BURY

The parish of Bury comprised the townships of Bury, Elton, Heap, Walmersley with Shuttleworth, Tottington (Higher End and Lower End), Musbury, Cowpe, Lench, Newhall Hey and Hall Carr and the hamlet of Ramsbottom together with the chapelries of Edenfield, Heywood and Holcombe, each of which usually had a curate. Although all were included in the county of Lancashire, parts of the parish are now included in Greater Manchester.

The parish was a rectory in the gift of the lord of the manor, which had passed to the Pilkington family by the fifteenth century. The manor was acquired by the Stanley family on the accession of Henry VII in 1485 having been confiscated because of the Pilkingtons support for Richard III. The Stanleys also acquired and retained the advowson.

In 1523 or 1524 there was a short-lived attempt to establish at Bury a second Consistory Court for the archdeaconry of Chester serving the northern area. Richard Smyth, the rector of Bury, was the commissary in charge there until it was abandoned within ten years.

The church building is situated at the highest point in the town of Bury near to the remains of the castle which was in ruins by the early sixteenth century and demolished about 1644 during the parliamentary siege of the town.

There is understood to have been a church in Bury at the time of the Norman conquest. This was restored or rebuilt in about 1535, but by the middle of the eighteenth century this building had become so dilapidated that it was demolished and rebuilt between 1773 and 1780. The steeple was thought to detract from the appearance of the new building so, following damage in 1839, this was rebuilt in 1845. The whole of the eighteenth-century church building was later declared unsafe, so it was demolished and rebuilt again, retaining the early Victorian spire, which is now attached to the body of the church by a structure known as a narthex. The rebuilding work took five years, and the church was re-dedicated in February 1876.

Some memorial plaques were retained and reinstalled following the rebuilding, as was the font dating from 1854.

Bury Grammar School is thought to have been founded in 1625 and re-founded by Roger Kay, a local clergyman and fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1726. The old school building next to the church now serves as the church hall.

The town of Bury has had a market since the fifteenth century and the market continues to thrive, being noted for the sale of Bury black puddings. The main industry in the parish is textiles, and by the sixteenth century there was a flourishing woollen industry, gradually supplanted by cotton spinning, weaving and finishing. Iron and brass foundries and paper mills also grew up around the town of Bury. Industrial development was fostered by existence of two local rivers, the Irwell and its tributary, the Roch, which supplied power and water, later supplanted by the growth of local coal fields for power and canals for transport.

Famous men from the parish include John Kay, born in Walmersley, who invented the flying shuttle and Sir Robert Peel, who served twice as Prime Minister in the first half of the nineteenth century. He is regarded as the founder of the modern police force and is also famed for the repeal of the Corn Laws. He was born at Chamber Hall, Bury, (since demolished) which had been leased by his industrialist father from a family called Kay and his statue now dominates Bury town centre.

With thanks to Mark Hone for his insights into the history of Bury.

Field names include:

named in EDC 5/8/1 –
cray or cragh

Image of the church with the Victorian spire and eighteenth-century body from B. T. Barton, History of the borough of Bury and neighbourhood: in the county of Lancaster (Bury, 1874?) courtesy of HathiTrust

Sources:

B. T. Barton, History of the borough of Bury and neighbourhood: in the county of Lancaster (Bury, 1874?)

Christopher Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), p. 3 

‘Burton-upon-Trent – Bushey’, in A Topographical Dictionary of England, ed. Samuel Lewis( London, 1848), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp452-460 [accessed 31 December 2024]

‘The parish of Bury’, in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 5, ed. William Farrer, J Brownbill( London, 1911), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol5/pp122-128 [accessed 31 December 2024]

https://www.buryparishchurch.com/history

ORMSKIRK 

The parish of Ormskirk comprised the townships of Lathom, Ormskirk, Burscough, Bickerstaffe and Scarisbrick and the chapelry of Skelmersdale.

The parish church occupies an elevated position surrounded by the town of Ormskirk. It is unusual in having both a spire and a tower and is thought to be unique in having both at the same end of the building. During the remodelling of the church between 1877 and 1891 James Dixon commented on the number of burials under the floor and described it as ‘Internally, one of the most objectionable to the eye of taste’.

