Blackburn Hundred

Hundred of Blackburn
Lancashire Hundred
Blackburn Hundred depicted in John Speed's 1610 map of Lancashire
Area
• 1831	175,598 acres (711 km2) [1]
• Coordinates	53°44′56″N 2°29′06″W / 53.749°N 2.485°W / 53.749; -2.485
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 a historic sub-division of the county of Lancashire, in northern England. Its chief town was Blackburn, in the southwest 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 Lostock Hall).

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. In the 18th century several towns in the area became industrialized and densely populated, including Blackburn itself, and Burnley.