EXTINCT FORESTS OF LANCASHIRE. 158 



B. — Notices of Forests formerly existing in Lancashire. 



Mention has been made of the Earl of Lancaster, in the 

 times of Edward II. and Edward III., having had a forest 

 in the counties of York and Lancaster, in which he is said 

 to have exercised the Forest Laws as fully as any sovereign. 

 In reference to forests in Lancashire, the author of the 

 work, English Forests and Forest Trees, published anony- 

 mously, states : — . 



" The forests of Lancashire belong to history. Few traces 

 of any that previously existed can be found now. The nume- 

 rous mosses, such as Chat Moss, &c., with which it abounds, 

 indicate thd existence of extensive forests at a very early 

 period. Those of which we have accurate accounts were 

 chiefly situated in the northern and eastern parts of the 

 county ; that is where it is most mountainous and borders 

 upon Yorkshire. The two principal forests were those of 

 Blackburnshire and Bowland, both belonging to the honor 

 of Clitheroe. They were, however, divided into the forests 

 of Pendle, Trawden, Accrington, and Rossendale ; and after 

 the marriage of Thomas of Lancaster with Alice de Lacey, 

 they came into the possession of the Duchy of Lancaster, 

 and the forest then went by the name of the Forest of 

 Lancaster. Another forest, that of Pickering in Yorkshire, 

 also belonged to the same duchy ; and so strictly and im- 

 partially were the forest laws carried out in both, that the 

 records of these two forests became the highest authority 

 on that complicated scheme of jurisprudence, the law of 

 the forest.' In 1311, the entire annual profits of these 

 four forests was estimated at £4 5s 8d. The Commis- 

 sioners of the Commonwealth valued them as worth £559 

 Os 5d per annum, as 'part of the possessions of Charles 

 Steuart, the late king.' In 1651, they were all sold to 

 Adam Baynes for the sum of £6853 16s Id. Since that 

 time their character as forests has entirely disappeared ; 

 the steam-engine and the power-loom having cleared all 

 before them. 



