Bolton-by-Bowland or Bolton-by-Bolland, a parish in the W.R. Yorkshire, 3 1/2 miles W from Gisburn railway station, 4 1/2 N from Chatburn railway station, and 6 N of Clitheroe. It includes the hamlets of Holden and Forest-Becks, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office, under Clitheroe. Acreage, 5942 ; population, 571. Bolton Hall was formerly the abode of the Pudsays, and it was here that Sir Ralph Pudsay, in 1463, gave shelter to Henry VI. after the battle of Hexham. It is now the property and seat of the Wright family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ripon; gross value, £346 with residence. The church, which is Perpendicular Gothic, with remains of earlier work, has a very handsome tower, which was partly rebuilt in 1850, and contains, among other objects of interest, the remarkable tomb of its founder, Sir Ralph Pudsay, and his three wives and twenty-five children. The church was restored in 1886. There is a Congregational chapel at Holden, and a Wesleyan chapel at Bolton. There is a court-house, in which are held the sessions for the Bolton-by-Bowland petty sessional division of the county, and a coffee-house, in which accommodation is found for the reading club and. its library.
