Slaidburn
Encyclopedia
Slaidburn is a village and civil parish
within the Ribble Valley
district of Lancashire
, England. With a population in 2001 of just under 300, it covers just over 5000 acres of the Forest of Bowland
. Historically, a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire
, Slaidburn lies near the head of the River Hodder
and Stocks Reservoir
, both within the Forest of Bowland
, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
. Farming is still a major employer, but the area attracts tourists; for walking in particular. The civil parish of Slaidburn shares a parish council with Easington, a rural parish to the north of Slaidburn.
The parish church of St Andrew has a superb Jacobean screen and a fine Georgian pulpit. The brass band
composer William Rimmer
(1862–1936) composed the now-popular march, named Slaidburn after the village, for the Slaidburn Silver Band. A new village hall has opened to much fanfare and is being well used. There is a local pub, The Hark To Bounty, which upstairs houses the ancient halmote or courthouse of the Manor
of Slaidburn
, being held in demesne
from the second half of the fourteenth century.
The Lordship of Bowland comprised a Royal Forest
and a Liberty
of ten manors spanning eight townships and four parishes and covered an area of almost 300 square miles (777 km²) on the historic borders of Lancashire and Yorkshire. The manors within the Liberty were Slaidburn (Newton-in-Bowland, West Bradford
, Grindleton), Knowlmere, Waddington
, Easington
, Bashall
, Mitton
, Withgill (Crook)
, Leagram (Bowland-with-Leagram
), Hammerton and Dunnow (Battersby).
There was a major manorial reorganisation of Bowland in the second half of the fourteenth century, which may have been preciptated by a fall in population caused by the Black Death
(1348-50) but was probably also a consequence of the absorption of Bowland into the Duchy of Lancaster
. Among other changes, this saw Newton subsumed into the demesne of Slaidburn and the manorial caput shift from Grindleton to Slaidburn.
Two of the Lord of Bowland's mesne
manors - Battersby (Dunnow) and Knowlmere - fell within the bounds of the township of Newton but did not become part of the demesne of Slaidburn. See Newton-in-Bowland for further information.
According to a leading local historian, the historic Manor and Liberty of Slaidburn covered a wide area, not equivalent to the Slaidburn parish boundaries, but comprising the villages and town fields of Slaidburn and Newton-in-Bowland, including Ingbreak, a town field to the west of Slaidburn village; Raw Moor, part of the enclosed land of 1619 north of Slaidburn village in the Croasdale area; Brunghill Moor, Burn Moor and Dunsop
, also enclosed in 1619 and near Back Lane and Burn Hill; Champion, also enclosed in 1619 and to the east of Slaidburn village; Woodhouse, to the north west of Slaidburn village; Youlstone Wood, also enclosed in 1619, and to the south of Newton village; and most of West Bradford
and Grindleton villages and their town fields.
Title to the Manor and Liberty of Slaidburn
, West Bradford
and Grindleton, including the township of Newton-in-Bowland, was bought by Tory MP, Ralph Assheton
, later first Baron Clitheroe
, in 1950. In 1977, his second son, the Hon Nicholas Assheton, was granted title. Since 2003, the Lord of the Manor and Liberty of Slaidburn has been Thomas Assheton, son of the Hon Nicholas Assheton and nephew of the second Baron Clitheroe
. Steward to the Manor of Slaidburn is Michael Parkinson. Parkinson, a land agent and chartered surveyor with Clitheroe
firm Ingham & Yorke, also serves the Lord of Bowland as his Chief Steward of the Forest of Bowland
.
known as Watling Street
, that runs from Manchester
via Ribchester
to Carlisle, passes in a NNE
direction to the west of the village before turning NW on Low Fell. This section is also known as the Hornby Road.
The River Hodder
flows through the parish, joined by Croasdale Brook on the eastern edge of the village.
of Bowland Forest High
, Easington
, Newton, and Slaidburn itself.
.
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
within the Ribble Valley
Ribble Valley
Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status within the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. Its council is based in Clitheroe. Other places include Whalley, Longridge and Ribchester. The area is so called due to the River Ribble which flows in its final stages...
district of Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, England. With a population in 2001 of just under 300, it covers just over 5000 acres of the Forest of Bowland
Forest of Bowland
The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells, is an area of barren gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England. A small part lies in North Yorkshire, and much of the area was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire...
. Historically, a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county, County of York, West Riding , was based closely on the historic boundaries...
, Slaidburn lies near the head of the River Hodder
River Hodder
The River Hodder is a river in Lancashire, England. The river is a County Biological Heritage Site.It rises on White Hill and flows for approximately 23 miles to the River Ribble, of which it is the largest tributary...
and Stocks Reservoir
Stocks Reservoir
Stocks Reservoir is a reservoir situated at the head of the Hodder valley in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, England. The reservoir has a fly fishing club which is very popular in the summer months and a small cafe which is popular with walkers...
, both within the Forest of Bowland
Forest of Bowland
The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells, is an area of barren gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England. A small part lies in North Yorkshire, and much of the area was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire...
, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...
