NINETY children from three Lancashire primary schools braved the elements to walk up Pendle Hill as part of a project inspired by the 400th anniversary of the witches trial.

Youngsters from Brennand’s Endowed in Slaidburn, Padiham Green and Quernmore tackled the hill in wet and windy weather on Wednesday.

They had originally planned to leave 11 red roses on the summit to mark the deaths of the ten men and women hanged in Lancaster in 1612 and another who died in prison.

Given the poor weather conditions, the teachers decided to abandon the walk part way through but representatives from all three schools held the roses, each bearing the name of a dead ‘witch’, while reading out short prayers at the base of the hill.

Sue and Pete Flowers, whose Green Close Studios in Melling are running the LancashireWitches400 project then took the roses to Lancaster Priory.

“It was poignant when we huddled together with the roses, it was our commemoration of the atrocity, a little memorial to them,” said Janet Ennis, deputy head at Padiham Green.

The teachers and helpers involved agreed that despite the weather the morning on Pendle Hill, where the Chattox and Demdike families lived in the 17th Century, had been a worthwhile experience .

As part of the project, artists Sue and Pete Flowers and Kate Eggleston-Wirtz have all been working in the schools looking at how relevant the witches’ tale is in today’s society.

Sue Flowers said: “All the pupils have been working really hard on the project and they showed true northern grit climbing to within metres of the summit before we had to turn back.”