Billington is a village in the
Ribble Valley
Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. Its council is based in Clitheroe, the largest town. The borough also includes the town of Longridge and numerous villages and surrounding rural areas. ...
district of
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
, England. It lies between the villages of
Whalley and
Langho
Langho is a small rural village north of Blackburn in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England. It is part of the parish of Billington and Langho. The village is linked with Blackburn and Clitheroe by the A666 road and is served by Langho rai ...
. It forms part of the
Billington and Langho civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
and contains the schools
St Augustine's RC High School, St Leonard's Primary and St Mary's Primary. The village population at the
2011 census was 1,409.
The 16th century Chapel of St Leonard is a Grade I listed building. According to local tradition, the chapel was constructed using materials taken from
Whalley Abbey following the
dissolution of the monasteries in the Tudor period, but this has never been conclusively proven.
History
In 798, early in his reign,
Eardwulf of Northumbria
Eardwulf (fl. 790 – 830) was king of Northumbria from 796 to 806, when he was deposed and went into exile. He may have had a second reign from 808 until perhaps 811 or 830. Northumbria in the last years of the eighth century was the scen ...
fought a battle at Billington Moor against a nobleman named Wada, who had been one of those who killed
Æthelred I of Northumbria
Æthelred (; c. 762 – 18 April 796), was the king of Northumbria from 774 to 779 and again from 790 until he was murdered in 796. He was the son of Æthelwald Moll of Northumbria, Æthelwald Moll and Æthelthryth and possibly became k ...
. Wada was defeated and driven into exile.
A charter written in 1308 mentions a hermitage by the rocks on the eastern side of Billington.
[Farrer, W. and Brownbill, J. (editors) (1911]
"Townships: Billington"
''A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6'', pp. 325–334, accessed 2 September 2014.
The village has been known previously as Billindon (1203), Billinton (1208), Bilingdon (1241), Belyngton or Bilyngton (14th–16th centuries).
In the 16th century, tenants of the village shared common land known as Billington Common with tenants of local villages
Great Harwood
Great Harwood is a town in the Hyndburn district of Lancashire, England, located north east of Blackburn and adjacent to the Ribble Valley. Great Harwood is part of the "Three Towns" conurbation along with the towns of Clayton-le-Moors and Ris ...
and
Wilpshire
Wilpshire is a village and civil parish in the county of Lancashire, England. It is north of Blackburn, and forms part of the town's urban area, although it is in the Ribble Valley local government district. In the 2001 United Kingdom census, ...
. There also existed a wood of approximately 60 acres named Elker, which contained oak trees, as well as hazel and alder. Oak and ash trees could also be found in the smaller Nab wood, which was around 40 acres.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Billington and Langho
References
External links
Billington & Whalley Web
Villages in Lancashire
Geography of Ribble Valley
{{Lancashire-geo-stub