Ightenhill

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Ightenhill
Lancashire
Burnley Way above Hunters Oak (geograph 4085512).jpg
Countryside near Hunters Oak
Location
Grid reference: SD8208
Location: 53°48’14"N, 2°16’19"W
Data
Population: 1,975  (2011[1])
Post town: Burnley
Postcode: BB12
Dialling code: 01282
Local Government
Council: Burnley
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Burnley

Ightenhill is a civil parish in Lancashire, to the north-west of Burnley, and forming part of that town's urban area. At the 2011 census it had a population of 1,975.[1]

The civil parish was created in 1866, covering the extra-parochial area of Ightenhill Park. The modern civil parish includes Gawthorpe Hall and extends across the River Calder leaving the hill it is named after. As a result, adjoining parts of Burnley, although not inside the parish, are still locally considered part of the Ightenhill area. Much of the populated part of the parish is composed principally of large 1990s housing estates forming part of Burnley's urban area.

History

The name is historically recorded as Hightenhull (1238), Ightenhill (1242), Hucnhull (1258) and Ichtenhill (1296 and 1305).[2]

Ightenhill was one of the demesne manors of the Honour of Clitheroe, an estate administered from Clitheroe Castle.[3] The honour passed from the de Lacy family to the Earls, then Dukes of Lancaster, becoming part of the Duchy of Lancaster until 1661.[4] The manor covered a much larger area than the parish, including Heyhouses (now part of Sabden), Padiham, Habergham Eaves, Burnley, Briercliffe (without Extwistle) and Little Marsden (Nelson south of Walverden Water and Brierfield).[5] After 1661 the area of Pendle Forest was also included with it.[6] The site of Ightenhill Manor House (53°48’9"N, 2°16’36"W) is about a quarter of a mile to the east of Gawthorpe Hall on the brow of the hill, the site providing a good view of the whole of Pendle Forest.[7] Manorial courts were presumably originally held here before moving to Higham for Pendle Forest and Burnley for the rest of the manor.[8]

The earliest surviving reference of the name occurs in a charter signed here by John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of Lincoln in 1238, and it appears again in the grant of free warren obtained by his son Edmund in 1251.[8] Edmund also signed at least one charter here the same year.[9] The accounts of Henry de Lacy in 1296 show that a horse stud was already established here (it would continue after as a royal stud), in connection with three enclosures inside the forest, namely Higham and West Closes (in Higham with West Close Booth) and Filly Close in Reedley Hallows.[5] During the rebellion led by Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, raiders loyal to the king, took most of stock at Ightenhill and in the forests away to Skipton, as a result King Edward II stayed here for several days in October 1323.[8] The 19th-century historian T D Whitaker theorised that the site provided a preferred stop-over as the de Lacys travelled over the Pennines between Pontefract Castle and Clitheroe, and later as the Plantagenets continued on to Lancaster.[10]

Parts of the park, at least, must have been enclosed under the de Lacys,[lower-alpha 1] but in 1380, under John of Gaunt, the keeper of Pendle Chase was ordered to surround the entire park with a ditch and quickwood hedge.[12] The first Ordnance Survey map of the area, published in 1840s, shows the park to cover the summit and northern side of the hill.[lower-alpha 2]

From the early 1400s, the right to farm inside the park was leased to tenants.[14] The last park-keeper to be appointed was Robert Rishton in 1502,[15] and after 1507 the entire park was leased, with Rishton the first occupant, before passing it to the Towneleys by 1519. The hall was a ruin by 1522, however a survey taken at the time gives detail on the buildings at the site, listing the hall with a great chamber and long chamber at its western end, also the kitchen, pantry, oven-house, great barn, chapel, stable and houses for the park-keeper and butler. In 1894 no part of the walls was still standing, but the foundations of the keep could still easily be traced. Stone from the site is thought have used in the construction of the neighbouring farmhouse.[14]

