Last reviewed 16 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 1200–2004
Barley-with-Wheatley Booth sits beneath Pendle Hill in Lancashire, a sandstone summit worked by named tenants from 1323, shaken by the 1612 witch trials, and later marked by George Fox's 1652 vision that founded the Quakers.
The short answer
The path to Fox's Well leads onto Pendle Hill in Lancashire, a sandstone summit where the 1612 Pendle witch trials began after Alizon Device allegedly cursed a pedlar, and where George Fox's 1652 vision on the same slopes later founded the Religious Society of Friends, the Quakers.
The summit of Pendle Hill — 1956 · Dr Neil Clifton · CC BY-SA 2.0
1612
A curse near this hill set off the Pendle witch trials
Pendle Hill is a sandstone hill in Lancashire, and it still gives its name to the witch trials that made it famous. In March 1612, a teenager named Alizon Device met a traveling peddler named John Law on a road near here. John Law refused to give her pins and moments later he collapsed. Historians credit the collapse to a stroke, but at the time people called it a curse. That single encounter set off an investigation that pulled in Alizon's family and their neighbors, the Chattox family, two households who had feuded for years over stolen goods and reputations as cunning folk.
A local magistrate, Roger Nowell, began questioning people. In April, Alizon's mother, Elizabeth Device, held a gathering at Malkin Tower, a house near this hill, to plan a defense. Elizabeth's son stole a sheep to feed the guests. Nowell heard about the meeting and saw it as proof of a coven. By August, ten people from this area stood trial at Lancaster Assizes. The case against them rested heavily on the testimony of a nine-year-old child, Jennet Device, who gave evidence against her own mother. On August 20, 1612, ten of the accused were hanged at Gallows Hill in Lancaster. It remains one of the largest mass executions for witchcraft in English history.
The hill itself was already old ground by then. Bronze Age people built burial sites near its summit, long before anyone spoke of witches. Its name is a fossil of language layered on language: "pen" is a Cumbric word for hill, and "hyll" is Old English for hill, so Pendle Hill means, roughly, "hill hill hill."
1612 and before
The hill's name stacks three words for hill
The hill's name reaches back further than any of these events. In the 13th century, it was recorded as "Pennul" or "Penhul." Later English speakers added "hill" again, not realizing the name already meant that twice over.
Local legend attaches a darker story to its slopes. The tale says the Devil once leaped from Hameldon Hill to an outcrop above the village of Sabden, leaving footprints burned into the sandstone. He gathered rocks in his apron there, the story goes, meaning to throw a boulder at Clitheroe Castle. His apron string broke first, and the rocks fell in a pile near the village of Pendleton instead, where they can still be seen.
1652
George Fox saw his founding vision from this summit
Forty years after the hangings, a traveling preacher named George Fox climbed this same hill. He later wrote that he was "moved of the Lord" to make the ascent, even though it was steep and hard going. From the summit, he said he saw the sea bordering Lancashire. He also said the Lord showed him "in what places he had a great people to be gathered." That vision became a founding moment for the Religious Society of Friends, known as the Quakers. Pendle Hill still carries that meaning for Quakers today, who travel here on pilgrimage. A retreat center near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is named Pendle Hill in honor of Fox's vision on this spot.
1661
A scientist measured air pressure from this summit
Nine years after Fox's vision, a scientist named Richard Towneley used Pendle Hill for a different kind of experiment. Richard Towneley carried a barometer to the top and recorded how air pressure changed with altitude. It was an early attempt to measure something invisible: the weight of the air itself. The hill's isolation made it useful for that kind of test, the same isolation that later let it earn the type name "Pendleian" in geology, drawn from an exposure of rock in a nearby valley.
1970s to now
The witch trials still shape how this hill is remembered
The witch trials never let go of this hill's reputation. A college at Lancaster University, founded in 1974, took the name Pendle and built its crest around a lion standing on the hill with a witch's broom. Writers kept returning to the story too, from Robert Neill's 1951 novel to Joseph Delaney's Spook's series. In 2018, a Doctor Who episode set its story among the same 17th-century trials.
In 2004, a television crew from the ghost-hunting show Most Haunted came to film a live Halloween investigation on the hill. Its presenter, Yvette Fielding, later called it the scariest episode the show ever made. The hill's haunted reputation still draws crowds every Halloween, climbing the same slopes where the accused once lived.
