WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



of Warrington. This place is supposed to have been 

 of British origin. Two Roman roads, from the south 

 and from Chester, 1 met at Latchford on the south 

 bank of the Mersey, near which point considerable 

 discoveries have been made ; crossing probably at this 

 ford, the north road was continued through War- 

 rington to Winwick and Wigan. 2 Sometime before 

 the Norman Conquest Warrington became the head 

 of a hundred. 



Afterwards the lordship was divided. Warrington 

 and Rixton seem to have been original parts of the 

 Warrington barony, created early in the twelfth cen- 

 tury, and long held by Pain de Vilers and his de- 

 scendants the Boteler family. Woolston, Poulton, 

 and Burtonwood were retained by the lords of the 

 district ' between Ribble and Mersey,' the two former 

 in time becoming part of the fee of Makerfield, and 

 Burtonwood being added to the fee of Warrington. 

 The lords of Warrington established their residence 

 or castle at the mote hill, 3 from which the town 

 spread westward along the road to Prescot. 4 A bridge 

 was built, 5 perhaps early in the thirteenth century, 

 and this soon became one of the principal means of 

 communication between the north and south of 

 England. The street leading north from it was 

 called the Newgate as late as 1465. Near the bridge, 

 on the west side of Newgate, was a house of Austin 

 Friars, and at the point where this new street crossed 

 the old road to Prescot a market was established 

 about 1260." The town gradually increased round 

 this point, and in time the parish church, at the 

 extreme east end, became somewhat isolated ; the 

 change was no doubt assisted by the removal of the 

 lord's residence from the mote hill to Bewsey in 

 Burtonwood. 7 



A borough was created about 1230, but its growing 



WARRINGTON 



strength appears to have alarmed the lord, who con- 

 trived to repress it before 1300, granting certain 

 privileges to the free tenants as compensation ; and 

 the town remained under the authority of the lords 

 of the manor until the beginning of last century. A 

 survey of the portion belonging to Sir Peter Legh in 

 1465 has been printed ; 8 this shows that the houses 

 had extended from the church westward as far as the 

 market, and a little way along San key Street ; also 

 south from the crossing down Newgate to ' the place 

 where the bridge formerly stood.' Other streets, 

 north and south of Church Street, are mentioned ; 

 on the north side of the market-place was a row of 

 houses called Pratt Row ; their long back gardens 

 touched the great heath, 9 on which stood a windmill. 

 Across the heath the main road led north by Long- 

 ford to Winwick, but there was a branch to Bewsey. 

 To the south of the town were the great meadows of 

 Rowley and Arpley. The water-mills were on 

 Sankey Brook. The visit of Henry VII to Lathom 

 in 1495 induced the earl of Derby to rebuild the 

 bridge and provide for its maintenance. 10 



Leland about 1535 thus records his impressions : 

 ' Warrington, a paved town ; one church (and) a 

 Freres Augustine at the bridge end. The town is of a 

 pretty bigness. The parish church is at the tail of all 

 the town. It is a better market than Manchester.' " 



The Reformation was here received as elsewhere in 

 the district. The chantries were suppressed and the 

 services of the parish church altered ; but the grammar 

 school, founded in 1526, was preserved. A lease of 

 the rectory made in 1544 reduced the rector's stipend 

 to 20, at which sum it remained for 200 years. 

 The Butlers conformed to the Elizabethan order in 

 religion, 12 but this did not stave off their ruin ; their 

 successors, the Irelands, were also Protestants. Most 



