Possibly a region of the British kingdom of
Rheged, Bowland was absorbed into
Northumbria in the 7th century. In turn, as Northumbrian influence waned, the westernmost areas of Bowland became part of
Amounderness, a territory forged by the Norse
hold Agmundr, a vassal of
Eowils,
Halfdan and
Ingwaer, co-kings of
Jorvik, in the early 10th century. In 926, Amounderness was annexed by
Æthelstan, king of the West Saxons, as a spoil of war. In 934, he granted it to Archbishop
Wulfstan I of York. According to Aethelstan's grant, Amounderness at that time stretched "from the sea along the
Cocker to the source of that river, from that source straight to another spring which is called in
Old English,
"Dunshop", thus down the rivulet to the
Hodder, in the same direction to the
Ribble and thus along that river through the middle of the channel to the sea". As such, Amounderness encompassed a significant portion of western and south-western Bowland. Ekwall thus describes the eastern boundary of Amounderness as "being formed by the fells on the Yorkshire border"; a description which places the ancient boundary firmly within the modern-day Forest of Bowland. While it is difficult to pinpoint
Dunshop, the confluence of the rivers Dunsop and Hodder at
Dunsop Bridge seems a likely locale, situated as it is close to the eastern mouth of the Trough of Bowland, whose
Grey Stone marks the line of the pre-1974 county boundary. Contrary to the popular histories, the origins of the name "Bowland" have nothing to do with archery ("the land of the bow") or with mediaeval cattle farms or vaccaries (Old Norse,
buu-, farmstead). The name derives from the Old Norse
boga-/bogi-, meaning a "bend in a river". It is a 10th-century coinage used to describe the topography of the Hodder basin, with its characteristic meandering river and brooks. on Longridge Fell The Domesday
Bogeuurde is an instance of this usage – the placename thought to designate Barge Ford (formerly known as Boward), a ford that sits on the wide, pronounced bend of the Hodder at its
confluence with Foulscales Brook, due south-west of Newton. Before the
Norman Conquest, Bowland was held by
Tostig, son of
Godwin,
Earl of Wessex. However, as feudal entities, the
Forest and
Liberty of Bowland were created by
William Rufus sometime after
Domesday and granted to his vassal
Roger de Poitou, possibly to reward Poitou for his role in defeating the Scots army of
Malcolm III in 1091–92. In all likelihood, it was this grant that subsumed the eastern portion of Amounderness into the
Lordship of Bowland for the first time. By the end of the 11th century, the Forest and Liberty came into the possession of the
De Lacys, Lords of
Pontefract. In 1102, along with the grant of the adjacent fee of
Clitheroe and further holdings in
Hornby and Amounderness, they came to form the basis of what became known as the
Honour of Clitheroe. In 1311, the Honour of Clitheroe was subsumed into the
Earldom of Lancaster. Between 1351 and 1661, it was administered as part of the
Duchy of Lancaster. By the late 14th century, 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 Eaves,
Mitton,
Withgill (Crook),
Leagram,
Hammerton and
Dunnow (Battersby). Pendle Forest was also part of the Honour of Clitheroe, but administered as part of the Forest of
Blackburnshire, entirely in Lancashire. Gradale, in the northeastern extremity of the forest, grew in population as new land was made available for colonisation. In the mediaeval period, it was a pasture of the
Cistercian grange of Rushton on the upper Hodder. In 1537, its
manor house,
Kirkstall Abbey, was dissolved. Tenements began appearing in the area from the mid-16th century. By 1650, the lower land of the forest had been almost completely cleared of woods, then divided into small plots, with only the higher land remaining open. Whereas their forebears of the 16th century lived in "crude timber and thatch cottages", the farmers of the following century were likely inhabiting stone farmhouses. The
Lordship of Bowland then descended through the
Montagu,
Buccleuch and
Towneley families.
Bowbearers of the Forest of Bowland have been appointed since the 12th century. A Bowbearer was originally a noble who acted as ceremonial attendant to the
Lord of Bowland, latterly the king, by bearing (carrying) his hunting bow, but over the centuries the Bowbearer's role underwent many changes. In April 2010, it was reported that the current 16th Lord of Bowland had revived the office of Bowbearer and appointed
Robert Redmayne Parker the first Bowbearer of the Forest in almost 150 years. The Forest of Bowland had its own forest courts –
woodmote and
swainmote – from early times. These appear to have been abandoned in the 1830s around the time of Peregrine Towneley's acquisition of the Bowland Forest Estate. The halmote court at
Slaidburn was disbanded following the abolition of a copyhold by the Law of Property Act in 1922. General forest law in Britain was finally repealed by statute in 1971, more than 900 years after its introduction by the
Normans. The original Bowland Forest courts appear to have been held at Hall Hill near Radholme Laund before moving to
Whitewell sometime in the 14th century. The
Industrial Revolution had little impact on Bowland, as it had no coal reserves or valleys with fast flowing streams to power wool and cotton industries. There was some small-scale lead mining and lime production, quarrying and paper and cotton mills.
St Hubert, the patron saint of hunting, is also the 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 known Bowbearer of the Forest of Bowland. An acclaimed breeder of racehorses and shorthorn cattle, he died in 1871 and is buried at St Hubert's. Considerable areas of the Bowland Fells were used for military training during the Second World War, and there are still unexploded bombs in some areas. ==Ecology==