A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



There was an ancient school in Kirkby, built on 

 the glebe, but it was burnt down. The children 

 were afterwards taught in the vestry, until Lord 

 Sefton erected a school on his own land. 1 



Mass is occasionally said on Sundays at a mission 

 room which is served from Maghull.* 



SIMONSWOOD 



Simundeswude, 1207; Simundeswod, 1*97 ; 

 Symondeswode, 1391.* The i is short. 



This township, placed within the forest, and so 

 becoming extra-parochial, 4 measures about three miles 

 by one and a half, with an area of 2,626 acres. 5 It is 

 a flat open agricultural country, consisting chiefly of 



through the township westwards towards the River Alt. 

 The geological formation is triassic, similar to that found 

 in Kirkby, with a small area of the middle coal mea- 

 sures extending across the north-eastern portion of the 

 moss. The population was 358 in 1901. The 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's railway from 

 Liverpool to Wigan crosses the township. 

 There is a parish council. 



Simonswood was taken into the forest 

 M4NOR after the first coronation of Henry II, and 

 therefore the knights who made the per- 

 ambulation of the forest in 1228 declared that it 

 ought to be disafforested and restored to the heirs of 

 Richard son of Roger, lords of the vill of Kirkby. 6 

 Hugh de Moreton, who had married Margaret, 

 daughter and coheir of that Richard, had in 1 207 



SIMONSWOOD HALL 



arable fields, with but few plantations. The soil is 

 partly sandy and partly peaty, with traces of old 

 mossland. A large patch of moss still exists in the 

 east of the township, with the characteristic vegetation 

 of white-stemmed birch-trees waving above bracken, 

 sedges, and rushes. Peat is dug, dried and stacked 

 ready for fuel, the grounds thus cleared being con- 

 verted into valuable arable fields, where potatoes and 

 other root crops, cabbages and some corn grow 

 luxuriantly. Copses and plantations afford cover for 

 much game. The district is very sparsely populated, 

 the farm-houses and cottages being too scattered to 

 be described as a village. 



The Simonswood brook and another of equally 

 insignificant size, rising in mossland to the east, flow 



proffered a palfrey for the pasture of Simonswood, 

 which ought to belong to his wife's manor of Kirkby ; 

 but though he undertook to cause no injury to the 

 forest, his offer was at length declined. 7 



The wood was not disafforested, and until the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century remained parcel 

 of the forest and demesne of West Derby. It was 

 placed under the care of a forester, who permitted 

 pasturage and the taking of estovers by the people of 

 Kirkby, and safeguarded the vert and venison. The 

 yearly issues probably no more than covered the 

 wages of the forester and his bailiff; in 1257 the 

 issues from hay sold, turbary and perquisites amounted 

 to \6s. T.d. ; 8 in 1327 the gross income was 

 3 6s. %d. ; a and in 1348 had risen to 4 $s. 6<t. w 



