played to be heard. My mother would be making sandwiches while my father looked after the drinks. When my sister and I were in bed and the men started to leave we could hear them walking down the road until the sound of their boots and clogs faded away, but not in winter when there was snow on the ground.
2006 – Prince Edward came to open the building extension that included the opening of the cafe in the conservatory part of the building.
2008 –Funding cut for the probation service funding for people to work in the Centre’s gardens.
2010 – Drastic funding cuts to Youth Services with the austerity policy. A shocking 62% reduction in council funding. By 2016 over 600 Youth Centres had disappeared. This resulted in a reduction in bookings and the loss of funding etc that Coldwell needed.
2012 onwards –Manager Claire, staff Joanne and Glen dealing with mostly all duties and increased bookings and improved systems and maintained the Centre and grounds with help from other staff in and out and volunteers.
2017- Claire and Joanne raise £1706 for the Young carers for a sponsored 11 hour walk. Wherever possible with profits, groups like the Young Carers have subsidised stays.
2020 – The Covid pandemic meant with the restrictions on group gatherings, So in March Coldwell was forced to close for 16 months and it was touch and go to see whether it would ever reopen
2021 – In June Coldwell finally re-opened with the first group through the doors being local Primary school, Trawden Forest. The kids were even more excited than ever being able to be together having fun.
2024- Coldwell hosted a book launch to raise money for East Lancs Hospice. The writer was Marion Sycamore who lived at the Coldwell Inn when she was a little girl (Her Father was landlord James Alma Hartley)
What a day that was as Fiona (Donald frasers daughter came along (Donald was 8 years old when there was the fire at Coldwell in 1924)
and also Glen Clayton who was Ethel Whittakers granddaughter with info on Thomas Walton landlord in 1893. Her Grandmother didn’t want to move there as it was against her principles. Although she did the catering and became noted for the quality of her home-made scones, she would only enter the bar to clean up.
With this day I (Joanne Kippax (was Rowe) delved into the newspaper archives to reveal more landlords and other interesting information which has now created this edited history of Coldwell. Something I feel very privileged to be a part of.
Marion recounted the day of her move to The Coldwell Inn. They moved from the nearby packhorse Inn, which was called ‘The Pack Horse Inn’. She stated ‘ I will always remember the day of the move, as it meant going over the big moorland hills through Thursden Valley. Dad asked the coal man with his coal wagon to take a load of equipment from The Pack Horse to Coldwell, leaving mother at Coldwell as she would have to be there for the pub opening times. I went with them in the wagon, sitting on Dad’s knee. On the way back, as we gathered speed just at the steepest part of Thursden Valley, the wagon’s brakes failed. At the bottom bend in the road, the wagon hit the bank on the right, sending it through the valley. How we got out alive I will never know! The driver himself was unhurt, Dad had a bad cut on his wrist and I had only a few cuts, but lots of blood over my new yellow dress’ More can be read about her life at The Coldwell Inn and Marion life through her book ‘ Galloping through time’ by Marion Sycamore -£10-All proceeds go to East Lancashire Hospice.
History research
Marion giving her stories
Marion Sycamore that lived at Coldwell in the 1930’s
2026 and the future –Coldwell Activity Centre (formally Coldwell INN has now stood here for 236 years! ) so we are all just a tiny part of its history.
So how many more years will people be able to enjoy the hospitality here?
Currently enjoyed by The Prince’s Trust Team Programme’s (now The King’s Trust) , Young Carer’s, Youth Clubs and Groups, Disability Groups, Football Teams, Cycling and Walking Groups, Schools and College Groups, Music and Choir Groups, Team Building/Corporate Groups, Behavioural Therapy Groups and Private Family Get-togethers and many more
