SLAIDBURN, a parish in the western division of the wapentake of STAINCLIFFE-and-EWCROSS, West riding of the county of YORK, comprising the townships of High Bowland-Forest, Low Bowland-Forest, Easington, Newton, and Slaidburn, and containing 2583 inhabitants, of which number, 904 are in the township of Slaidburn, 8 miles (N. by W.) from Clitheroe. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of the. East riding, and diocese of York, rated in the king's books at £32, and in the patronage of J. Wigglesworth, Esq> The church is dedicated to St. Andrew. .There is a chapel of ease, dedicated to St. Peter 5 also a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. A free grammar school was founded here, in 1717, by John Brannord, who bequeathed an estate in trust, to apply £200 for the erection of the school-house, with £ 50 a year to a master, and £30 to an usher, for teaching the classics, or English grammar, to all the children of the parish. Another school was endowed, in 1732, by Mr. William Clayton, with £250, and by Mr. Johnson with £100, the interest of which sums, amounting to about £14.14. per annum, is applied to the gratuitous instruction of from twenty to thirty poor children. A chantry was founded, in 1332, by Stephen de Hamerton, in the chapel of St. Mary, then existing on his manor of Hamerton, for a Secular chaplain, to celebrate mass for the repose of the souls of himself, his father, and his mother.