Historically, Sawley fell under the Earl of Northumberland's Percy fee rather than being part of the neighbouring Lordship of Bowland.[3]Sawley Abbey, a ruined abbey of Cistercian monks, is in the village. The abbey was founded in 1147 and dissolved in 1536.[4] By the early 17th-century, the manor had come into the possession of James Hay, who in 1615 was created Lord Hay of Sawley, and later 1st Earl of Carlisle.[5]
Governance
Sawley was an extra-parochial area in the Staincliffe Wapentake of the West Riding of Yorkshire. This became a civil parish in 1858, forming part of the Bowland Rural District from 1894 to 1974. The civil parish previously had a detached area on the southern side of Gisburn with a smaller part of that parish on the western side of Sawley. In 1938 these areas were joined with the respective parishes.[6] It has since become part of the Lancashire borough of Ribble Valley.
Sawley shares a parish council with two other parishes, Bolton-by-Bowland and Gisburn Forest.[7]