BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



contrast to the rest of the house on that side, and the 

 effect is extremely good. The south end of the 

 building, which is built in the same rough stone 

 as the east front partly rough-cast, has three built-up 

 mullioned windows, an external chimney and a 

 larger square projection. At the south-west angle 

 the wall appears to have been originally carried 

 further south or to have been intended to be so. 

 A small garden on the west side is inclosed by a low 

 stone terrace wall, the ground sloping down to a 

 small stream. Various fragments of late Gothic 

 stonework lie about, and from the terrace there is 

 a fine view across the Ribble Valley. 



In 1552 some Clitheroe men were fined for 

 fishing in the king's waters in Little Mearley, taking 

 ' keper trowttes ' there contrary to the statute." 



In 1590 Richard Greenacres, on behalf of the 

 tenants of Worston, complained that the lords of the 

 adjacent Downham and Mearley had claimed part of 

 the moors and other common pastures of Worston. 

 The bounds were defined only by plain crosses, meres 

 or marked stones, and they desired a perambulation. 

 The lords of Mearley — Henry son of Charles 

 RadclifFe, Christopher Nowell and the daughter 

 and heir of John Hoghton — defended their title. 

 Nowell, who was interested in both manors, having 

 a large copyhold estate in Worston, asserted that 

 Langley Ditch was the boundary," and this seems to 

 have been agreed upon in 1593." 



The land tax returns of 1789 show that Le 

 Gendre Starkie and Mrs. Townsend were the chief 



BOWLAND WITH LEAGRAM 



Boeland, 1325 ; Bouland, 1350. BoUand was a 

 common spelling in more recent times. 



Lathegrim, 1282 and commonly; Lythegreyns, 



1297-. 



This township, which is now considered two 

 separate townships' — Little Bowland and Leagram — 

 has an area of 4,664 acres* and a population of 210 

 in 1 90 1. 



Up to a century ago it 'retained much of its old 

 wild character ; there was no right of way through 

 it ; chains were kept across the roads leading in from 

 Chipping and opposite the fords over the River Loud. 

 The means of locomotion were rude and primitive, 

 and access to the market towns of Clitheroe and 

 Preston difficult.' ' The road from Chipping now 

 goes eastward to Leagram Mill, situated on the brook 

 dividing the two parts of the township, and then 

 northward through Greystoneley to the bridge over 

 the Hodder in the north-east corner. 



Bowland in the north is hilly, part of the Bleasdale 

 Fells, which bound it on the north-west, rising to 

 1,500 ft. above the ordnance datum ; Leagram from 

 the north-west corner slopes rapidly to the south, 

 and its southern portion is comparatively level. The 

 boundary of this part does not quite reach the River 

 Loud, a narrow strip belonging to Bowland. The 

 Hodder forms the eastern boundary. 



Bowland paid 26/. io|i3'. to the county lay when 

 the hundred paid ^100.' 



Leagram had thirty-two hearths liable to the tax 

 in 1666 ; Richard Shireiiurne's was the only large 

 house, having fourteen hearths. Bowland had 

 forty ; Christopher Harris's house had eight, Richard 

 Marsden's six, and two other houses had three 

 hearths.' 



From its situation it may be considered 

 MjiNOR certain that this township was part of 

 the grant of Chippingdale made to Robert 

 de Lacy in 1 1 02,° and subsequently descending with 

 Clitheroe, and that by the Lacys it was included in 

 their forest of Bowland,' and thus became part of the 

 hundred of Blackburn and parish of Whalley,' being 

 detached from its proper hundred and parish,' though 

 being retained in Lancashire. Edmund de Lacy's 

 forest of Chippingdale is named in 1258,'° and in 

 the Clitheroe Court Rolls of 1324 occurs a fine for 

 cutting vert in Chippingdale." 



