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The Luddites
The
area surrounding Willow Valley Golf Course is rich in local history. In the
early 19th century, the Luddites were a group of textile workers
who set about destroying the machinery that threatened their jobs. They met
secretly to discuss tactics in local inns. One of the inns they used for this
purpose was the Black Horse Inn at Clifton, which is the village bordering the
Willow Valley Course. Several
of the vigilante group sustained fatal injuries and were secretly buried in
the churchyard at nearby Hartshead.
Patrick Bronte
It
is believed that the Vicar of Hartshead at the time, Patrick Bronte discovered
the newly dug Luddite graves, and because he sympathised with the Luddite
cause chose to say nothing. Patrick Bronte was father of Charlotte, Emily and
Anne, the Bronte sisters. Robin Hood
Robin
Hood reputedly spent his last days in a local priory, and feeling his end was
near decided to fire an arrow from his bow to determine his burial place. The
site is marked with a headstone, but the distance from the Priory to the grave
does not add any credibility to this story, although no doubt it will continue
to be told.
Daniel Defoe
Daniel
Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe traveled extensively in the local area prior
to writing a traveler's guide “A Tour of Great Britain”. In 1727 he
described the area where the Golf Course is now situated as being “furnished
by nature with springs and mines”.
Local Coal Mining
In 1851 there were a total of eleven pits operating in Clifton and Hartshead, the Hartshead Moor pit being situated just beyond the boundary of the Fountain Ridge course. In 1930, miners in this pit were trapped when a fault developed in the winding engine which was used to bring up the cage to the surface. Rather than waiting for the repair they set off crawling underground and found their way into and out of the workings of three other pits before being brought safely to the surface at the Three Nuns Pit over two miles away. It is quite possible that the miners’ escape route passed under what is now Willow Valley Golf Course.
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