Slaidburn

Coordinates: 53°58′04″N 2°26′09″W / 53.967783°N 2.435927°W / 53.967783; -2.435927

Slaidburn
Slaidburn  Slaidburn shown within Lancashire
Population	288  (2001 Census)
OS grid reference	SD715525
District	Ribble Valley
Shire county	Lancashire
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	CLITHEROE
Postcode district	BB7
Dialling code	01200
Police	Lancashire
Fire	Lancashire
Ambulance	North West
EU Parliament	North West England
UK Parliament	Ribble Valley
List of places: UK • England • Lancashire

Slaidburn is a village and civil parish within the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England, with a population in 2001 of just under 300.^[1] Historically, a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Slaidburn lies near the head of the River Hodder, within the Forest of Bowland, an Area of Outstanding National 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.^[2]

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. ^[3] There is a local pub, The Hark To Bounty, which upstairs houses the ancient halmote or courthouse of the Manor of Slaidburn ^[4]

History

From early times, the Manor of Slaidburn formed part of the ancient Lordship of Bowland. That Lordship comprised a Royal Forest and a Liberty of nine manors spanning five townships and four parishes and covered an area of almost 300 square miles 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) and Dunnow (Battersby). Modern-day Bowland Forest is divided in two large administrative townships - Great Bowland (Bowland Forest High and Bowland Forest Low) and Little Bowland (Bowland-with-Leagram).

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. The townships of Easington and Bowland Forest had been sold in early times and the land here did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Manor of Slaidburn - the Bannister family held the Manor of Easington in Tudor times for instance.^[5]

In 2009, it was reported that Charles Towneley Strachey, 4th Baron O'Hagan had stepped forward on behalf of the Towneley family to claim the title of 15th Lord of Bowland. Previously, the Lordship had been thought lost or in the possession of the Crown having disappeared from the historical record in late nineteenth century. The Towneleys had owned the Bowland Forest Estate from 1835 and it transpired that the title had been retained by an extinct family trust. Controversially, Lord O'Hagan went on to sell the Lordship of Bowland at auction.^[6] The 16th Lord of Bowland was later revealed to be a Cambridge University don.^[7][8]

The title to the Manor of Slaidburn was bought by Tory MP, Ralph Assheton, later first Baron Clitheroe, in 1950. The present-day Lord of the Manor of Slaidburn, West Bradford and Grindleton is Thomas Assheton, nephew of the second Baron Clitheroe.

References

External links

• Slaidburn village