The Beautiful village can be traced back to beyond 1000 B.C. and in keeping with the Anglo-Saxon tradition was named after trees which were plentiful at that time "The Alder"and so they chose the name 'Wic-Alr ' which translates to 'dairy farm amongst the alders'.Wycoller was an agricultural settlement until the 18 th Century when the manufacture of woollens and hand weaving on looms became an important industry until the industrial revolution

         It was then in the 1890's a proposal was made to create a reservoir and flood Wycoller to meet the needs of the ever expanding nearby Towns.The village and surrounding area was bought by the Water Board and their plans brought strong opposition from locals who even then loved Wycoller for its outstanding natural beauty .A Geologist was brought in to survey the land to find another means of water supply and luckily they found a large underground spring and on its site a pump house erected North of the village .The village was saved,and to a red faced Water Board a lot of land which they had no use.Lancashire County Council bought the site from the Water Board in the early 1970's and declared a preservation order and plans were drawn to create a country park. Most of the buildings are in use today and are all privately owned    

A most impressive ruined 16th Century Hall was owned by the Hartley family and extended in   the late 18th Century by the last owner and descendant Squire Cunliffe. The family wealth which was achieved through importing and slavery was alas squandered by the last Squire whose thirst for the finer things in life together with gambling and drink saw an end to the hall as unpaid mortgages and other debts led to the hall being plundered. 

Charlotte Brontë based her novel Jane Eyre on Wycoller as she gained inspiration on her visits from Howarth on her way to Gawthorpe Hall (Padiham) with her sisters. Lord Rochester had similar trates to Squire Cunliffe and descriptions of Ferndean Manor approaching from the old coach road on Haworth rd are exact.

The Spectre Horseman is the ghost of one of the Cunliffe family who murdered his wife in an upstairs bedroom at the hall who pays a visit annually to the scene of the crime,dressed in clothes of the Stuart period riding his black steed at full speed across the packhorse bridge before stopping at the door to the hall where hideous screams can be heard from within.  

Supernatural visitations have been experienced by all occupants of Wycoller House by a Lady in blue passing by on a stairway and doors opening and closing by themselves. Pierson House have a Grey lady who passes through the wall adjoining Wycoller Farm. Medieval sightings of Boggarts on Bouldsworth  Hill and Guytrash Padfoot waiting to pounce on those narrow lanes to name but a few. Where else, could ghosts haunt but a village that is over 3000yrs ,  old I ask.