These things connect us

This substantial bank barn is the most complete structure remaining in the deserted hamlet of Thorns, Ribblehead. (A 'bank barn' is built into a hill or slope so that the lower and upper levels can both be accessed from the ground, usually with livestock kept below and a threshing floor on the upper level.)

There are little indicators of its past life - a wisp of rope, a rusty hinge, a galvanised metal bin, the careful arrangement of stones and sills, placed hundreds of years ago by a human hand. These things connect us to the past and bear witness to the resilience of the folk who eked out a living in these remote fells, farming, raising children, doing the laundry and keeping a fire burning in the hearth. 

Away in the distance, you can just catch a glimpse of the huge Ribblehead railway viaduct, built over several years in the 1870s. The hamlet of Thorns was still occupied at that time. I wonder how the inhabitants reacted to the sight of hundreds of navvies engaged in its construction. Did they wonder at it, gawp at the shanty towns that sprang up to house the workers? Or did they feel aggrieved that their remote and yet familiar existence, hardly changed for hundreds of years, was being invaded by the 'modern' world's noise and hustle? Who knows? - but what we do know is that Thorns itself was abandoned by 1890, its purpose all but extinguished.