Mearley is a

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 ...

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. The parish is north-west of Pendle Hill, east of

Clitheroe Clitheroe () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Ribble Valley, Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England; it is located north-west of Manchester. It is near the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for to ...

, and is 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. It is a small parish with no villages or hamlets and a population of 25, the second smallest in Lancashire, at the 2001 census. It has no parish council, but instead has a

parish meeting A parish meeting is a meeting all the electors in a civil parish in England are entitled to attend. In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of a parish council, with ...

shared with neighbouring Worston. From the 2011 Census population information for both Mearley and Worston is included within the civil parish of Pendleton, giving a total of 349. The eastern part of the parish is included in the Pendle outlier section of the

Forest of Bowland The Forest of Bowland, also known as the Bowland Fells and formerly the Chase of Bowland, is an area of gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England, with a small part in North Yorkshire (however ro ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is one of 46 areas of countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Since 2023, the areas in England an ...

(AONB). The parish adjoins the Ribble Valley parishes of Worston,

, Pendleton and Sabden, along with Goldshaw Booth in the

Borough of Pendle Pendle is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The council is based in Nelson, the borough's largest town. The borough also includes the towns of Barnoldswick, Brierfield, Colne and Earby along with the sur ...

. The name is thought to mean the meadow or clearing at the boundary, from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

and . Mearley was once a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in the ancient parish of Whalley. This became a

in 1866, forming part of the Clitheroe Rural District from 1894 till 1974. Along with

Wiswell Wiswell is a small village and civil parish in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England, close to Whalley, Lancashire, Whalley and Clitheroe at the foot of Wiswell Moor. At the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census, it had a population of 967 ...

and Barrow (since 2015), both Mearley and Worston form the Wiswell and Pendleton ward of

Borough Council. Image:Mearley Hall farmhouse - geograph.org.uk - 2770666.jpg, Mearley Hall farmhouse Image:Mearley limekiln - geograph.org.uk - 62329.jpg, A disused

lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called ''quicklime'' (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is: CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction can tak ...

near Mearley Hall Image:Mearley Brook - geograph.org.uk - 2460503.jpg, Mearley Brook runs through the north of the parish Image:Mearley Moor - geograph.org.uk - 69137.jpg, Mearley Moor viewed from Pendleton

References

External links

Worston and Mearley Parish Meeting

The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster Vol 6
Civil parishes in Lancashire Geography of Ribble Valley {{Lancashire-geo-stub

See also

References

External links