Lordship of Bowland

The Lordship of Bowland is an historic feudal barony associated with the Forest of Bowland. It was once thought lost and was only recently rediscovered.^[1] It disappeared in 1885 when the estates of the Towneleys, one of Lancashire’s great aristocratic families, were broken up following the death of the last male heir. For much of the twentieth century, experts thought that the Lordship belonged to the Crown. In 1938, the Duchy of Lancaster had acquired some 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) of the Forest of Bowland, now known as the Whitewell Estate, near Clitheroe, and it was believed that the Lordship had been acquired with it.

It was discovered in 2008 that the 1938 sale, while it included mineral, sporting and forestry rights, specifically excluded the Lordship of Bowland itself. It accordingly descended to a Towneley family trust. In 2008, Charles Towneley Strachey, 4th Baron O'Hagan auctioned the title.^[2][3]The new Lord of Bowland was later revealed to be a Cambridge University don who specialises in the history of Lancashire, its place names and dialects and has ancestral links to the Forest.^[4][5][6][7]

History

The Bowland Fells in NE Lancashire

The ancient origins of the Lordship lie in the Forest and Liberty of Bowland thought to have been created by William Rufus sometime after Domesday and was part of lands granted to his vassal Roger de Poitou, possibly to reward Poitou for his role in defeating the army of Scots king Malcolm III in 1091-2. The Forest and Liberty of Bowland, along with the grant of the adjacent fee of Blackburnshire and holdings in Hornby and Amounderness, came to form the basis of what became known as the Honor of Clitheroe. Ownership of the forest followed the same descent as the Honour, passing with the rest of the de Lacy lands.^[8][9] to the Earldom of Lancaster. After 1351, it was administered as part of the Duchy of Lancaster, from 1399, a possession of the Crown.

Territorially, the Lordship of Bowland covered an area of almost 300 square miles (800 km²) on the historic borders of Lancashire and Yorkshire. It comprised a Royal Forest and a Liberty of ten manors spanning eight townships and four parishes. The manors within the Liberty were Slaidburn (Newton-in-Bowland, West Bradford, Grindleton), Knowlmere, Waddington, Easington, Bashall, Mitton, Withgill (Crook), Leagram, Hammerton and Dunnow (Battersby).^[1] Harrop was included within the Forest.

In 1661, the manors contained within the former Honor of Clitheroe, including the Forest and Liberty of Bowland, were granted by the Crown to General George Monck as part of the creation of the Dukedom of Albermarle. Monck had been a key figure in the restoration of Charles II.^[10] The Lordship of Bowland then descended through the Montagu and Buccleuch and Towneley families.

References