Rivington pike. feb 2010
 

John Andrews who owned half of rivington moor in 1729 bought the other half from john breses that year for £1,747.At this time the manor consisited of the hall, a number of farms and the common or waste lands on the hillside.The latter amounted to 400 achres.The tenants of the manour had certain rights of turbary(cutting peat for fuel) and pasturage written into there leases and these rights were a constant souce of friction.The main reason was that the boundaries of moor common were uncertain and often disregarded.

On the 7th march 1733 two employees of john andrews seized a cow belonging to christopher horrocks of horwich,on the grounds that the cow was grazing on land owned by john andrews.Proctracted litigation ensued which eventually resolved in1737 in favour of john andrews although at considerable cost.Nevertheless the court case resulted in the boundary between rivington and horwich being properly drawn.

The tower on rivington pike was erected by john andrews ostensibly to celebrate the acquisition of rivington manor in 1729 but it could also be argued that he erected the structure as evidence of legal ownership of the moor.

At the time of the spanish armada in 1588 there is mention of the beacon on rivington pike.If the armada was sighted off plymouth sound a chain of beacons stretching the length and breadth of the country was to be lit to warn the populace.

Rivington pike tower was constructed with some of the stone from the earlier beacon and the sharp grit boulders of the hillside along with stone from the douglas stream.

The tower is 20 feet high with the external walls forming a square each side being 17 feet long.It was a single storey building with a cellor and was roofed.The inner chamber, measuring 13 feet square was heated with a fireplace.Over the years the pike tower fell into disrepair and at one stage planes were mooted to demolish the structure because it was dangerous.Fortunately the decision was taken to restore and it now receives regular upkeep and maintenance.

My visit was out of personal intrest of the area for a while iv wanted to get on top of here mainly because i wanted to know if it had a roof, oh and the great views to be had. Visited with kelvin.



Thanks for looking history taken from"old rivington and district" M.D Smith

Ha ha great stuff CC & nice history lesson:thumbs
Pigeon tower next eh ?

Could be, would be unfair to let you and morrisey do all the local towers.Nice one boboil.

Well done cc :). Great day for it too.

Nice work shaggy;)

Great work, always wanted to see these two reported.

nice one , always wanted to get on top of here myself too.anything inside then ?

Good work CC. Dom's at the w/e?

Thanks all, cossie nick all thats in there is flat footballs all broken bottles unless you can get into the basement under all the junk but i doubt it. Yeah morrisey im in, think il buy a helmet on payday.

thats mint dude, nice one!!