Place:High Bowland Forest, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

High Bowland Forest is a civil parish in the Ribble Valley District of Lancashire, England, covering some 20,000 acres of the Forest of Bowland. Before 1974, it formed part of Bowland Rural District in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Historically, High Bowland Forest was in the ecclesiastical parish of Slaidburn in Staincliffe Wapentake.

The parish includes the settlements of Hareden, Sykes, and Dunsop Bridge. It covers Sykes Fell, Whins Brow, Croasdale Fell and Wolfhole Crag. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 163.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Historic Bowland comprised a Royal Forest and a Liberty of ten manors spanning eight townships and four parishes and covered an area of almost 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). Modern-day Bowland Forest is divided into two large administrative townships - Great Bowland (Bowland Forest High and Bowland Forest Low) and Little Bowland (Bowland-with-Leagram) - but the Forest was much more extensive in previous times.

St Hubert, the patron saint of hunting, is also patron saint of the Forest of Bowland and has a chapel dedicated to him in Dunsop Bridge. This chapel was founded by Richard Eastwood of Thorneyholme, land agent to the Towneley family. Eastwood was the last Bowbearer of the Forest of Bowland during the nineteenth century. An acclaimed breeder of racehorses and shorthorn cattle, he died in 1871 and is buried at St Hubert's.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of High Bowland Forest from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"BOWLAND-FOREST, an ancient forest on the mutual border of Lancashire and [West Riding of] Yorkshire. It included the parishes of Mitton and Slaidburn, and part of the parish of Whalley; and belonged to the honour of Clitheroe. It contained wild deer so late as 1812; but is now enclosed and cultivated. The family of Parker, of Brownsholme Hall, have long held the office of hereditary forester."

Research Tips

• GENUKI on High Bowland Forest. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Slaidburn provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Bowland.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Bowland Rural District. This section provides statistics on population and industry, as well as a listing of the civil parishes and the alterations to the municipal organization.
• A map of the West Riding of Yorkshire circa 1888 (before the existence of rural and urban districts) supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time
• A map of the southern part of the West Riding of Yorkshire circa 1931 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time
• A map of the northern part of the West Riding of Yorkshire circa 1931 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time (Bowland Rural Districts is divided in half horizontally between these two maps.)