WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



The Hospitallers had a rent of \^d. from lands in 

 Hale. 1 



An Enclosure Act for Hale and Halewood was passed 

 in 1800. 



In 1343 there were serious disputes between Sir 

 John de Molyneux and some of his tenants and neigh- 

 bours at Hale. Richard del Doustes and others were 

 found guilty of assaulting Sir John, and damages were 

 assessed at loos. Richard was afterwards assaulted 

 himself, but he was charged with being a ' common 

 evil doer,' it being among the accusations against him 

 that he made various poor persons work for him against 

 their will. He brought a certain Toya Robin to his 

 house at Hale, bound his head with a rope, and per- 

 petrated other enormities upon him to make him 

 acknowledge that he was one of those who took evil 

 reports to Sir John de Molyneux and so kept alive the 

 latter's animosity.* 



The recusant roll of 1641 shows that a large num- 

 ber of the inhabitants adhered to the Roman Catholic 

 faith. 3 



The chapel of St. Mary is of ancient 

 CHURCH origin. It is mentioned in a suit of 

 1 260, and in the feoftment of Robert de 

 Ireland in 1322, already quoted. Master John de 

 Layot's foundation, about 1381, was for a chantry 

 with two chaplains, but there is no record of it at the 

 time of the confiscation of such endowments. 4 



Roger was chaplain of Hale about 1270,* William 

 Kendal in 1420, and John Cundliff in 1434 ; no 

 doubt many of the ' chaplains ' mentioned in the 

 local charters also served there. The fourteenth- 

 century tower is standing ; but the church, said to 

 have been a ' black and white' timbered building, 

 was replaced in 1754 by the present one, which was 

 in 1874 renovated and refitted by Colonel Ireland 

 Blackburne. The peal of six bells was given by the 

 agent to the estates ; the inscription is ' Church and 

 King John Watkins, Ditton, 1814.' There were in 

 the old building the tombs of John Layot (1428), 

 John Ireland (1462), Sir Gilbert Ireland (1626), and 

 Sir Gilbert Ireland (1675) ; only the latter, of black 

 marble, has been preserved. 6 



The chapel continued in use after the Reformation. 

 In 1592 the wardens were enjoined to provide a 

 sufficient register book, &c. In the time of the 

 Commonwealth the commissioners recommended 

 that Hale should be made a parish church, because of 

 the distance from Childwall, and ' because there is not 

 any person hath any seat or burial place within 

 Childwall church.' The tithes and Easter roll were 



CHILDWALL 



the only revenues that could be assigned to it, for it 

 had no endowment ; Mr. Gilbert Ireland of the 

 Hutt claimed to be patron. 7 Out of the rectory of 

 Childwall, sequestered from James Anderton of 

 L9Stock, recusant and delinquent, 36 was allowed 

 yearly to this chapel, afterwards increased to 40." 

 Bishop Gastrell about 1717 found the income of the 

 chaplain to be ^17 17-f., including recent endow- 

 ments. 9 



Hale was made a separate chapelry in 1828 10 as a 

 perpetual curacy. Mr. Ireland Blackburne is the 

 patron. Among the later incumbents have been : 

 I 592-1 598 William Sherlock " 

 oc. 1 609 Thomas Lydgate " 

 1635 Thompson ls 

 1646 Henry Bolton" 

 1651 Samuel Crosby 

 1659 Samuel Ellison 15 

 oc. 1671 John Nickson 



1726 



50 



Langford 

 Francis Ellison 

 1773 Joseph Airey 

 1805 Samuel Norman 

 1813 Joseph Hodgkinson, B.D. (fellow of 



Brasenose Coll. Oxon.) 16 

 1 8 1 8 William Stewart, M.A. (Brasenose Coll. 



Oxon.) " 

 1856 Richard Benson Stewart, M.A. (Caius 



Coll. Camb.) 18 



HALEWOOD 



This township lies between the old course of the 

 Ditton Brook on the north and Rams Brook on the 

 south, both running into the Mersey. Halewood 

 Green, with a hamlet called North End, is near the 

 northern boundary. To the south-east of this is the 

 village. The part of the township bordering on the 

 Mersey is called Halebank, in which is the site of a 

 large moated house called Level's Hall. 



The area is 3,823^ acres. 19 In 1901 there was 

 a population of 2,095. The country is bare and 

 flat, with wide, open fields, principally cultivated, 

 yielding crops of barley, oats, wheat, and root crops 

 such as turnips and mangel-wurzels. Several wide 

 main roads traverse the country in every direction, 

 much appreciated by the cyclist and motorist. There 

 are very few trees, but good substantial hawthorn 

 hedges, especially about the farmsteads. On the 

 Mersey bank is a fringe of flat marshy fields and mud 

 banks. Houses and farms are very much scattered. 



