Dunsop Bridge

Dunsop Bridge
Dunsop Bridge Post Office
OS grid reference	SD659501
Civil parish	Bowland Forest High
District	Ribble Valley
Shire county	Lancashire
Region	North West
Land	England
Sovereign state	Vereinigtes Königreich
Post town	CLITHEROE
Postcode district	BB7
Dialling code	01200
Police	Lancashire
Fire	Lancashire
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	Ribble Valley

Dunsop Bridge is a village within the Ribble Valley borough of Lancashire, England, situated 9 miles (14 km) north-west of Clitheroe, 15 miles (24 km) south-east of Lancaster and 24.5 miles (39 km) west of Skipton. It is in the civil parish of Bowland Forest High.

It is one of two main contenders for the location of the exact geographic centre of Great Britain. The other town is Haltwhistle in Northumberland, some 71 miles (114 km) to the north. Dunsop Bridge's claim is calculated on the fact that it is the gravitational centre of the island (although the exact point is at Whitendale Hanging Stones, near Brennand Farm, 4+1⁄2 miles (7 km) north of the village).

In 1992, BT installed its 100,000th payphone at Dunsop Bridge and included a plaque to explain its significance - the plaque reads "You are calling from the BT payphone that marks the centre of Great Britain." The telephone box was unveiled by Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

The Queen has visited Dunsop Bridge twice, once during the late 1980s and more recently in the summer of 2006.

Geography

Bridge over the River Dunsop

The village is located at the confluence of the River Dunsop and the River Hodder before the Hodder flows south to join the River Ribble outside Clitheroe. The bridge from which the village takes its name consists of two simple arches which span the river.

On 8 August 1967, Dunsop Valley entered the UK Weather Records with the highest 90-min total rainfall at 117 mm. As of July 2006, this record remains. The village is surrounded on all sides by the rolling hills of the Forest of Bowland and is located within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Nearby is the Salter Fell Track, a pass along which the Lancashire Witches are believed to have been taken to their trial at Lancaster Castle.

History

Dunsop Bridge was in the West Riding of Yorkshire until the 1974 reorganisation of local government.

Dunsop Bridge was developed into a village in the mid 19th century as a result of the lead mining industry in the area. Before that, there were only a few isolated houses and farms in the area. Thorneyholme House, close to the centre of the village, was home to John Towneley, 13th Lord of Bowland, in the period up until his death in 1878. Prior to that, it had been home to Richard Eastwood, an acclaimed breeder of racehorses and shorthorn cattle.Eastwood, an acclaimed breeder of racehorses and shorthorn cattle. Eastwood, land agent to the Towneleys, was the last known Bowbearer of Bowland. He died in 1871 and is buried at St Hubert's, Dunsop Bridge.

From the late eleventh century, Dunsop had fallen under the ancient Lordship of Bowland which comprised a Royal Forest and a Liberty of ten manors spanning eight townships and four parishes and covered an area of almost 300 square miles (800 km²) on the historic borders of Lancashire and Yorkshire. The manors within the Liberty were Slaidburn (Newton-in-Bowland, West Bradford, Grindleton), Knowlmere, Waddington, Easington, Bashall, Mitton, Withgill (Crook), Leagram, Hammerton and Dunnow (Battersby).

In 2009, it was reported that Charles Towneley Strachey, 4th Baron O'Hagan had stepped forward on behalf of the Towneley family to claim the title of 15th Lord of Bowland. Previously, the Lordship had been thought lost or in the possession of the Crown having disappeared from the historical record in late nineteenth century. The Towneleys had owned the Bowland Forest Estate from 1835 and it transpired that the title had been retained by an extinct family trust. Controversially, Lord O'Hagan went on to sell the Lordship of Bowland at auction. The 16th Lord of Bowland was later revealed to be a Cambridge University don who specialises in the history of Lancashire, its place names and dialects and has ancestral links to the Forest. The 16th Lord made an official visit to the village in April 2011. His Bowbearer of the Forest of Bowland, Robert Parker, was in attendance, together with representatives from the Bowland Higher Division Parish Council, the Forest authorities, community leaders and other dignitaries.

Dunsop has a more ancient historical significance, however. The river formed the easternmost boundary of the territory of Amounderness in the ninth century and is cited in a grant made by King Athelstan to Wulfstan of York in 934 AD.

St. Hubert's Church

St Huberts RC Church

The Catholic church of St. Hubert’s was built to the design of Edward Pugin, from, it is believed, the winnings of the racehorse Kettledrum owned by Colonel Charles Towneley of Towneley Hall, Burnley in the 1861 Epsom Derby The Toweneley stud was at nearby Root Farm. The Towneleys' agent and an early patron of St Hubert's, Richard Eastwood, is entombed outside the front entrance to the church.

The church was opened on 2 May 1865 by Bishop Richard Roskell of Nottingham. The medieval font was originally from the ancient church at Burholme near Whitewell. The east and west windows are by J. B. Capronnier of Brussels and date from 1865. In its early years, the Church was served by the Jesuit Order, presumably from nearby Stonyhurst.

The middle west window depicts St. Hubert who is the patron saint of hunters, as a huntsman accompanied by a stag. The Forest of Bowland was once a royal hunting forest. According to legend St. Hubert’s conversion to the Catholic faith took place on a Good Friday when, while hunting a stag, he saw a vision of a cross between its antlers and heard a voice telling him to seek instruction in the Christian faith. In 705, he became Bishop of Maastricht, later of Liege.

External links

• BBC news pictures of Dunsop Bridge