Whalley

"WHALLEY, a parish lying within the counties of Lancaster, Cheshire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is an extensive parish about 30 miles in length, by 15 in breadth, with a population in 1861 of 167,456. The parish includes the municipal and parliamentary borough of Clitheroe, the market towns of Burnley, Colne, and Haslingden, besides the villages, hamlets, or townships of Altham, Barlby, Barrowford, Briercliffe, Chatburn, Church-kirk, Clayton-le-Dale, Cliviger, Coldcoates, Downham, Dunnockshaw, Extwistle, Foulridge, Goldshaw Booth, Habergham-Eaves, now a district parish, Hapton, Henheads, Henthorn, Heyhouses, Higham, Holme, Huncoat, Little Rowland, Little Ireland, Marsden, Great and Little; Meazley, Nelson Station, Old Lund Booth, Padiham, Pendleton, Portsmouth, Read, Reedley Hallows, Rough Lee Booth, Sareden, Simondstone, Sykeside, Trawden, Twiston, Wheatly-Carr-Booth, Wiswell, Worsthome, Worston, West Close Booth, Whitewell, and Wheatley. It anciently included also the present parishes of Blackburn, Chipping, Mitton, Ribchester, Rochdale, and Slaidburn, which have been separated from it at different times. The rivers Calder and Ribble form a junction at the western extremity of the parish, and there are stations of the Bolton, Blackburn, and Clitheroe railway. The village of Whalley, which gives name to this parish, is situated on the river Calder, and contains the ruins of the abbey, founded in 1296 by Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, and now the property of John Taylor, Esq., of Morton Hall. Its revenue at the Dissolution was £551 4s. 6d. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Manchester, value £315, in the patronage of the Hulme trustees. The parish church, dedicated to All Saints, was repaired in 1855, when alterations were made in the interior, which contains several old brasses and monuments, screen work brought from the old abbey, and 18 ancient stalls. There are besides above 50 churches and chapels-of-ease within the limits of this parish, noticed under the several places named above, in which they are situated. The free grammar school founded by Queen Elizabeth was rebuilt in 1725, and has an interest in 13 scholarships founded in Brazenose College, Oxford, by Dr. Nowell in 1572. There are traces of a Roman road, which passed through the parish, and of Roman camps."