The Lordship of Bowland is a manorial lordship associated with the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, England. The lordship fell into disuse between 1885 and 2008, during which time it was widely believed to have lapsed; it was revived in 2008.[1]
In 1885, the estates of the aristocratic Towneley family were broken up following the death of the last male heir. These included the Forest of Bowland. In 1938 the Crown, in the form of the Duchy of Lancaster, acquired 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) of the forest, known as the Whitewell Estate, near Clitheroe; it was generally assumed that the Lordship of Bowland had been transferred to the Crown.
It was subsequently discovered that the sale of Whitewell Estate, while it included mineral, sporting and forestry rights, had specifically excluded the Lordship of Bowland itself. In fact, ownership of the title had descended to an extinct Towneley family trust. Consequently, in 2008, Charles Towneley Strachey, 4th Baron O'Hagan, disposed of the Lordship by private treaty after an auction.[2][3]
The 46th Lord of Bowland was later revealed to be a Cambridge University don who specialised in the history of Lancashire, its place names and dialects, and had ancestral links to the Forest.[4][5][6][dead link][7][8] The current 47th Lord of Bowland is Brady Brim-DeForest.