. Farming is still a major employer, but the area attracts tourists; for walking in particular. The civil parish of Slaidburn shares a parish council with Easington, a rural parish to the north of Slaidburn.
The parish church of St Andrew has a superb Jacobean screen and a fine Georgian pulpit. The brass band
Brass band (British style)
A British-style brass band is a musical ensemble comprising a standardised range of brass and percussion instruments. The modern form of the brass band in the United Kingdom dates back to the 19th century, with a vibrant tradition of competition based around local industry and communities...
composer William Rimmer
William Rimmer (music)
William Rimmer was a Lancashire composer and conductor of brass band music who was particularly well-known for his marches.Rimmer was born in Southport in 1862 into a musical family. His father was bandmaster of the Lancashire Volunteer Rifles and encouraged both Rimmer and his brother Robert in...
(1862–1936) composed the now-popular march, named Slaidburn after the village, for the Slaidburn Silver Band. A new village hall has opened to much fanfare and is being well used. There is a local pub, The Hark To Bounty, which upstairs houses the ancient halmote or courthouse of the Manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
of Slaidburn
History
From early times, the Manor of Slaidburn formed part of the ancient Lordship of BowlandLordship of Bowland
The Lordship of Bowland, an ancient English title connected with the Forest of Bowland in the northwest of England, was once thought lost and was only recently rediscovered. It disappeared from sight in 1885 when the estates of the Towneleys, one of Lancashire’s great aristocratic families, were...
, being held in demesne
Demesne
In the feudal system the demesne was all the land, not necessarily all contiguous to the manor house, which was retained by a lord of the manor for his own use and support, under his own management, as distinguished from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants...
from the second half of the fourteenth century.
The Lordship of Bowland comprised a Royal Forest
Royal forest
A royal forest is an area of land with different meanings in England, Wales and Scotland; the term forest does not mean forest as it is understood today, as an area of densely wooded land...
and a Liberty
Liberty (division)
Originating in the Middle Ages, a liberty was traditionally defined as an area in which regalian rights were revoked and where land was held by a mesne lord...
of ten manors spanning eight townships and four parishes and covered an area of almost 300 square miles (777 km²) on the historic borders of Lancashire and Yorkshire. The manors within the Liberty were Slaidburn (Newton-in-Bowland, West Bradford
West Bradford, Lancashire
West Bradford is a village and civil parish Lancashire, England, 27 miles west of the larger city of Bradford, West Yorkshire and 2.5 miles north of Clitheroe. It covers some 2000 acres of the Forest of Bowland. In Domesday, it is recorded as Bradeford and in the thirteenth century,...
, Grindleton), Knowlmere, Waddington
Waddington, Lancashire
Waddington is a small village, 2 miles north-west of Clitheroe, within the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England. It is also a civil parish. Prior to the 1974 county boundary changes, Waddington just fell within the boundary of Bowland Rural District of the West Riding of Yorkshire...
, Easington
Easington, Lancashire
Easington is a civil parish within the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England, with a population in 2001 of 52. Prior to 1974, it formed part of Bowland Rural District in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It covers just over 9000 acres.-History:...
, Bashall
Bashall Eaves
Bashall Eaves is a village and civil parish in the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England, about four miles west of Clitheroe. The placename element eaves is Old English and refers to Bashall's location on the borders of the Forest of Bowland.According to the 2001 census, the parish of...
, Mitton
Great Mitton
Great Mitton is a village and a civil parish in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England. It is separated from the civil parish of Little Mitton by the River Ribble, both lie about 3 miles from the town of Clitheroe...
, Withgill (Crook)
Great Mitton
Great Mitton is a village and a civil parish in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England. It is separated from the civil parish of Little Mitton by the River Ribble, both lie about 3 miles from the town of Clitheroe...
, Leagram (Bowland-with-Leagram
Bowland-with-Leagram
Bowland-with-Leagram is a civil parish in the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England, covering part of the Forest of Bowland. According to the census, the parish had a population of 181 in 1951 and 128 in 2001....
), Hammerton and Dunnow (Battersby).
There was a major manorial reorganisation of Bowland in the second half of the fourteenth century, which may have been preciptated by a fall in population caused by the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
(1348-50) but was probably also a consequence of the absorption of Bowland into the Duchy of Lancaster
Duchy of Lancaster
The Duchy of Lancaster is one of the two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Cornwall. It is held in trust for the Sovereign, and is used to provide income for the use of the British monarch...
. Among other changes, this saw Newton subsumed into the demesne of Slaidburn and the manorial caput shift from Grindleton to Slaidburn.
Two of the Lord of Bowland's mesne
Mesne
Mesne , middle or intermediate, an adjective used in several legal phrases....
manors - Battersby (Dunnow) and Knowlmere - fell within the bounds of the township of Newton but did not become part of the demesne of Slaidburn. See Newton-in-Bowland for further information.
