WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



the entire township consists of pebble beds of the 

 bunter series of the new red sandstone or trias. The 

 Alt, which crosses the south-west corner, is joined by 

 two brooks one flowing from Simonswood past 

 Kirkby church, the other westward, between this 

 township and Knowsley. 



Little Britain, so called from an inn, ' The Little 

 Briton,' is a hamlet to the south- 

 east of the village. Ingoe Lane 

 runs north and south in the 

 western part of the township. 



The principal road is that 

 from Liverpool to Ormskirk ; 

 branches from it run east to 

 Knowsley and Simonswood. 

 The Lancashire and Yorkshire 

 Company's Liverpool and Man- 

 chester railway crosses the town- 

 ship, with a station at the village. 



The township i 

 by a parish council. 



Parts Brow Cross at Three Lanes Ends has remain- 

 ing a portion of the shaft in a stone pedestal. There 

 mile east of 



STA 

 Derby 



bend a 



governed heads t 





WALTON 



In 1 176 Richard son of Roger of Woodplumpton 

 held it, presumably in right of his wife Margaret, 

 daughter and heir of Thurstan Banastre. 5 On his 

 death it fell to the share of his daughter Margaret, 

 wife of Hugh de Moreton. 6 With her husband's 

 consent she gave the manor, the men dwelling there 

 and all the appurtenances, together with her body, to 

 Stanlaw Abbey, to hold in free alms ; ' but on her dying 

 without issue, the gift became inoperative, her sisters 

 and their heirs claiming it. In 1 242 Robert de 

 Stockport, Roger Gernet, and Thomas de Beetham, 

 held it in right respectively of Maud, mother of 

 Robert ; Quenilda, wife of Roger ; and Amuria, wife 

 of Thomas. 8 Quenilda died 



childless in 1252, and Kirkby ^.___^_ 

 was afterwards held in moieties 

 by Sir Robert de Stockport and 

 Sir Ralph de Beetham. 9 



The share of the latter, known 

 as Kirkby Beetham, descended 

 like Bootle and part of Formby, 10 

 was forfeited to the crown after 

 the battle of Bosworth, and like 

 then 



was formerly another cross about half 

 the church. 1 



Peter Augustine Baines, O.S.B., Bishop of Siga and 

 Vicar Apostolic of the Western district from 1 829 to 

 1843, was born at Kirkby in 1787. He was a 

 preacher and author of some note.* 



This was one of the manors held by 



M4NOR Uctred the thegn in 1066, and then 

 included Simonswood ; the latter being 

 no doubt the principal portion of the woodland appur- de Byron, and Emma, widow of Robert de Beetham, 

 tenant to Uctred's six manors, which measured two were suing Alan de Burnhull " and William de Wai- 

 leagues square, or approximately 1,440 customary acres. ton, 15 for lands which the defendants alleged to be 

 It was rated as two ploughlands. 3 From the beginning in Windle and Walton respectively. With Robert 

 of the twelfth century it formed a portion of the Widnes de Byron's daughter Maud, wife of William Gerard 

 fee of the Constable of Chester, parcel of his barony of of Kingsley in Cheshire, 16 this moiety of Kirkby came 

 Halton, being held by the fifth part of a knight's fee. 4 into possession of the latter family and descended 



granted to the earl of 



Derby at the beginning of Henry A ? l,,^, 

 VII's reign." enhanced gu/is. 



The share of the former, 



afterwards generally known as Kirkby Gerard, did 

 not long remain with the Stockports, being granted 

 by Robert de Stockport to Richard de Byron. 1 ' In 

 1292 Robert de Byron seems to have been in 

 possession. 13 In 1301 Thomas de Beetham, Robert 



H. Taylor in Lanes, and Ches. Antij. 



1311 it was found that Sir Thomas de 

 Beetham held the vill of Kirkby of him by 



tenement from the plaintiff William del 

 Quick, and had afterwards enfeoffed Henry 



