Cliviger is not mentioned in the Domesday survey, and the survey of the wider area (Blackburnshire) is brief. Around 1160 a "plough-land", possibly the whole of the township, was granted to the recently founded Kirkstall Abbey (Leeds), and the monks made a grange here. However sometime later Richard de Elland (the son of the previous tenant) was allowed reclaim it, and Robert de Lacy (died 1193), lord of Clitheroe granted Accrington to the monks instead. Later returned to them, Kirkstall would hold Cliviger until 1287, when Henry de Lacy promised them a fixed-rent in exchange. Cliviger bordered on the Forest of Rossendale and a boundary bank called the "Old Dyke" can still be traced southeast of Thieveley Pike (close to the southern border of the modern parish). The de Lacy's held land in demesne here as part of the Honour of Clitheroe, which would become incorporated into the Duchy of Lancaster. A saltway route from Cheshire via Manchester to Knaresborough and Wetherby has been ascertained to have passed over Thieveley Pike.