According to a leading local historian, the historic Manor and Liberty of Slaidburn covered a wide area, not equivalent to the Slaidburn parish boundaries, but comprising the villages and town fields of Slaidburn and Newton-in-Bowland, including Ingbreak, a town field to the west of Slaidburn village; Raw Moor, part of the enclosed land of 1619 north of Slaidburn village in the Croasdale area; Brunghill Moor, Burn Moor and Dunsop
Dunsop Bridge
Dunsop Bridge is a village within the Ribble Valley borough of Lancashire, England, situated north-west of Clitheroe, south-east of Lancaster and east of Skipton. It is in the civil parish of Bowland Forest High....
, also enclosed in 1619 and near Back Lane and Burn Hill; Champion, also enclosed in 1619 and to the east of Slaidburn village; Woodhouse, to the north west of Slaidburn village; Youlstone Wood, also enclosed in 1619, and to the south of Newton village; and most of West Bradford
West Bradford
West Bradford may refer to:*West Bradford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania*West Bradford, Lancashire*Bradford West...
and Grindleton villages and their town fields.
Title to the Manor and Liberty of Slaidburn
Slaidburn
Slaidburn is a village and civil parish within the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England. With a population in 2001 of just under 300, it covers just over 5000 acres of the Forest of Bowland...
, West Bradford
West Bradford
West Bradford may refer to:*West Bradford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania*West Bradford, Lancashire*Bradford West...
and Grindleton, including the township of Newton-in-Bowland, was bought by Tory MP, Ralph Assheton
Ralph Assheton, 1st Baron Clitheroe
Ralph Assheton, 1st Baron Clitheroe PC was a British Conservative Party politician.He was Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe from 1934 to 1945, for the City of London from 1945 to 1950, and for Blackburn West from 1950 to 1955.In the wartime government under Winston Churchill, he was Minister of...
, later first Baron Clitheroe
Baron Clitheroe
Baron Clitheroe of Downham in the County of Lancaster is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1955 for the Conservative politician Ralph Assheton, who had previously served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury...
, in 1950. In 1977, his second son, the Hon Nicholas Assheton, was granted title. Since 2003, the Lord of the Manor and Liberty of Slaidburn has been Thomas Assheton, son of the Hon Nicholas Assheton and nephew of the second Baron Clitheroe
Baron Clitheroe
Baron Clitheroe of Downham in the County of Lancaster is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1955 for the Conservative politician Ralph Assheton, who had previously served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury...
. Steward to the Manor of Slaidburn is Michael Parkinson. Parkinson, a land agent and chartered surveyor with Clitheroe
Clitheroe
Clitheroe is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley in Lancashire, England. It is 1½ miles from the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists in the area. It has a population of 14,697...
firm Ingham & Yorke, also serves the Lord of Bowland as his Chief Steward of the Forest of Bowland
Forest of Bowland
The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells, is an area of barren gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England. A small part lies in North Yorkshire, and much of the area was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire...
.
Geography
The Roman roadRoman roads in Britain
Roman roads, together with Roman aqueducts and the vast standing Roman army , constituted the three most impressive features of the Roman Empire. In Britain, as in other provinces, the Romans constructed a comprehensive network of paved trunk roads Roman roads, together with Roman aqueducts and the...
known as Watling Street
Watling Street
Watling Street is the name given to an ancient trackway in England and Wales that was first used by the Britons mainly between the modern cities of Canterbury and St Albans. The Romans later paved the route, part of which is identified on the Antonine Itinerary as Iter III: "Item a Londinio ad...
, that runs from Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
via Ribchester
Ribchester
Ribchester is a village and civil parish within the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Ribble, northwest of Blackburn and east of Preston.The village has a long history with evidence of Bronze Age beginnings...
to Carlisle, passes in a NNE
Boxing the compass
Boxing the compass is the action of naming all thirty-two points of the compass in clockwise order. Such names are formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, and are very handy to refer to a heading in a general or colloquial fashion, without...
direction to the west of the village before turning NW on Low Fell. This section is also known as the Hornby Road.
The River Hodder
River Hodder
The River Hodder is a river in Lancashire, England. The river is a County Biological Heritage Site.It rises on White Hill and flows for approximately 23 miles to the River Ribble, of which it is the largest tributary...
flows through the parish, joined by Croasdale Brook on the eastern edge of the village.
Ancient Parish
The historic parish of Slaidburn comprised the townshipsTownship (England)
In England, a township is a local division or district of a large parish containing a village or small town usually having its own church...
of Bowland Forest High
Bowland Forest High
Bowland Forest High is a civil parish in the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England, covering some 20,000 acres of the Forest of Bowland. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 163.. The parish includes the settlements of Hareden, Sykes, and Dunsop Bridge. It covers...
, Easington
Easington, Lancashire
Easington is a civil parish within the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England, with a population in 2001 of 52. Prior to 1974, it formed part of Bowland Rural District in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It covers just over 9000 acres.-History:...
, Newton, and Slaidburn itself.
Church
The church of St Andrew was built in the Perpendicular style: the powerful stone tower contrastes with the long, low, rendered walls of the nave and aisles. There is a fine interior with a great variety of pews ranging in date from the 17th to the 19th century. The font-cover is Elizabethan, the screen Jacobean and the three-decker pulpit is Georgian. Since 1954, it has been designated a Grade I listed building by English HeritageEnglish Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
.