The original parish church was probably a wooden Saxon construction, replaced by a small Norman stone building subsequently enlarged in the Early English style, of which the earliest surviving part dates from about 1170. This was further extended by the addition of a number of chapels over the centuries, including the Bickerstaffe Chapel of the fifteenth century. The spire dates from the fifteenth century and the tower was built in 1540-50 to accommodate eight bells from Burscough Priory which was dissolved in 1536. The earl of Derby tried unsuccessfully to save the priory church but when his efforts failed the moved his family patronage to Ormskirk parish church. It is thought that the bell tower may include stone from Burscough Priory buildings.

The parish church building was badly damaged during the Civil War as Parliamentarian troops besieged the nearby home of the Stanley family at Lathom House and perhaps took out their frustration on the building which was so closely associated with the family.

The parish was appropriated to Burscough Priory, and the vicar, usually a canon of Burscough until the suppression, was paid an annual stipend of £10, together with a house and four acres of land. This arrangement continued after the dissolution of the priory when the parish passed to the crown by whom it was leased out. In 1549 the earl of Derby bought the right of presentation of the vicar

The parish of Ormskirk was a discharged vicarage which means that any vicar was ‘dischardged and acquited for ever’ from payment of a tax called first-fruits on taking over the vicarage because the value of the living was £10 per annum.

The weekly market held in the town of Ormskirk dates from the thirteenth century, and there were also two fairs each year. The Quarter Sessions were held there twice a year until 1817.

The town of Ormskirk saw very little industrialisation, and most attempts to establish industries such as textiles soon came to nothing, although some industry proved to be more stable, notably a ropeworks. Coal was mined in some areas of the parish, particularly Skelmersdale. The flat land surrounding the town of Ormskirk, which was a type of wetland known as a moss, now drained, continues to be a valuable market gardening area, specialising in potatoes.

The black and white image of the Norman window is from James Dixon, ‘Notes on certain discoveries made during alterations at Ormskirk church, with obervations’, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, volume 30 for 1877-8; the other black and white images are reproduced courtesy of Hathi Trust.

Sources

Historical sketches of Ormskirk, Ormskirk Church: Lathom, Lathom House, past and present; Lord Lathom, the siege of Lathom House, and reminiscences connected there with; Burscough Priory, &c., &c. (Ormskirk, 1881)

‘The parish of Ormskirk: Introduction, church and charities’, in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3, ed. William Farrer and J Brownbill (London, 1907), pp. 238-246. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp238-246 [accessed 3 January 2023]

‘Townships: Ormskirk’, in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3, ed. William Farrer and J Brownbill (London, 1907), pp. 261-264. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol3/pp261-264  [accessed 4 January 2023]

‘Houses of Austin canons: The priory of Burscough’, in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 2, ed. William Farrer and J Brownbill (London, 1908), pp. 148-152. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol2/pp148-152 [accessed 3 January 2023]

‘Orby – Ormskirk’, in A Topographical Dictionary of England, ed. Samuel Lewis (London, 1848), pp. 479-483. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp479-483  [accessed 3 January 2023]

‘Skellingthorpe – Skeyton’, in A Topographical Dictionary of England, ed. Samuel Lewis (London, 1848), pp. 113-115. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp113-115  [accessed 3 January 2023]

Several articles in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire by James Dixon and other contributors cover the history of the parish and township of Ormskirk. They are available online:

https://www.hslc.org.uk/journal/vol-26-1873-1874/

https://www.hslc.org.uk/journal/vol-29-1876-1877/

https://www.hslc.org.uk/journal/vol-30-1877-1878/

https://www.hslc.org.uk/journal/vol-76-1924/

https://www.hslc.org.uk/journal/vol-139-1989/

BEXTON

Bexton was a very small hamlet, forming part of the chapelry of Knutsford. In 1848 it was entirely agricultural.

According to the website GENUKI (https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CHS/bexton) ‘The population was 49 in 1801, 87 in 1851, 124 in 1901, 11 in 1951, and 9 in 2001.’

By the middle of the seventeenth century half was held by the Cholmondeley family and half by the Daniell family.

Sources:

George Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester (second edition, revised and enlarged by T. Helsby, London, 1882), vol.i, pp. 507-509

‘Beverstone – Bickleigh’, in A Topographical Dictionary of England, ed. Samuel Lewis( London, 1848), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp228-233

KNUTSFORD 

In the sixteenth century Knutsford was a chapelry in the parish of Rostherne, about four miles distant. It comprised the townships of Nether Knutsford, Over Knutsford (also known as Knutsford Booths), Toft, Bexton and Ollerton. Although often referred to as a parish at that time it did not become a parish in its own right until an act of parliament in 1741 created ‘a separate and distinct parish’ from the parochial chapelry of Nether Knutsford. (14 Geo. 2 c. 5).

