SLAIDBURN - Lancashire County Council

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Lancashire Historic Town SurveySlaidburn3. SOURCES3.1 Published worksThere are limited antiquarian sources for Slaidburn, perhaps because of its isolatedposition and its lack of local families of distinction. The most ancient family of the area, theHammertons, had left their ancestral home by 1548 (Whitaker 1878, 41; Greenwood andBolton 1955, 17). The earliest detailed accounts are provided by TD Whitaker in An Historyof the Original Parish of Whalley and Honor of Clitheroe, first published in 1801 (4 th edition1876) , and in The History and Antiquities of the Deanery of Craven in the County of York,first published in 1805 (3 rd edition 1878). Whitaker’s text is mainly concerned with thehistories of the local families and the church, and has little to say about the village itself. Inboth Baines’ History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of York, 1, West Riding, (1822)and White’s History, Gazetteer and Directory of the West Riding of Yorkshire (1838),Slaidburn is merely described as a village on the River Hodder in the Liberty of Bowland.The Victoria County History for Yorkshire is incomplete, and as of 2002, the volumescovering the West Riding of Yorkshire, which includes Slaidburn had not been started (Kent2002, xiv).The only dedicated history of Slaidburn was published in 1922, entitled A Short History ofthe Parish of Slaidburn (Peel 1922). The work covers all the subsidiary manors of theparish and their families, and therefore there is little on the physical development andhistory of the village itself. R Cunliffe Shaw’s The Royal Forest of Lancaster (1956)contains many references to Slaidburn and its relationship to Bowland generally, as doesGreenwood and Bolton’s Bolland Forest and the Hodder Valley (1955). Greenwood andBolton’s work also incorporates Colonel J Parker’s ‘Bolland’ which was read before theSociety of Genealogists in 1926. More recently, there has been a series of works by Porteron the Forest of Bowland (1974, 1976, 1980, 1994), which provide useful details on thelandscape history of the area, including Slaidburn. The only works which deal specificallywith the centre of the village are short guides, such as MC Higham’s Slaidburn: A Guide forVisitors (1985) and S Barnes’ Slaidburn: A Discovery Trail (1985). There are twopublications on the church; an unpublished typescript ‘History of the parish church of StAndrew, Slaidburn in the West Riding of the County of York’ (Mills nd), and ‘Through all thechanging scenes: an illustrated history of Slaidburn Parish Church (Bradley 1997). There isalso A History of Methodism in Slaidburn and the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel (Spencer2003).Slaidburn’s industrial history is covered in Industrial Heritage: A Guide to the IndustrialArchaeology of the Ribble Valley by Mike Rothwell (1992). This provides a thoroughdescription of the corn mill at Slaidburn and evidence for hand-loom weaving. Moredetailed evidence for the local textile trade can be obtained from the various indexes andtranscripts of wills, parish registers and census information compiled by CJ Spencer(1999a; 1999b). These unpublished typescripts are available at Clitheroe local library andthe Lancashire Record Office in Preston (LRO) as well as at Slaidburn Heritage Centre.Slaidburn’s history is also detailed in a village website (www.slaidburn.org.uk), which looksat the agricultural industry as well as customs, traditions and people.There are two main theses which cover the Forest of Bowland, including Slaidburn. Thefirst is a PhD thesis by J Porter, on ‘The reclamation and settlement of Bowland withspecial reference to the period 1500-1650’ (1973), and the second is an MA thesis by MCHigham, on ‘The Forest of Bowland: a study in continuity (1978).3.2 ManuscriptsAlthough Slaidburn formed part of the Honor of Clitheroe, it had a separate series of courtrolls, because it was the administrative centre of the manor, and was the main centre and© Lancashire County Council 2006 8
Lancashire Historic Town SurveySlaidburnof the liberties or purlieu of Bowland. Court rolls survive for 1392-3 and from 1519onwards, and are held in the Lancashire Record Office, Preston (LRO DDX/1427 acc4833), except for the year 1515 which is in the National Archives in Kew (PRO). The rollsare written in legal Latin up to 1732, and then in English. Those for 1703 to 1733 havebeen transcribed in three unpublished volumes (Spencer 2000) copies of which areavailable in the LRO and local libraries.The Lancashire Record Office in Preston (LRO) contains only a few records relatingspecifically to Slaidburn. These include a copy of a royal decree and commission of 1619concerning the commons and waste land of the manor (LRO DDX/712 acc 6160), copies ofthe royal decree settling a copyhold dispute in 1610 in an uncatalogued collection (LRODDX/712), and there are also documents in the Parkers of Browsolme collection (LRO DDBbox 1, bundle 2). In addition, there are Methodist chapel minutes and accounts from 1830to 1976 (LRO MC1 acc 6497), and the Brennand’s Endowed School records from 1867 to1949 as well as a copy of John Brennand’s will (LRO PR 3035 acc 4255). Until 1974Slaidburn was within the West Riding of Yorkshire, and some archives are contained inYorkshire Record Offices in Wakefield and Leeds. The West Yorkshire Archives Service(WYAS) catalogue is available on-line at www.archives.wyjs.org.uk. There are 22 entriesfor Slaidburn, some individual documents, but others are bundles of deeds forming part ofmuch larger collections. There may be other relevant documents in both the LRO andWYAS under collections for the Forest of Bowland, for example the Parkers of Browsolmecollection (LRO DDB), which comprises 197 boxes. There are also deeds for the Bowlandestates from 1622 to 1806 held under LRO DDX 291 acc 3901, deposited by the Society ofGenealogists.There do not appear to be any published collections of old photographs of Slaidburn, but acollection is held at the village visitor centre on Church Street. Some photographs can alsobe found on the village website (www.slaidburn.org.uk).3.3 Cartographic evidenceThere are a number of maps of Slaidburn from the end of the sixteenth century. Theearliest known map is dated to 1592, and is held in the National Archive, Kew (PRODD/44/468), whilst the LRO holds a number of maps, including a plan of the townfieldfrom1758 by RC Clapham (LRO DP/453/1), and a map of 1765 by JB Lang of the wholesettlement (LRO DDb 84/1). There is also the tithe map and accompanying schedule of1843 (LRO PR 3035/4/1). All these maps can be viewed on the Slaidburn village website(www.slaidburn.org.uk). Saxton’s county map of 1591 shows Slaidburn with a possiblemarket cross, and Jeffrey’s Map of Yorkshire (1771) provides a good indication of theextent of settlement in the late eighteenth century.There were no other plans available other than Ordnance Survey maps. The OrdnanceSurvey maps include the 1:10,560 first edition map of 1850, surveyed in 1847 (sheet 165),and the 1:2500 maps of 1893, revised in 1907 and published in 1909 (sheet 165.01).3.4 Archaeological evidenceFollowing an initial examination of the nineteenth and early-twentieth century OS mapping,undertaken at the commencement of the LEUS there were 52 sites recorded for Slaidburnin the Lancashire Sites and Monuments Record (LSMR). Of these 40, or 77%, were listedbuildings. The majority of the remainder were structures recorded from the OrdnanceSurvey map coverage or other nineteenth century documentary sources. Only three siteswere known to have medieval or early medieval origins, and 20 had origins pre-dating1800. Most of these earlier sites are recorded on the LSMR because they are listedbuildings, and this is also a reflection of the lack of archaeological work carried out inSlaidburn to date.© Lancashire County Council 2006 9
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SLAIDBURN - Lancashire County Council

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