sentences: Thomas Dunham Whitaker, historian, theologian and curate of Holme Chapel and later also vicar of the parishes of Whalley and Blackburn (until 1821), conjectured that the origin was Saxon, from "clivvig" and "shire", meaning "rocky district".However, in 1922 Eilert Ekwall felt that the name meant "steep slope farmland" having been derived from Old English .