WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



head, and seems to have settled in Cheshire. His 

 eldest son was Richard, 1 who was succeeded in 1589 

 by his son John, described as ' of Picton,' near Chester. 

 A dispute occurred between John Hurleton, as lord of 

 the manor, and John Shaw of ' the hall of Shaw,' the 

 latter asserting that he and his ancestors had from 

 time immemorial had a right of way through the 

 pasture called Long Furlong, from their house to 

 Ormskirk.* From this time onward the story of 

 the Hurletons belongs to Cheshire rather than to 

 Lancashire. 3 It is not known when they sold 

 Harleton to the Scarisbricks. 4 



Harleton Hall stands on rising ground near a small 

 stream, and a quarter of a mile north of the road to 

 Ormskirk. It is a house of the H typ e > originally 

 of the fifteenth century, much altered about the 

 beginning of the seventeenth, the central hall and 

 parts of the east wing being of the first date, and the 



ORMSKIRK 



been re-built in brick in modern times, though prob- 

 ably on the old plan. 



The hall is entered by a door at the north-east 

 corner, opening into a passage which once formed the 

 screens, and probably still contains some of the 

 original wooden construction concealed in the par- 

 tition which forms part of the east end of the hall. 

 The passage, once open at both ends, now has a 

 north doorway only, its south end leading to a stair- 

 case which fills up the space between the hall chimney 

 and the east wing. Externally the north wall of the 

 hall is much in its original condition, and is a 

 picturesque piece of timber construction of upright 

 posts set in a massive wooden sill, which rests on a 

 dwarf wall of wrought stone twelve inches thick. At 

 somewhat over half height the uprights are mortised 

 into a moulded headpiece which has had a row of 

 carved paterae or some such ornament along it, of 



HARLETON HALL : NORTH SIDE OF HALL 



west wing, with the bay window and chimney of the which only the traces of attachment remain. Above 

 hall, and the south end of the east wing, of the are a shorter row of uprights, reaching to the wall- 

 second. A considerable part of the east wing has plate. The spaces between the timbers are filled in 



