THE life and times of Bowland and Pendle Hill through the centuries has been brought together in a new book, by writer Bill Mitchell.

A retired journalist, now living in Settle, he has written a definitive account of the area's rich and varied past.

Over 150 pages he offers readers tantalising details of the how it has developed over the years, from the time when the Forest of Bowland was a royal hunting ground in which no king ever hunted to the discovery that one of its villages, Dunsop Bridge, is the exact centre of the British Isles.

Bill tells you of Sabden Treacle Mines and the Lancashire witches, detailing the men, landmarks and events that helped shape this rural landscape and its people over the years.

Did you know, for instance, that the Hark to Bounty at Slaidburn, was also a court -- land tenures were still heard there until 1920 -- and a bank? The courtroom furnishings are still intact.

And what would we make today of the all-male, 'Henpeck Club' in Chipping which used to meet once a year, elect a mayor and then wheel him round the village in a watercart? The story goes that one year 30 worse-for-wear members were arrested.

Beacons flared on Pendle Hill in times of national emergency and celebration. In 1887 1,000 people climbed the hill to mark Victoria's jubilee after 20 horses hauled the firewood to the summit. A beacon also blazed to celebrate the ending of the First World War.

The coming of the railway had a major impact in the area, certainly at Whalley, where the impressive viaduct was created to take the line across the Calder Valley. Costing £40,000 even in the mid 1800s, its bricks were made from local clay at each side of the railway embankments by a gang of labourers.

Still on the transport front, the first bus between Bolton-by-Bowland and Clitheroe in the early 1920s, was, in fact, adapted from a lorry, by Isaac Bleazard and had a superstructure resembling a poultry cabin.

It had two facing benches and the driver had to leave his seat and carry a set of steps to the back door for passengers.

In nearby Barley the first real bus service was inaugurated around the same time, by one Edward Jones, who had a Ford 20- seater. The driver was known to do the shopping for home-bound farmers with young families.

Bowland and Pendle Hill, by W. R. Mitchell, is published by Phillimore and Co and is now in local book shops, priced £15.99.