SALFORD HUNDRED 



ECCLES 



Kempnough Hall is a small black and white tim- 

 bered building on a stone base, much renewed with 

 brickwork, and said to have been almost entirely re- 

 built in comparatively recent times. Much of the 

 old timber work has been preserved, though the 

 greater part of the * timber ' front is paint on plaster. 

 The house is a two-story building with a slightly 

 projecting gabled wing at each end, and is now divided 

 into three cottages. It lies, surrounded by trees, about 

 half a mile north-east of Worsley, near to Roe Green, 

 but presents no remarkable features. The roofs are 

 covered with stone slates and the chimneys are 

 of brick. Two gates, with piers, which in the 

 early part of the igth century stood in front of the 

 house have now disappeared. There is a large stone 



chimney at the east end of the house, and the 

 ceilings of the lower rooms are crossed by oak beams. 

 The back of the house shows the original timber 

 framing. For some time during the latter half of 

 the last century (c. 1850-75), a room in the building 

 was set apart and maintained by the Countess of 

 Ellesmere as a free medicine dispensary for the Worsley 

 tenantry. 



In addition to Wardley the Hospitallers had an 

 estate in SITINTON The abbey of Whalley also 

 had a considerable estate in Swinton and LITTLE 

 HOUGHTON, 111 the monks regarding it as part 

 of their manor of Monton near Eccles. On the 

 Suppression Swinton and other of the abbey lands 

 were granted to Thurstan Tyldesley. 11 * Hope in 



WORSLEY : KEMPNOUGH HALL 



110 Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 375. 

 Gilbert de Barton gave to William 



de Swinton two parts of the land which 

 Ellis son of Godwin de Swinton held of 

 the Hospitallers, in exchange for an ox- 

 gang in Chadderton ; Ellesmere D. Roger 

 de Worsley granted to Richard son of 

 Geoffrey de Byron half of Swinton being 

 all he held except 1 2 acres given to the 

 Hospitallers ; Whalley Couch, iii, 905. 

 There are other allusions to the Hospital- 

 lers' holding ; ibid. 929, 934. The prior 

 of the Hospitallers in 1329 made a claim 

 against Elota the widow and Richard the 

 son of Alexander de Swinton ; De Banco 

 R. 297, m. I Sod. 



In 1325 it was found that Joan wife 

 of William de Multon held, among other 

 properties, the third part of an estate at 

 Swinton, which her former husband, 

 William de Holland, had held of the 

 Hospitallers by a rent of izd. a year ; 

 Inq. p.m. 19 Edw. II, n. 96. 



About 1540 the Hospitallers' tenants 

 were Thomas Holland, paying 5j^-, 

 William Chapman, for half of Little 

 Scholecroft, 7^., and James Eckersall, 

 2^d. ; Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84. 



111 Whalley Couch, iii, 877-936 ; see 

 further in the account of Monton in Bar- 



ton. In 1331 Richard Hunewyn granted 

 to the abbey all his lands in Swinton in 

 Worsley, his eldest daughter Alice con- 

 firming it ; ibid. 926-28. 



Paulinus de Halghton granted to Cecily 

 daughter of lorwerth de Hulton the 

 third part of the vill of Little Houghton ; 

 ibid, i, 59 ; this seems to have been given 

 to the abbey ; ibid, i, 55. An oxgang and 

 a half in Little Houghton was among the 

 lands of Robert and Jordan de Hulton in 

 12535 Final Cone, i, 151. Geoffrey de 

 Byron gave half the vill to his brother 

 John, who gave it to the monks ; Whalley 

 Couch. 57, 58 ; see also iii, 901. 



The abbey lands were largely derived 

 from the benefactions of Geoffrey de 

 Byron, who in 1275 accused Richard de 

 Worsley of a burglary at Swinton ; Coram 

 Rege R. 15, m. I2d. A year or two 

 later Geoffrey and the abbot were de- 

 fendants in claims made by the Smith 

 family 5 Assize R. 1238, foL 31, 31^; 

 1239, fol. 39. Later the abbot had dis- 

 putes with the Boltons. In 1292 he re- 

 covered damages from Adam de Rossen- 

 dale and others, who had cut and felled 

 timber without licence, for the use of 

 Ellen de Bolton, but Ellen herself was 

 acquitted ; and at the same time Richard 



389 



de Bolton, Richard son of Roger de Wors- 

 ley, and others, were non-suited in a 

 claim against the abbot for eight mes- 

 suages, two mills, land, &c. ; ibid. 

 408, m. 102 d., 100, 101, 23 d. More 

 interesting was the claim by Olive de 

 Bolton for common of pasture in too 

 acres of moor and heath as belonging to 

 her free tenement, formerly held by 

 Richard de Worsley. The jury found 

 that John de Worsley (probably of Little 

 Houghton), who had enfeoffed Olive, had 

 in the time of Geoffrey de Byron, lord of 

 Swinton, been accustomed to common in 

 the pasture. After Geoffrey had granted 

 his lands to the abbot the latter refused 

 common until John impleaded him in the 

 king's court. It was accordingly ordered 

 that Olive should recover seisin and 

 damages of half a mark ; ibid. m. 17. 



Grants to and from Henry de Worsley 

 and Olive de Bolton are among the 

 Ellesmere D. no. 148 (dated 1300), 256. 

 In 1327 Henry son of Richard de Bolton 

 granted his land in Holclough heys in 

 Worsley to his son John, who granted 

 the same to Richard de Worsley ; ibid, 

 no. 163, 164. 



a Pat. 32 Hen. VIII, pt. 4. The 

 grant included Swinton, Little Houghton, 



