(colloquially known as '''Barlick''') is a
Town in northern with an approximate population of 12,000, administered as part of the
Lancashire district of
Pendle . It is just outside the
Yorkshire Dales National Park and the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Nestling on the lower slopes of Weets Hill in the
Pennines , astride the natural watershed between the Ribble and Aire valleys, it is the highest town on the
Leeds And Liverpool Canal , in-between
Clitheroe in
Lancashire and
Skipton in
Yorkshire , and approximately 30 miles from the cities of
Leeds ,
Manchester and
Preston .
Barnoldswick dates back to
Viking times. It was listed in the
Doomsday Book as Bernulfsuuick, meaning Bernulf's Town (uuic being an archaic spelling of wick, meaning settlement).
A
Cistercian Monastery was founded there in
1147 by
Monk s from
Fountains Abbey . However they left after six years, before construction was complete, driven out by crop failures and locals unhappy at their interference in the affairs of the local church. They went on to build
Kirkstall Abbey . They returned after another ten years to build the isolated church of
St Mary-le-Gill close to the Barnoldswick to
Thornton In Craven road.
For hundreds of years Barnoldswick remained a small village, however the arrival of the canal, and later the (now closed) railway, spurred the development of the existing woolen industry, and helped it to become a major cotton town.
Barnoldswick was historically administered as part of the
West Riding Of Yorkshire (although
Blackburnshire in Lancashire sometimes claimed the area). It was transferred to the jurisdiction of Lancashire by the
Local Government Act 1972 in
1974 .
