The underlying solid geology of the Rossendale fells is largely formed by the Lower coal measures comprising bedded sandstones, shales and mudstones.

[6] John's grandson, Henry de Lacy obtained a grant of free warren in Tottington in 1296, and shortly after created a deer park here, and although detached from the Forest of Rossendale this led to it being included in it.

[4][7] Tor Hill was the dominant feature of the park, with the River Ogden and the surrounding ridges of Musbury Heights, Musden Head, and Alden Moor forming the other boundaries.

The wood came from the surrounding area, felled and shaped by carpenters on site, with eighteen oxen specially purchased to cart the pales to Musbury.

[8] After Henry de Lacy's death in 1311, both Tottington and Clitheroe passed to Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster who had been married to his daughter and heiress Alice.

[10] And the rights and privileges of several officers including the park-keeper, the constable and porter of Clitheroe Castle, and the bailiff of Salford Hundred were confirmed in a 1485 act.

[13] The precise area of the park is somewhat uncertain as although stretches of the ditches from the enclosure still remain in the Alden and Musbury valleys,[14] along Ogden Brook the boundary is only suggested to have been a little west of Holcombe Road.

[13] During World War II a Home Guard unit of just four men armed with a single old rifle and six rounds of ammunition climbed each evening to the top of the Tor to man a tiny observation post, often stumbling into bogs and old quarry workings.

American GIs also practised paratroop drops, and field exercises with live ammunition, before D-Day, setting up tents and a cookhouse by Great House on the Tor.