FORESTRY 



BowLAND Forest, lying in the county of York, extends to an area of 25,247 acres,"* and 

 adjoins on the west the Lancashire forests of Wyresdale and Bleasdale, and on the north the chase 

 of Roeburndale. 



The ancient lords of Blackburnshire in the twelfth century granted to several of their most 

 important tenants very liberal rights of chase within their tenures. Although the exercise of these 

 rights was challenged in 1323, no doubt of their creation exists, seeing that the grants to the family 

 of Arches in Wiswell, Hapton and Osbaldeston ; of Alvetham in Altham and Clayton le Moors, to 

 the dean of Whalley, ancestor of Towneley, in Towneley, of all ferae hestiae outside the chief 

 lord's demesne inclosures there ; to the ancestor of Nowel in Great Mearley with licence to take 

 dead wood in Bowland, Sabden, and Pendleton Wood, have been preserved in Christopher 

 Towneley's MSS."« 



In order apparently to safeguard the rights of chase in these manors, which remained in the 

 hands of the chief lord, Edmund de Lacy in 1 25 1 obtained a charter of free warren in his 

 demesne lands of Clitheroe, Chatburn, Downham, Ightenhill, Worston, Padiham, Burnley, 

 BrierclifFe, Little Marsden, Pendleton, Colne, ' Gret Merclesden ' (Great Marsden), Haslingden, 

 Widnes, Appleton, Cronton, Upton, and Tottington.'^' 



As early as 1247 mention occurs of two foresters of Blackburnshire who were pardoned for 

 the death of Adam Kalveknave, probably a deer-stealer, whom they had slain in self-defence in 

 the forest.'^ A few years before, viz. in 1241-2, the vaccaries and stud farm of Black- 

 burnshire had been extended at a yearly value of 100 marks, and the profit of Rossendale 

 Forest at looi.^^* A release made by the abbot of Kirkstall in 1249 'o Margaret, countess of 

 Lincoln, for 10;. a year, of the right to take yearly twenty wam-loads of timber in the third 

 part of the forest of Blackburnshire, then belonging to her in name of dower, points to the necessity 

 even at this early date of husbanding the woodlands of this district."' In 1258 there were, or 

 might be, seven vaccaries in the forest of Bowland worth but 5j. each.^'" 



In the time of Edward I the Earl of Lincoln made certain concessions to his free tenants in 

 Blackburnshire whereby they were acquitted of giving puture of the chief forester's horse and 

 groom, formerly maintained at the expense of the country when engaged in keeping the forest, and 

 of pains and penalties when deer were found dead in the forest, even if they had failed to make it 

 known. ''^ 



The De Lacy Compotus of 1296 contains many details illustrating the issues and profits of the 

 Blackburnshire chases. At Accrington 156 cheeses weighing eighty-two stones and over thirty 

 stones of butter were produced, three vaccaries let to farm yielded a rent of 103J. 2d., brushwood 

 sold to a forge or bloomery for twenty-seven weeks brought in a rent of 34^. In Pendle Forest, 

 winter and summer agistment, hay sold, and the escape of cattle yielded £(^ 8j. 8^., and ' thistle- 

 take ' of natives 25. 6d. more ; seventeen ash trees had been sold for i Oi., brushwood for 6j., and 

 eighty wild boars for dbs. id. In Ramsgreave, besides a revenue from summer eatage and charcoal, 

 hollies and oaks sometimes brought in profit. In Hoddlesden (now Yate with Pickup Bank) 

 brushwood was sold to supply a forge for thirteen weeks. In Rossendale the summer and winter 

 agistment yielded ^^5 y. 8d., and for agistment of eighty beasts belonging to the abbot of 

 Whalley another mark was received, whilst an iron forge was let to farm for bos. a year. In 

 Tottington the herbage of Cowhope, Alden, Musden, Ugden, and Wythens brought in £6 10s. Sd., 

 agistment in the forest 6s. ^.d., and pannage the considerable sum of 1 51. 5^., pointing to a 

 good crop of acorns and beech-mast. At Ightenhill there was a stud farm with a stock of fifty-two 

 mares, two rourrceys, twenty-nine three-year-olds, twenty-two two-year-olds, and twenty-two foals ; 

 but of those nine mares, two three-year-olds, and seven two-year-olds had died of the murrain or 

 had been worried by wolves. The stock in twenty-eight vaccaries at the end of 1296 stood as 

 follows : — 



"* The Higher Division in the par. of Slaidburn, 19,750 acres ; the Lower Division, embracing 

 Radholme, Lees, and Harrop, 3,714 acres in the par. of Whalley, and Browsholme, &c. 1,783 acres extra 

 parochial. "^ Whitaker, Hist, of Whalley (ed. 1876), u, passim. 



■^' Cal. Chart. R. 1226-57, p. 357. '" Cal. Pat. 1232-47, p. 496. 



'^' Lanes. Inq. (feec. Soc. xlviii), 157. "' Duchy of Lane. Great Coucher, i, 80. 



"° Torks. Inq. (Yorks. Rec. Soc), xii, 49. '" Coucher of Whalley (Chetham Soc), 116 1. 



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