In this series of Pretty Places to visit, we look at various villages and towns across England that have the aesthetically pleasing scenes we love to see; traditional architecture, lush gardens bursting with florals, winding cobbled streets and quaint sights. Continuing on from our first edition, which looked at the market town of Shrewsbury, this post looks at a quaint English village in the heart of the northern county of Lancashire. 

Whalley, pronounced “Wall-E”, is a village in the Ribble Valley – a rural district largely made up of the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Whalley is known to have existed prior to 1066 and has numerous buildings dating as far back at the 13th century including its parish church of Saint Mary and All Saints and one of Whalley’s biggest attractions; Whalley Abbey – a Cistercian abbey, which fell into ruin in roughly the mid 15th century. The area that makes up the Whalley Abbey ruins is a lush landscape of carefully tendered gardens, cottages, paths and, of course, the abbey ruins themselves, which visitors are free to roam around. 

The village of Whalley also features many other attractions including Whalley Viaduct which spans the River Calder and was built in the mid-19th century, the period architecture throughout the town consists of 23 listed buildings and monuments dated as far back as 13th century.

There are also rows of independent shops and cafes and numerous floral gardens. Whalley has won the RHS in Bloom competitions numerous times and has a dedicated Whalley In Bloom volunteer group who plant and maintain gardens, planters and hanging baskets around the village, making the place even more beautiful.

Whalley is small enough to wander around in a day though there are several hotels in the area. The village is served by a train station, which has hourly services to the nearest cities of Blackburn and Manchester. The closest international airports are Leeds Bradford Airport and Manchester International Airport.

If you’re looking for more travel inspiration view other villages in this Pretty Places series by using the ‘pretty places‘ tag.

images: scene therapy