Blackburn (hundred)
| Hundred of Blackburn | |
|---|---|
| Hundred | |
 |
|
 Blackburn Hundred depicted in John Speed's 1610 map of Lancashire |
|
| Area | |
| • 1831 | 175,598 acres (711 km2) |
| • Coordinates | 53°44′56″N 2°29′06″W / 53.749°N 2.485°WCoordinates: 53°44′56″N 2°29′06″W / 53.749°N 2.485°W |
| History | |
| • Created | Before Domesday |
| • Abolished | Mid-18th century, never formally abolished |
| Status | Ancient Hundred |
| • HQ | Blackburn then Clitheroe |
| Subdivisions | |
| • Type | Parish(es) |
| • Units | Blackburn, Whalley |
Blackburn Hundred (also known as Blackburnshire) is an ancient sub-division of the county of Lancashire, in northern England. Its chief town was Blackburn, in the northwest of the hundred. It covered an area similar to modern East Lancashire, including the current districts of Ribble Valley (excluding the part north of the River Ribble and east of the Hodder, which was then in Yorkshire), Pendle (excluding West Craven, also in Yorkshire), Burnley, Rossendale, Hyndburn, Blackburn with Darwen, and South Ribble (east from Walton-le-dale and ).
Much of the area is hilly, bordering on the Pennines, with Pendle hill in the midst of it, and was historically sparsely populated. It included several important royal forests. But in the 18th century several towns in the area became industrialized and densely populated, including Blackburn itself, and Burnley.
The shire probably originated as a county of the Kingdom of Northumbria, but was much fought over. In the Domesday Book it was among the hundreds between the Ribble and Mersey rivers ("Inter Ripam et Mersam" in the Domesday Book) that were included with the information about Cheshire, though they are now in Lancashire and cannot be said clearly to have then been part of Cheshire. The area may have been annexed to the embryonic Kingdom of England following the Battle of Brunanburh in 937.
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