A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



sequestered for his recusancy. 1 Richard Booth and 

 William Caldwell, reedmaker, as ' Papists,' registered 

 small estates in 1717.' 



A family named Willme resided at Martinscroft in 

 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; one of 

 them, John Willme, who died in 1767, was a mathe- 

 matician and astrologer. 3 



The land-tax returns of 1787 show that Edward 



Standish, Henry Pickering, and Strickland were 



the chief owners of the soil. 



The enclosure award (with plan) for the township 

 is preserved at the County Council offices, Preston. 



A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built at Martins- 

 croft in 1827. 



The Hawarden family and their successors, adhering 

 to the Roman Catholic faith at the Reformation, 

 afforded shelter to the missionary priests during the 

 times of proscription. 4 The domestic chapel of 

 Woolston Hall was served by the English Bene- 

 dictines until the beginning of last century, 6 when 

 it was demolished. The present church of St. Peter, 

 opened in 1835, is in the hands of secular clergy. 6 



RIXTON WITH GLAZEBROOK 



Rixton, 1 212 and commonly; Rickeston, 1259. 



Glazebrok, 1259, 1302, &c. ; Glaseborke, 1292; 

 Glazebrook, 1389. 



This township 7 is the most easterly one of the 

 hundred. It lies along the course of the Mersey. 

 The Glazebrook, a fair-sized stream, forms the 

 boundary between this and the hundred of Salford ; 

 it flows through marshy meadows, its course marked 

 by luxuriant poplar trees, to join the Mersey. 



The geological formation is triassic. A fault 

 which traverses the township from north-west to 

 south-east has thrown up the upper mottled sand- 

 stone of the bunter series in the south-western part. 

 The same beds occur also in the northern angle from 

 Glazebrook station northward. The remainder of 

 the township, forming a triangle of which the apex 

 extends into Risley to a point between the old and 

 new halls, having the base along the Mersey, consists 

 of the basement beds to the north and the water- 

 stones of the keuper series to the south, the dividing 

 line extending from Moss Side to Hollins Green. 



There is a good deal of mossland in the township ; 

 in places peat is still cut for fuel and litter. In the 

 south the soil is principally stiff clay with some sand. 

 The land is given over almost entirely to farming and 

 market-gardening, crops of corn and potatoes being 



the chief general produce. Occasional osier-beds in 

 the low-lying ground by the river and brooks point 

 to the manufacture of baskets and hampers to hold 

 the produce of the fields and gardens. The total area 

 is 2,988 acres, 8 of which Rixton, the western portion, 

 has 2,2 1 3! acres, and Glazebrook the remainder. 

 Hollinfare or Hollins Green is a hamlet on the 

 boundary of the two portions of the township, and 

 gives its name to the chapelry. The population in 

 1901 was 998. 



The principal road is that from Warrington to 

 Manchester, running not far from the Mersey. The 

 Cheshire Lines Committee's railway between the 

 same places also crosses the township, with a station 

 at Glazebrook, at which point it is joined by the 

 line from Wigan worked by the Great Central Com- 

 pany. At the same point the line to Stockport 

 diverges to the south-east. The Mersey and Irwell 

 Navigation has a short cut through the township, and 

 the Manchester Ship Canal also passes through it. 

 The tremendously elevated iron bridges which span 

 the canal at intervals are noticeable objects in the 

 landscape. 



The duke of Cumberland crossed by the ferry and 

 passed through the township in December, 1745, in 

 his pursuit of the Young Pretender. 



A bar erected on the road in 1831 to increase the 

 tolls was pulled down by the people. 9 



The annual fair is held on 1 2 May, Old St. Philip's 

 day. 10 A wake was celebrated 

 on the first Sunday in October. 11 

 The township has a parish 

 council. 



Nothing is known 

 MANORS of the manor of 

 RIXTON until the 

 beginning of the thirteenth 

 century, when it formed one 

 of the members of the fee of 

 Warrington," and in 121 2 was 

 held of William le Boteler by 

 Alan de Rixton by knight's 



RIXTON. 

 Argent, on a bend sable 

 three covered cups of the 



service and the payment of first. 

 I mark ; the assessment was 



one plough-land. As nothing is said of the origin of 

 the tenure, which was ' of ancient time,' the Rixton 

 family may have been in possession as early as the 

 beginning of Henry I's reign. 13 Little can be dis- 

 covered concerning them ; the name Alan de Rixton 

 occurs from 1200 to 1332, so that several successive 

 lords of the manor must have borne it. 1 * 



1 Royalist Camp. Papers (Rec. Soc. 

 Lane, and Ches.), i, 209. 



*Engl. Cat/,. Non-jurors, 123. 



8 For an account of him see Pal. Note 

 Book,\, 117, 193. 



4 A search by the priest-hunters at 

 Woolston Hall in the early hours of a 

 Feb. morning in 1584 is reported in 

 Foley, Rec. S.J. ii, 117. 



In 1590 Adam Hawarden of Woolston, 

 though in some degree of conformity, 

 was yet ' in general note of evil affection 



Lydiate Hall, 245 (quoting S.P. Dom! 

 Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4). 



A fair number of names appear in the 

 recusant roll of 1641 ; Trans. Hist. Soc. 

 (New Ser.), xiv, 244. 



6 The Benedictines are known to have 

 been in charge from early in the eighteenth 

 century. The last of the line moved to 



334 



