Clitheroe

"CLITHEROE, a township, market town, municipal and parliamentary borough, in the parish of Whalley, upper division of the hundred of Blackburn, in the county of Lancaster, 101 miles N. of Blackburn, and 217 from London by road, or 224 by railway. It is a station on the Bolton, Blackburn, and Clitheroe branch of the Lancashire and Wrest Yorkshire railway. It was anciently called Cliderhow, and is supposed to derive its name from the British Cled-dwr, signifying the hill or rock by the waters, and the Saxon word how, a hill. The town is pleasantly situated to the S. of the Pendle hills, on the picturesque banks of the Ribble. At the Conquest the honour of Clitheroe, including the greater part of the hundreds of Blackburn and Salford, and the manor of Slaidburn, in Yorkshire, were granted to Ilbert de Lacey Lord of Pontefract, whose son Robert, in the reign of William Rufus, built the castle, and Henry de Lacey, in 1149, obtained for Clitheroe its first charter from the crown. It reverted, through the marriage of Blanch, heiress of the De Laceys, with John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, to the crown, and was subsequently granted by Charles II. to General Monk for his services in bringing about the Restoration. The manor is now held by the Duke of Buccleuch. The town was formerly governed by two bailiffs; but on the passing of the Municipal Reform Act, in 1835, it was incorporated under a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors. It is well supplied with water, and the gasworks were established in 1837. Petty sessions are held in the townhall, and the mayor and recorder hold a borough court. It is the head of a County Court district, and of a Poor-law Union. The board of guardians meet weekly. The town contains several cotton-mills and an iron foundry.