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Rivington Pike
Written records of 'Roun Pike' stretch back to 1280, though it is entirely feasible the Pike became part of England's integral beacon defence network over a century earlier under the instigation of the Earl of Chester after the Scottish raids of 1138. The beacon on the Pike was certainly fired in July, 1588, when the Spanish Armada had been sighted off English shores. Fifty years previously, Leland, a chronicler for Henry VIII, recorded he had passed the hill 'Faierlokke', though he astutely reported the local variation: "communley the people thereabout caullith it Rivenpike".
Wood was gathered there in the early 18th century over ill-founded fears of a French invasion, and fires continued to be lit after the building of the Tower - most recently for the Coronation of King George V in 1910, then to mark the end of the First World War in 1918. It is possible to see that over many centuries Rivington Pike has rarely seen a period without human activity. Whilst the Tower has attracted visitors for nearly three hundred years and the Pike Fair for at least two hundred - with a cooling off period in the 1830s for drunken, riotous behaviour over the Easter weekend - flint chippings found on the summit suggest an earlier, prehistoric significance.
The Pike holds an annual fair every Good Friday where many brave the winds and scale the steep ascent to the summit, whilst their children roly-poly back down towards the burger vans and balloon sellers that have pitched themselves into the road around it's base. Since 1892 the annual Pike Race has also been held on Easter Saturday, attracting over three hundred runners.
Rivington Pike Location
Rivington Pike
Rivington Pike Summit
Latitude: 53.619701
Longitude: -2.540987
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