A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



portion of the township the level of the landscape is 

 scarcely broken by even the smallest trees, and the 

 hedges are but scanty. The surface, occupied by 

 cultivated fields, where corn and potatoes find a 

 congenial soil, is a mixture of clay and sand. A few 

 farms are dotted about the district. A patch or two 

 of undrained mossland near one of the railways 

 discloses the nature of the surface before the time 

 of reclamation. The geological formation consists 

 entirely of the waterstones of the keuper series of the 

 new red sandstone or trias, with alluvial deposits ob- 

 scuring the strata by the River Alt. 



The main road from Liverpool to Ormskirk passes 

 through it. The Mersey branch of the Lancashire 

 and Yorkshire Railway joins the Liverpool and Wigan 

 line at the south-eastern corner. There are two rail- 

 way stations called Aintree, but actually situated in 

 Netherton, close to the great racecourse, which was 

 opened 8 July, 1829. 



The old village is in the centre of the township, 

 about two miles south-east of Sefton church ; but 

 houses are multiplying on the Walton border, owing 

 to the growth of Liverpool and the rise of industries 

 in the neighbourhood. 



The Alt Drainage Act of 1779 mentions Bull 

 Bridge, and gives some field names, e.g. The Chew, 

 Further Feirock, and Nearer Knots Field. 



Aintree is governed by a parish council. 



4INTREE is not separately men- 



MJNOR tioned in Domesday Book ; from later 



notices its assessment is found to have 



been one plough-land. 1 At the beginning of the 



NEVILL OF HORNBY. 

 Argent, a saltire gules. 



thirteenth century it was held in thegnage by Henry 

 de Holland of Downholland in Halsall, and most of 

 it had already been granted out, 

 Alan de Holland, Robert de 

 Molyneux, Henry son of Gil- 

 bert, Hawise daughter of Ric- 

 hard, and Cockersand Abbey 

 holding in 1212.* 



Mr. Irvine in his book on 

 the Hollands, states that ' there 

 is no evidence of any blood 

 relation between the two fami- 

 lies (of Holland of Down- 

 holland, who never rose to 

 any important position in the 

 county, and the Hollands of Upholland), and the 

 strong probability is that they were not in any way 

 connected.' 



The Molyneux share, one oxgang of land, was 

 granted in free marriage with Alice de Molyneux to 

 the son of Richard Baret ; 3 it descended to the 

 Ridgate or Rudgate family, 4 by whom it was sold in 

 1 490 to Lawrence son of Henry Molyneux. 5 



The remainder, or the greater part of it, seems 

 to have been quickly reunited into the hands 

 of a family who adopted the local name ; for in 

 1296 William de Aintree's possession was 6J- ox- 

 gangs of land and half of the mill. 6 The descent 

 is far from clear. Part at least probably including 

 the lordship descended to Emma, daughter of 

 Henry and Agnes de Aintree, and wife of Henry 

 son of Hugh de Atherton, 7 and part to William 



