A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



was in 1576 secured to Thomas Rudd. 16 One Walker 

 of Didsbury was a freeholder in 1 6oo, 17 and the Good- 

 yers and Twyfords also are named about the same 

 time. 18 Richard and Robert Twyford in 1649 com- 

 pounded for ' delinquency ' in adhering to the forces 

 raised against the Parliament, their fines amounting 

 to ^44 and 45 respectively. 19 



In 1789 the Broomes and Feildens together paid 

 nearly a third of the land tax ; the Reverend Mr. 

 Bayley and William Bamford were the next con- 

 siderable landowners. 20 



The college of Newark had a small rent from 

 Didsbury, which was in 1549 sold by the Crown to 

 Richard Venables." 



The mill of Didsbury is mentioned in a charter, 

 granted about 1260, by which Sir Simon de Gousill 

 released to Henry de Trafford and his men of Chorl- 

 ton-with-Hardy all suit of the mill and liability for 

 the maintenance and repair of the mill pool, and like 

 services. 11 



The church of ST. J4MES M stands on 



CHURCH high ground, to the south-west of the 



village, the land sloping down on the 



west side of the site towards the River Mersey. The 



of transept or chapel, the outer wall being a continua- 

 tion of that of the vestries. 



Of the original building which stood on the site 

 nothing is known, and so little ancient work remains 

 in the present structure (or what may be ancient is so 

 effectually concealed by modern plaster and paint) 

 that nothing can be said of the development of the 

 plan, and little as to the date of the older parts. The 

 ancient chapel is said to have been entirely rebuilt of 

 stone in 1620, and the building of that date is 

 described as consisting of a chancel 24 ft. square, nave 

 with north and south aisles 45 ft. long by 34 ft. 6 in. 

 wide over all, and west tower.* 4 It had two three- 

 light windows on each side of the nave, with entrances 

 north and south opposite to each other at the west 

 end of both aisles. There was also a separate entrance 

 on the south side of the chancel. A gallery was 

 erected at the west end in 1751, and a short one on 

 the south side in 1757. In 1770 the chancel was 

 declared to be ' very old, ruinous, and decayed,' and 

 was taken down and rebuilt on a large scale ' by 

 taking in 8 ft. on the north and also 8 ft. on the south 

 side thereof, so as to make the said intended new 

 chancel of the same breadth or width with the nave 



* shews chancel a* 

 rebuilt I62O 



Before 1620 

 -1620 

 !} 1770 



PLAN OF DIDSBURY CHURCH 



view from the churchyard on that side, towards 

 Cheshire, is very extensive. 



The building consists of a chancel 276. by 19 ft. 

 with south vestry and organ chamber, nave 73 ft. 3 in. 

 by 1 9 ft., with north and south aisles, and west tower 

 10 ft. by lift. 3 in., these measurements all being 

 internal. There is also a small building 1 2 ft. by 

 8 ft. 9 in., formerly a vestry, at the south-west of the 

 south aisle, and the two eastern bays of the aisle have 

 been extended 1 1 ft. southwards, so as to form a kind 



or body of the said chapel.' Galleries and pews were 

 erected in the new chancel, and at the same time the 

 old pews in the body of the church were taken away 

 and * handsome and convenient pews or seats all of 

 one decent, regular, and uniform order ' put in their 

 place. About twenty years after a north gallery was 

 erected, and the south one extended to the chancel, 

 but there seems to have been nothing done to the 

 structure from this time till 1841, when a faculty was 

 granted to pull down the north and south walls from 



16 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 38, 

 m. 28 ; the deforciant was Nicholas 

 Longford, the remainder being to Thomas 

 Rudd. See Ducatus Lane. (Rcc. Com.), 

 iii, 26. Broad Oak stood south or south- 

 east of the church. 



*' Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 249. 



19 Booker, op. cit. 5, 6. For a Good- 

 yer CMC in 1657 see ExcA. Dtp. (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 31. 



19 Cal. of Com. for Compounding, iii, 

 1747, 1950. In 1666 Edward Mosley 

 of Hulme leased a messuage in Didsbury 

 (formerly William Wood's) to Richard 



Twyford of Didsbury, gent., then occu- 

 pier, for the lives of the said Richard, 

 William his son, and Hugh Yannis ; 

 Earl Egerton's D. There is a Yannis 

 meadow in the bend of the Mersey west 

 of the church. 



ao Land tax returns at Preston. 



21 Pat. 3 Edw. VI, pt. 9. 



M De Trafford D. no. 133. 



28 It is supposed to have been dedicated 

 to St. James, the rush-bearing on 5 Aug. 

 corresponding to 25 July Old Style. 



34 Booker, op. cit. 14. 



A description of this building is given 

 by Booker (op. cit. 1 7) from a ground plan 



294 



of the chapel ' as it appeared at this time,' 

 but the plan is not reproduced, nor its date 

 given, and a drawing of ' Didsbury Chapel 

 in 1620 ' by Jas. Croston, which forms the 

 frontispiece to Booker's History, is appa- 

 rently only an imaginary sketch, and of 

 no value historically. The tower is 

 shown with the battlement erected in 

 I Sol. Booker's description, therefore, 

 while probably correct as far as the plan is 

 concerned, must be accepted with great 

 caution as respects the appearance of the 

 building. The dimension of the chan- 

 cel, 24 ft. square, would seem to be 

 external. 



