A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



THE CHASES OF BLACKBURNSHIRE AND BOWLAND 



Soon after Robert de Lacy had acquired the hundred of Blackburn from Count Roger of 

 Poitou he also obtained from him a grant of Bowland in Yorkshire and the parishes of Ribchester 

 and Chipping, which until then had been reckoned as part of Amounderness, but thenceforth were 

 included in the hundred of Blackburn.''* From this time dates the conversion of large tracts of 

 waste land in the latter hundred, the last retreat of the wolf and wild boar, and of both waste lands 

 and townships in Bowland, into forest, or more correctly, into chases, for no subject of the crown 

 could possess a forest in the strict sense of the term as applied to a region under the jurisdiction of 

 the forest laws.''' From this time also dates the connexion of Bowland with the Lancashire fee of 

 Lacy, known as the honour of Clitheroe. Reference to the map of the forest regions will assist in 

 illustrating the description of the chases belonging to this honour. 



Pendle Forest, containing an area of 12,962 acres, occupies the upper part of the valley of 

 the West or Lancashire Calder, and takes its name from Pendle, anciently Penhull (1,830 ft.), the 

 elevation on which this river has its source. On the north it adjoins the Yorkshire manor 

 of Barnoldswick, the dividmg line being long uncertain and the cause of a dispute between Queen 

 Isabella, then lady of Clitheroe, and the monks of Kirkstall, which was determined in 1335."* 

 Ightenhill Park occupies the southern part of the forest, from which it is separated by the River 

 Calder. 



Trawden Forest, containing 6,808 acres, occupies the extreme north-eastern corner of the 

 county and for a considerable distance marches with the county of York. It occupies the valleys 

 of two streams, Trawden Brook and Wycoller Beck, which take their rise in the elevation known as 

 Boulsworth Hill (1,700 ft.), and extends down to their confluence with Colne Water, a tributary of 

 the Calder. 



RossENDALE FoREST, Originally including the greater part of the townships of Accrington and 

 Haslingden, and extending westward as far as Hoddlesden Brook, may be said to have embraced an 

 area of 22,000 acres, exclusive of Musbury Park, which originally belonged to the lordship 

 of Tottington in Salford Hundred. It lay mainly on the north bank of the River Irwell from its 

 source on Thieveley Pike (1,474 ft.) nearly to Ewood Bridge in Haslingden, and extended overhigh 

 moorland northward to the escarpment overlooking the valleys of the East and West Calder known 

 as Hambledon Hill (1,342 ft.), along which runs a ditch known as the 'Pale Dyke.' 



There can be but little doubt that before the Conquest an almost unbroken stretch of 

 woodland waste lay between Pendle, Boulsworth, and the head of Rossendale, in which arose the 

 townships of Cliviger, Burnley, Worsthorne, Hurstwood, BrierclifFe, Extwisle, and Marsden, names 

 which are not significant of early village settlements. 



Ramsgreave, a small detached or outlying wood, having an area of 776 acres, was given to the 

 monastery of Whalley in 136 1 and long provided that house with fuel and timber. 



Tottington Forest formed part of the Montbegon fee until 1235, when it was acquired 

 from Henry de Monewden by John de Lacy, earl of Lincoln. '2' In a charter of this earl dated at 

 Ightenhill in 1237-8 (not 11 76) reference is made to Pilgrim-cross-shaw in the forest of 

 Tottington.'" About 1220 Roger de Montbegon gave to the priory of Monk Bretton ' my forest 

 called Holcomb,' saving venison and hawks.'^^ By this and other grants the forest area was soon 

 restricted to the region known as Musbury Park. 



Little Bowland and Leagram originally no doubt formed part of the parish of Chippin"- 

 and were thrown into the forest of Bowland, lying immediately to the north, when Robert de Lacy 

 formed his forest there. The area is 4,664 acres. Chipping Brook, from its source between 

 Whitmore and Fairsnape Fells in Bowland and Bleasdale to the confluence with the River Loud 

 and that river to its confluence with Hodder, form the boundaries on the west and south whilst 

 the last-named river separates these places on the east from the southern and detached portion of 

 Bowland known as Radholme, Lees, and Browsholme. 



"' Lanes. PifeR. 382. 



'" In the foUowing account the popular term ' forest ' will be employed in reference to these chases which 

 for centuries have been knoven by that description. 

 '" Kirkstall Cotuher (Thoresby Soc), 321-39. 

 '" Cal. Chart. R. 1226-57, p. 213. 

 '" Whitaker, Hist, of Whalley (ed. 1876), i, 323. 

 "' Lansd. MSS. 405, fol. 43^. 



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