A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The later history of the parish has been just as even 

 and tranquil. The growth of Liverpool has had the 

 effect of transforming Huyton to some extent into a 

 suburb, and Roby has also been affected ; but Tarbock 

 remains agricultural, its collieries having given out, and 

 Knowsley is divided between agricultural land and 

 the park. 



The freeholders in 1 600, in addition to the manorial 

 families, were William Spencer and Edward Stockley of 

 Huyton, Robert Knowles and John Easthead of Tar- 

 bock. 1 The subsidy roll of 1628 shows as landowners 

 John Harrington and Thomas Wolfall in Huyton, 

 Robert Knowles in Tarbock, and Peter Stockley in 

 Knowsley * ; the two first-named compounded on re- 

 fusing knighthood in 1 63 I. 3 



The hearth-tax return of 1662 shows a considerable 

 number of houses with four hearths and upwards.* 



The church is dedicated in honour 



CHURCH of St. Michael, and stands on high 



ground in the north-west of the village, 



the ground falling from it on all sides. Being built of 



the local red sandstone, which weathers badly, it has 



been almost entirely re-faced in modern times, and 



shows no ancient work outside, except some rubble 



masonry at the north-west angle of the original nave 



and a few details on the tower. 



In 1555 the church of Huyton was reported to be 

 in a very ruinous condition, and Philip and Mary 

 ordered an inquiry. The chancel, measuring 31 ft. 

 by 30 ft., was so dilapidated that service could not be 

 held there, the body of the church only being used. 

 The stonework seems to have been sound, for about 

 $ was the estimated cost of repairs, but the roof was 

 ' ready to fall,' and the timber and workmanship would 

 cost 22 ; in addition the slating would be 5, and 

 the glass and other small necessaries about 5O/. 5 It 

 does not appear that any substantial repairs were made, 

 for about 1592 the lay rector was called upon to re- 

 pair the chancel, which was 'ruinated.' 6 



The building consists of chancel 3 4 ft. by 2 4 ft., with 

 north vestry and organ chamber, nave 60 ft. by 25 ft., 

 with aisles and south porch, and west tower. So little 

 ancient work remains that nothing can be said of the 

 development of the plan, but the irregularity of the 

 line of the south arcade of the nave is noticeable. The 

 north side of the nave was rebuilt in 1815, and the 

 south, east, and west' walls in 1822, while a further 

 general repair took place in 1873." The chancel roof 

 is stone slated, the aisles have blue slates, and the nave 

 is covered with copper sheeting. The chancel has a 

 five-light east window with tracery and three single- 

 light windows in the north and south walls, all being 

 modern. On the south side is a small priest's door- 

 way with a four-centred head, which appears to be of 

 late fifteenth-century work, and retains its old door, 

 though now built up. The chancel roof dates from 

 the repairs of 1663, and is an interesting example, with 

 hammer beams and turned pendants, and curved 

 brackets below the lower hammer beams. 9 There is 

 no chancel arch, and no evidence of the date of re- 



moval of any which formerly existed, the chancel roof 

 being designed for the present arrangement. 



The north arcade and aisle of the nave are modern, 

 but the south arcade is of the latter part of the four- 

 teenth century, with plain chamfered arches of two 

 orders, and octagonal moulded capitals and shafts. 

 The curve which is to be seen in its line is doubtless 

 due to some process of adaptation to older work which 

 has now disappeared. The south doorway of the nave 

 is in part of the fifteenth century, having a pointed 

 head under a square label, with panelled spandrels and 

 quatrefoils in the hollow moulding of the head and 

 jambs. The ornamental tooling in the quatrefoils 

 seems to be in part old, and is a curious detail. 



The nave clearstory is of a very plain type, not un- 

 common in the neighbourhood, with square-headed 

 windows of three uncusped lights, and the roof is of 

 low pitch with moulded tiebeams, ridges and purlins, 

 and carved brackets, probably late fifteenth-century 

 work. Over the eastern tiebeam is the Stanley crest, 

 and on the next beam a cherub's head of seventeenth- 

 century style. 



The west tower is of three stages, with a vice in the 

 south-west angle, and has retained but little old detail. 

 Over the west doorway is a band of panelling, and the 

 west window above it has a fifteenth-century crocketed 

 label, though all the rest of its stonework is modern ; 

 The tower buttresses also retain the stumps of pinnacles 

 on their lower sets-off. The tower arch is of two 

 orders, the inner order dying out above the springing. 



The chancel screen is a very good example, with a 

 wide central doorway and seven openings on either 

 side, their heads and those of the solid panels below 

 being filled with elaborate tracery. Above is a cornice 

 carved with a vine pattern and surmounted by open 

 cresting. The screen dates from c. 1500, and has two 

 canopied niches on either side of the central opening, 

 and above it a shield bearing a fret [Harrington] 

 impaling six fleurs de lys with a crescent for difference 

 [Ireland]. In the spandrels are crowned roses flanked 

 by two other shields. 



There was formerly an interesting inscription on 

 the screen as follows : 



,6 



PVLD DOWNE ,N T.ME OF REBELLION +? SET UP AND 



REPARED BY IOHN HARINGTON ESQUIRE 1663 FECIT 

 RICHARD HALSALL. 



This was taken away at the last ' restoration ' and has 

 not yet been recovered. 



No other woodwork in the church is old, except 

 the litany desk, which is a curious piece of work, ap- 

 parently of seventeenth - century date, rectangular, 

 with carvings on each side, the Five Wounds, the IHS 

 monogram, the Agnus, with an inscription ECCE 

 AGNUM (sic) DEI, and a shield between the letters A s. 



The font now in use is octagonal with a panelled 

 bowl and moulded base, and dates from the latter 

 part of the fifteenth century ; the bowl appears to 

 have been cut down. At the east end of the south 



6 Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), x, 1 86. 



' Except the north-west angle, as noted 

 above. 



8 A view of the church in 1816 is 

 in Gregson's Fragments, 228. See also 

 Glynne, Lanes. Churches (Chet. Soc.), 



the spandrels. 



152 