By 1593, the Shuttleworths of Gawthorpe had taken control of the park, probably a result of the recusancy of John Towneley. With the exception of the site of the hall, the family later acquired the freehold title, and continued to own it into the 20th-century.[7]

Outside the park (and parish) a hamlet anciently known as Ightenhill lay to the south near to Whittlefield and Gannow.[2] Also, in the part of the parish across the Calder, Whittaker must have been a settlement comparable to Padiham during the Late Middle Ages, as that township was called Padiham cum Whitacre in 1296.[16] It was the residence of the Whittaker family from as early as 1311, until around the start of the 17th-century, when it also was acquired by the Shuttleworths.[17]

Quarrying stone for construction occurred at various sites including the area near the Tim Bobbin Public House and areas near Gawthorpe, into the 20th-century.[2]

Geography

The summit of Ighten Hill is approximately 146 metres above sea level. It is bounded to the north and east by the River Calder, and on the west by Green Brook and its tributary Sweet Clough. A ridge to the south has today been cut through by the M65 motorway and East Lancashire line railway, with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal running a in tunnel under it. As well as the civil parish, the hill extends under Burnley's Habergham, Whittlefield, with parts of Gannow and Lowerhouse districts, and part of the town of Padiham.

In the early 19th-century the Calder had become extensively polluted by manufacturing waste and the Shuttleworths had its route diverted away from Gawthorpe to the other side of the valley.[18]

Gawthorpe is one of the trailheads of the Brontë Way, a 43-mile long-distance footpath that crosses the South Pennines to Haworth, continuing to Oakwell Hall, Birstall, Yorkshire. The Burnley Way also passes through the parish, with both crossing the bridge over the Calder on the bridleway to Higham.[19][20]

Media gallery

  • Descending towards the River Calder on the Burnley Way

  • High Whittaker

  • Gawthorpe Hall

  • The Brontë Way also passes through the parish

  • Hagg Wood

  • All Saints with St John the Baptist Church

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Records from 1296 list fees paid for repairing the pales and diverting the Calder near Whitacre (Whittaker), to protect of the pales of the park[11]
  2. ↑ In the 1840s the park was contained within the area between Padiham Road, Cornfield Grove, Clifton Road and the river. Although only a small part of Clifton Road still exists, its destination Clifton Farm survives, more recently known as the Malt Shovel public house.[13]

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Ightenhill Parish (1170214986)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census_2011_ks/report?compare=1170214986. Retrieved 8 February 2018 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Farrer & Brownbill 1911, p. 487
  3. ↑ Whitaker 1872, p. 292
  4. ↑ Farrer & Brownbill 1911, p. 361
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Farrer & Brownbill 1911, p. 489, footnote
  6. ↑ Whitaker 1872, pp. 343-4
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Farrer & Brownbill 1911, p. 489
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Farrer & Brownbill 1911, p. 443
  9. ↑ Whitaker 1876, p. 310
  10. ↑ Whitaker 1876, p. 218
  11. ↑ Farrer & Brownbill 1911, p. 487, footnote
  12. ↑ Farrer & Brownbill 1911, p. 488
  13. ↑ National Heritage List 1244833: Former Clifton Farmhouse and Clifton Cottage
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Farrer & Brownbill 1911, p. 488-9
  15. ↑ Whitaker 1872, p. 313
  16. ↑ Whitaker 1872, p. 86
  17. ↑ Farrer & Brownbill 1911, pp. 493-4
  18. ↑ Farrer & Brownbill 1911, p. 464
  19. ↑ MKH Computer Services Ltd.. "Brontë Way — LDWA Long Distance Paths". ldwa.org.uk. https://www.ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show_path.php?path_name=Bronte+Way. Retrieved 21 March 2017. 
  20. ↑ MKH Computer Services Ltd.. "Burnley Way — LDWA Long Distance Paths". ldwa.org.uk. https://www.ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show_path.php?path_name=Burnley+Way. Retrieved 21 March 2017. 

Bibliography

Outside links

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