Pendle Hill stands over the Lancashire countryside today, its sandstone summit still drawing walkers, ghost hunters, and Quaker pilgrims alike.
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Deep time
The sloping summit of Pendle Hill is formed from Pendle Grit, a coarse Carboniferous sandstone over 300 million years old, laid down over thick beds of Carboniferous limestone.
Neolithic and Bronze Age burial sites have been found at and around the top of Pendle Hill, showing people used this high ground for the dead long before any written record of it.
In the 13th century the hill was recorded as 'Pennul' or 'Penhul,' combining a Cumbric word and an Old English word both meaning 'hill'; English speakers later added 'hill' again once the older meaning was forgotten.
A 1323 record of herbage yields in the Barley Booth and Wheatley Booth area names tenants Gilbert de la Legh, Robert de Penhille and John de Dinelay, among the earliest named people tied to this ground.
Henry VIII's dissolution of Whalley Abbey in 1537 removed the main religious authority over the Pendle area, and some writers argue the resulting gap in order and teaching helped set the stage for the 1612 witch trials.
Era background — not a record of this tile · Cassiethehag.com
March 1612
In March 1612, Alizon Device, granddaughter of a woman known as Demdike, allegedly cursed a pedlar named John Law near Pendle Hill after he refused her pins, and when he collapsed moments later it set off the chain of accusations that became the Pendle witch trials.
In April 1612, Elizabeth Device held a gathering at Malkin Tower, and her son James Device stole a sheep to feed the guests, an act that drew the attention of magistrate Roger Nowell and escalated the investigation.
On 18-19 August 1612, the Pendle witches were tried at Lancaster Assizes, with nine convicted largely on the testimony of nine-year-old Jennet Device, who gave evidence against her own mother Elizabeth Device and other family members.
On 20 August 1612, ten people convicted in the Pendle case, including Alizon Device, Elizabeth Device, James Device, Anne Chattox and Alice Nutter, were hanged at Gallows Hill in Lancaster, one of the largest mass executions for witchcraft in English history.
Jennet Preston, accused alongside the Pendle group, was tried instead at York Assizes because she lived in Yorkshire, and was hanged on 29 July 1612, just weeks before the others.
In 1652, Quaker founder George Fox climbed Pendle Hill and said the Lord let him see 'in what places he had a great people to be gathered,' a moment Quakers still mark as the founding of their movement.
A Methodist chapel built in Barley village in 1884 was later bought by the Barley with Wheatley Booth Parish Council in the 1940s and turned into the village hall.
The television show Most Haunted staged a live Halloween investigation on Pendle Hill in 2004, and its presenter Yvette Fielding called it the scariest episode they ever made.
In March 1612, Alizon Device allegedly cursed a pedlar named John Law near Pendle Hill after he refused her pins, and his collapse set off the investigation that became the Pendle witch trials, ending with ten people hanged at Lancaster on 20 August 1612.
What was here before the witch trials made Pendle Hill famous?
Bronze Age burial sites lie at and around the summit of Pendle Hill, showing the ground was used for the dead long before any written record of the witch trials, and the hill's name itself was already recorded as 'Pennul' or 'Penhul' by the 13th century.
Why is Pendle Hill important to Quakers?
In 1652, George Fox climbed Pendle Hill and said he was shown from its summit 'in what places he had a great people to be gathered,' a vision Quakers mark as a founding moment of the Religious Society of Friends.
What does the name Pendle Hill mean?
Pendle Hill means roughly 'hill hill hill,' since 'pen' is a Cumbric word for hill and 'hyll' is Old English for hill, both added onto an already-existing name before later English speakers added 'hill' a third time.
Who was hanged as a result of the Pendle witch trials?
Ten people, including Alizon Device, Elizabeth Device, James Device, Anne Chattox and Alice Nutter, were hanged at Gallows Hill in Lancaster on 20 August 1612, after a trial at Lancaster Assizes that relied heavily on testimony from nine-year-old Jennet Device.
What scientific experiment took place on Pendle Hill?
In 1661, Richard Towneley carried a barometer to the summit of Pendle Hill to measure how air pressure changes with altitude, an early attempt to measure the weight of the air itself.