LEAGRAM PARK was separated and remained 

 for a long time under special parkers," but in 1556 

 was disparked, the report on its condition stating that 

 the old oaks remaining were mostly unfit for building 

 with, and that the pale of the park, 1,140 rods, was 



'• Farrer, op. ciL 175. 



^^ Duchy of Lane. Plead. Eliz. cliii, 

 G 7. Nowell asserted that in addition to 

 his right as a copyholder in the commons 

 of Worston he had common in right of 

 Mearley because of vicinage, and his 

 cattle used to go from the waste and 

 moor of Great Mearley to the waste and 

 moor of Worston without let or dis- 

 turbance. 



*' Lanes, and Ches. Rec. ii, 274, 277 ; 

 Towneley MS. GG, no. 1654. 



* Formerly the two portions were con- 

 sidered as one township for the county 

 rate, but each maintained its own poor 

 and roads. Thus the * township of Lea- 

 gram * is spoken of in the charity report 

 of 1826. 



^ Little Bowland has an area of 3,152 

 acres (3,153 Census) and Leagram of 

 1,512 ; the respective populations were 

 103 and 107. There are 31 acres of 

 inland water in the former and 2 in the 

 latter. 



' T. C. Smith, Chipping, 19+. 



* Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 



^■^^ 



' Lay Subs. Lanes, bdle. 250, no. 9. 

 ^ See the accounts of Aighton and 



Chipping. Bowland also was granted ; 

 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 382. 



^ This would account for the name 

 Little Bowland. The bounds of the forest 

 of Bowland, as given in Whitaker's 

 Whalley (i, 329, 330), show that Leagram 

 and Little Bowland were included in it — 

 Burnslack, Threapleigh, Chipping Brook, 

 Hudeiield, the Pale, Startivant's lands, 

 the Loud and the Hodder, being the 

 bounds on the side of Chipping and 

 Thornley. 



® Although it is usual to account this 

 township as part of Whalley, the more 

 correct description seems to be that it is 

 a detached part of the extra-parochial 

 district of St. Michael, Clitheroe Castle, 

 showing the artificial character of the 

 connexion with Whalley ; Whitaker, op. 

 cit. i, 258. The Status de Blackburn- 

 shire asserts that the whole district was 

 formerly in the parish of Whalley ; 

 Whalley Couch. (Chet. Soc), i, 187. 



® Chipping Lawnd (or Lawn) in Lea- 

 gram preserves a trace of the old associa- 

 tion. The inhabitants seem to have 

 used the church at Chipping ; see T. C. 

 Smith, Chipping, 198, &c. 



^^ Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 



.379 



Lanes, and Ches.), i, 217. Alice widow 

 of Edmund in the following year com- 

 plained that John de Bradley, Adam de 

 Mitton and others had trespassed on her 

 park and forest of Bowland j Cur. Reg. 

 R. 162, m. 42 ; 169, m, 61 d. 



^1 Lanes. Ct. R. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), 62. 



^^ The following list of parkers is 

 given : 1410, Sir Richard Hoghton ; 

 1446, Robert Hoghton; 146 1, Robert 

 RadclifFe; 14-73) Richard Shireburne ; 

 1487, Edward Stanley, afterwards Lord 

 Mounteagle ; 1523, Roger Beck ; 1526, 

 Richard Hoghton ; 1 554, Thomas Hogh- 

 ton ; Whitaker, op. cit. i, 357. 



The appointment (1523) of Roger 

 Beck to succeed Sir Edward Stanley Lord 

 Mounteagle is in Add. MS. 32106, no. 

 515, that of Thomas Hoghton (1554), 

 ibid. no. 879. 



Accounts of the repairs of the in- 

 closure, &c., of the time of Henry VI 

 are printed by Whitaker, op. cit. i, 347—9. 



Richard HI in 1485 granted Sir Robert 

 Harrington the herbage of his park 

 called * Laregrem ' and a pasture called 

 Acornhurst ; Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. 

 XX, 100. 