There were two chapels in Knutsford. A chapel is defined by Canon J. S. Purvis as ‘A building regarded as something less than or different from a parish church, or used for less than the full functions of a church.’

The parochial chapel in Nether Knutsford, dedicated to St Helena, was situated in an area known as Crosstown, about a mile from the town centre. This chapel may not have had all the rights of the parish church, although from the number of surviving gravestones it presumably had burial rights. On the creation of the parish a new church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, was built in the centre of the town and the chapel fell into decay and nothing now survives but the footprint of the building and gravestones. The act founding the parish created a vicarage and gave the right of presentation to the lords of the various manors it comprised.

A chapel of ease in the lower town developed from a chantry endowed by Sir John Legh of Booths. This chapel had a school attached. It was not uncommon for chantry priests to take up teaching as their other duties were not onerous and teaching also provide an additional source of income. Following the dissolution of the chantries in the reign of Edward VI a foundation was established to ensure the continuation of the school and chapel. A new schoolhouse was built at the time of the construction of the parish church. In 1697 the chapel warden brought a complaint to the Chester Exchequer on behalf of the inhabitants, claiming that Peter Legh of Booths had locked up the chapel, claiming that it was his domestic chapel and not available for public use without his permission. The Exchequer found in favour of the inhabitants. In the course of the judgement, it was mentioned that the same clergyman usually served both of Knutsford’s chapels.

One deponent in this case stated that in about 1617 a bear had been brought in at service time and allowed to put his paw into the pulpit, which led to the bishop prohibiting all services there for about twelve months until it was re-consecrated, plus the imposition of a fine of £5 (mentioned in Green’s Knutsford, p. 53).

The town of Knutsford was situated on one of the main roads from London to the northwest. A weekly market was held on a Saturday from medieval times. A new market hall, designed by Alfred Waterhouse, was built in 1872 by the Egerton family who had the right to the market tolls. It is now a wine bar. There were also three fairs each year to which cattle were brought from the surrounding countryside. Bear-baiting was a popular entertainment, as indicated by the incident of the bear in the chapel.

The main industry was textiles, initially the manufacture of linen thread from flax grown locally. A silk mill was built in 1770, but both the silk industry and an attempt to introduce cotton spinning failed, perhaps due to inadequate development of the transport infrastructure as industrialisation gathered pace elsewhere.

Knutsford was an important county centre for the administration of justice. From the time of the establishment of the Commission of the Peace for Cheshire in 1536, it was one of the four towns where JPs held their quarterly petty sessions. In the early nineteenth century the county jail and sessions house were built, although quarter sessions had been held in Knutsford since 1575.

The town centre still comprises two narrow streets running almost parallel. The pavements were paid for by Lady Jane Stanley (d. 1803), daughter of the earl of Derby, and were specified by her to be the width of one flagstone. This was said to be because she wished them to be narrow to discourage men and women walking arm-in-arm. She also helped to institute the widespread use of sedan chairs in the town.

Knutsford’s genteel life has been immortalised in Cranford by the Victorian novelist, Elizabeth Gaskell who is commemorated in various parts of the town, including by a building which incorporates a number of influences, including the Arts and Crafts movement. It incorporates a stone bust of her in a niche on its street front and a bronze relief. She spent much of her early life in the town and her husband was minister for a time at the Brook Street Unitarian chapel.

Sources:

Henry Green, Knutsford, its traditions and history: with reminiscences, anecdotes, and notices of the neighbourhood, (London, 1859).

George Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, (second edition, revised and enlarged by T. Helsby, London, 1882), vol. i, pp. 488-493

Canon J. S. Purvis, Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Terms, (London, 1962), pp. 40-41

‘Knowstone – Kytes-Hardwick’, in A Topographical Dictionary of England, ed. Samuel Lewis (London, 1848), pp. 711-713. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp711-713 [accessed 28 December 2022].

TNA: CHES 14/27, pp. 475-477, 538-541 (with thanks to The Anglo-American Legal Tradition website  http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT.html where images of these folios are available).