WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



festivity ; a maypole and morris-dancing are men- 

 tioned at Little Crosby, nor is the tossing of pancakes 

 forgotten. On 2 November, 1717, 'we dealt soul 

 loaves to the poor, it being the first time any soul 

 loaves were given here, as I remember.' At Easter 

 he gave the parish clerk ' 2d. instead of twelve paist 

 eggs.' On 31 December, 1723, 'there was a riding 

 for Anne Norris, who had beaten her husband.' He 

 records that on 6 October, 1717, 'it being near full 

 moon I cut my wife's hair off.' 



When his new marl-pit was dug it was ' flowered,' 

 and the occasion was quite a festal one. A procession 

 was formed, ' the fourteen marlers had a particular 

 dress on their heads, and each of them carried a 

 musket or gun ; the six garlands, &c., were carried by 

 young women in procession ; the eight sword-dancers 

 went with them to the marl-pit, where they danced' ; 

 and a week later a large bull was baited, ' to admira- 

 tion,' at the bottom of the new pit. Again, a week 

 later the marling was finished with feasting and 

 dancing. 1 Incidentally the diarist mentions the spin- 

 ning of wool and the ' breaking ' of flax.* The 

 preceding process of 'reeling' or retting flax is noticed 

 in an earlier document. 3 A peculiar word he uses is 

 ' songoars,' for gleaners. 



At the present time the stories of ' M. E. Francis,' 

 such as In a North Country Village, have made the life 

 of the rural portion of the district familiar. 



The regulation of the Alt, effected by an Act 

 passed in 1779,* was of great importance to the 

 whole district. Its provisions may be summarized 

 thus : Nearly 5,000 acres of low-lying lands along 

 the banks of this stream in the parishes of Altcar, 

 Sefton, Halsall, and Walton were rendered almost 

 valueless by the overflowing of the water ; certain 

 commissioners 5 were therefore empowered to change 

 and clear the course of the river below Bull Bridge in 

 Aintree and Melling, and to make a new channel in 

 Altcar, Formby, and Ravensmeols down to low-water 

 mark ; to clear and change the course of several 

 tributary brooks, but without damage to the water 

 for Sefton mills ; to plant star grass on the sandhills ; 

 to take evidence as to damage and compensation, 

 appoint officers, raise money for the needful works 

 and salaries, and prosecute offenders. 6 The first 

 meeting of the commissioners was fixed for 1 8 May, 

 1779, in Sefton church. The expenses were to be 

 paid by an annual tax upon the owners or occupiers 

 of the low lands to be improved, assessed by an acre 

 rate according to the improvement effected ; copies of 

 estimates, &c., were to be kept in the vestry of Sefton 

 church. 



A detailed report on the state of the coast a 

 century ago has been printed. 7 



The church of St. Helen has a chancel 



CHURCH* 21 ft. by 44 ft., with an eastern vestry, 



and north and south chapels 17 ft. by 



25 ft., nave 21 ft. by 60 ft. with north and south 



SEFTON 



aisles 17 ft. wide, south porch, and west tower 

 1 2 ft. square with a tall stone spire. All measure- 

 ments are internal. There is no structural division 

 between the nave and chancel, the nave taking up 

 the first four bays of the arcade from the west, 

 and the quire seats occupying the fifth. The fifth 

 and sixth bays are enclosed with screens on north 

 and south, and a line of screens runs across the church 

 at the west of the fifth bay. The eastern bay of the 

 chancel projects 1 8 ft. eastward from the line of the 

 chapels, and is lighted by an east window of five 

 lights, the mullions and tracery being modern, and 

 north and south windows of four lights, with un- 

 cusped tracery and two transoms. 



The architectural history of the church is not a 

 long one, as the greater part was rebuilt in the six- 

 teenth century, leaving too little older work standing 

 to give much clue to its earlier form. 9 



The east bay of the north chapel belongs to the 

 first half of the fourteenth century, and the west 

 tower is .nearly contemporary with it. There was 

 formerly a north aisle of this date, part of its west 

 wall with the jamb of a west window still remain- 

 ing. If this window was centrally placed the aisle 

 would have been narrower than at present ; the north 

 arcade also was 1 5 in. further to the north than that 

 which now exists. There was at this time no south 

 aisle to the nave, as may be seen from the details of 

 the south-east buttress of the tower. In the early 

 part of the fifteenth century the north chapel seems 

 to have been lengthened westward, and at a later date 

 in the same century the north aisle was rebuilt and 

 made equal in width to the chapel. At some time in 

 the first half of the sixteenth century the chancel, the 

 south aisle and both arcades of the nave were rebuilt, 

 destroying all traces of former work except such as 

 have already been mentioned. A vestry east of the 

 chancel and a south porch also belong to this time. 

 There is some difficulty about the exact date. The 

 rebuilding has been attributed to Anthony Molyneux, 

 rector 1535-57, apparently on the strength of a pass- 

 age in his will which mentions that he has ' made 

 so greatt costes of ye chauncell and revestrie.' If this 

 may be taken to mean a rebuilding of those parts of 

 the church for whose maintenance he as rector was 

 liable, the rest of the sixteenth-century work, being 

 of like detail and design, may well have been under- 

 taken about the same time. But it is unlikely that 

 the rector did more than his particular share of the 

 work, and the few remains of inscriptions on glass 

 point to gifts of windows, at any rate, by other bene- 

 factors : Sir William Molyneux I 542, William Bulkeley 

 1543, and [Lawrence] Ireland 1540. These dates all 

 point to 1535-40 as the probable date of the rebuild- 

 ing. It must, however, be noted that the quire stalls 

 bear the initials i M, which may refer to James 

 Molyneux, rector 1489-1509. These initials also 

 occur on the screen west of the stalls, but are 



