Near Nelson, Lancashire, a refuge built in 1912 for mill workers to meet in nature is still open for tea and leftwing sympathy
You can clearly see Clarion House from high up on the ridge between Barrowford and Roughlee. Not only because it stands alone on a green slope, nor because it is handsome and proud, though it absolutely is. No, you can see it because of the red – bright, beautiful, luscious scarlet, the glowing red of the Red Flag, the Independent Labour Party (ILP) logo, the Lancashire rose and the clenched fist of International Socialism.
I saw Clarion House for the first time by chance as I was driving back from Roughlee, after showing my brother and nephew the metal statue of Alice Nutter. She was the one Lancashire “witch” who had more than two ha’pennies to rub together but was nonetheless hanged for her sex, or her stubbornness. There, by the roadside, was a pretty single-storey red-and-white building, with a simple trumpet for its logo and a fascinating information board about the local Labour movement, and about radical rambling and cycling. I didn’t loiter but I was curious. Why hadn’t I been taught about the Clarion Houses before?
