Recent from talks
Whitewell
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Whitewell
Whitewell is a village within the civil parish of Bowland Forest Low and Ribble Valley borough of Lancashire, England. It is in the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Historically, the village fell just within the boundaries of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was transferred to Lancashire for administrative purposes on 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972. It stands above a bend in the River Hodder.
The village comprises Upper and Lower Whitewell. Lower Whitewell is the site of St Michael's, a chapel of ease built in the late medieval period, certainly no later than 1400, which comes under the Lancashire parish of Whalley. The restaurant and hotel, The Inn at Whitewell, is also situated in Lower Whitewell.
From the late 14th century, the Inn anciently housed the forest courts of the Forest of Bowland and provided lodgings for the Master Forester. There is evidence of Master Foresters in Bowland dating back as early as the late 12th century.
It is thought that the ancient administrative centre of the forest was at Hall Hill, north-north-east of the current hamlet. It is conjectured that this motte – now merely an earthwork mound surmounted by trees overlooking the old keeper's cottage at Seed Hill Farm – formed the centre of an early medieval hunting laund (enclosure) known as Radholme which is mentioned as a vill in Domesday.
Sir Walter Urswyk was Master Forester to John of Gaunt, 11th Lord of Bowland and it is Urswyk who seems to have been responsible for the shift to Lower Whitewell sometime between 1372–1403. Bowland appears to undergone wholesale manorial reorganisation in the second half of the 14th century, a process that may have been driven by a fall in population resulting from the Black Death (1348–50) and the absorption of Bowland into the Duchy of Lancaster after 1360.
After 1660, the office of Master Forester fell into abeyance. The forest courts at Whitewell – a swainmote and a woodmote – were presided over by a Chief Steward or more often his deputy, one of whose duties was to appoint a bowbearer (or more often two bowbearers) on behalf of the Lord of Bowland. His responsibilities were akin to those of a chief verderer – an unpaid official appointed to protect vert and venison and responsible for supervising and assisting in the enforcement of forest laws.
The Parkers of Browsholme Hall have traditionally claimed the office of bowbearer as an hereditary right but this claim was an early 19th fabrication and has now been discredited. The family were certainly bowbearers for successive generations between the 17th and 19th centuries but the right of appointment was always a prerogative of their local lord, the Lord of Bowland, the so-called Lord of the Fells.
Although the forest courts at Whitewell fell into disuse in the first half of the 19th century, the 16th Lord of Bowland chose in April 2010 to appoint Robert Redmayne Parker of Browsholme Hall his bowbearer of the Forest of Bowland, the first Parker to be so appointed in more than 150 years.
Hub AI
Whitewell AI simulator
(@Whitewell_simulator)
Whitewell
Whitewell is a village within the civil parish of Bowland Forest Low and Ribble Valley borough of Lancashire, England. It is in the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Historically, the village fell just within the boundaries of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was transferred to Lancashire for administrative purposes on 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972. It stands above a bend in the River Hodder.
The village comprises Upper and Lower Whitewell. Lower Whitewell is the site of St Michael's, a chapel of ease built in the late medieval period, certainly no later than 1400, which comes under the Lancashire parish of Whalley. The restaurant and hotel, The Inn at Whitewell, is also situated in Lower Whitewell.
From the late 14th century, the Inn anciently housed the forest courts of the Forest of Bowland and provided lodgings for the Master Forester. There is evidence of Master Foresters in Bowland dating back as early as the late 12th century.
It is thought that the ancient administrative centre of the forest was at Hall Hill, north-north-east of the current hamlet. It is conjectured that this motte – now merely an earthwork mound surmounted by trees overlooking the old keeper's cottage at Seed Hill Farm – formed the centre of an early medieval hunting laund (enclosure) known as Radholme which is mentioned as a vill in Domesday.
Sir Walter Urswyk was Master Forester to John of Gaunt, 11th Lord of Bowland and it is Urswyk who seems to have been responsible for the shift to Lower Whitewell sometime between 1372–1403. Bowland appears to undergone wholesale manorial reorganisation in the second half of the 14th century, a process that may have been driven by a fall in population resulting from the Black Death (1348–50) and the absorption of Bowland into the Duchy of Lancaster after 1360.
After 1660, the office of Master Forester fell into abeyance. The forest courts at Whitewell – a swainmote and a woodmote – were presided over by a Chief Steward or more often his deputy, one of whose duties was to appoint a bowbearer (or more often two bowbearers) on behalf of the Lord of Bowland. His responsibilities were akin to those of a chief verderer – an unpaid official appointed to protect vert and venison and responsible for supervising and assisting in the enforcement of forest laws.
The Parkers of Browsholme Hall have traditionally claimed the office of bowbearer as an hereditary right but this claim was an early 19th fabrication and has now been discredited. The family were certainly bowbearers for successive generations between the 17th and 19th centuries but the right of appointment was always a prerogative of their local lord, the Lord of Bowland, the so-called Lord of the Fells.
Although the forest courts at Whitewell fell into disuse in the first half of the 19th century, the 16th Lord of Bowland chose in April 2010 to appoint Robert Redmayne Parker of Browsholme Hall his bowbearer of the Forest of Bowland, the first Parker to be so appointed in more than 150 years.
Recent media