SALFORD HUNDRED 



DEANE 



roads from Bolton, which are the principal ones tra- 

 versing the township. To the south-east of the town 

 are the great locomotive works of the Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire Railway Company, the main industry of 

 the place. The company has a short branch from 

 the Bolton and Preston line, with a terminus at 

 Horwich, opened in 1870. There is an electric 

 tramway to Bolton. The Thirlmere aqueduct passes 

 through the township. 



To the hearth tax of 1666 the largest house con- 

 tributing was that of Thomas Anderton, with six 

 hearths ; the total number was seventy-six.* 



The population in 1901 numbered 15,084. 



Great bleach works and cotton mills have long been 

 carried on here, also calico printing. There are fire- 

 brick and tile works, important stone quarries, and 

 several collieries. The northern part of the township 

 is moorland ; the chief crop is grass. 



A local board was formed in 1872 ; 3 this in 1894 

 became an urban district council, the township being 

 divided into four wards, each returning three mem- 

 bers. The meetings are held in the Public Hall, 

 built in 1878. The Railway Mechanics' Institute 

 was built in 1887-8. 



There is a weekly newspaper. 



The moor was inclosed in i8i5-i8. 4 The Hor- 

 wich race meetings lasted from 1837 to 1847.* Pace- 

 eggs used to be collected by the children on the 

 Sunday before Easter. 6 



The two pyramidal cairns called the Two Lads are 

 variously supposed to mark the resting-places of two 

 sons of early kings, or of two boys who lost their way 

 on the moor and died of exposure. 7 



HQRW1CH was the forest or chase of 

 MJNOR the barons of Manchester, 8 by whom it 

 had been afforested perhaps as early as the 

 reign of Henry I. Hence it first appears in the re- 

 cords as the scene of poaching raids, headed some- 

 times, it would appear, by neighbouring gentry. 9 

 Various surveys have been preserved, 10 that of 1322 

 being very full. It states that in Horwich there were 

 sixteen plots of pasture, not measured because of their 

 extent in wood and open ground, and two of these 

 plots made a vaccary or booth. After describing the 

 eight vaccaries, the extent proceeds : ' The wood of 

 Horwich contains a circuit of sixteen leagues, and is 

 yearly worth in pannage, aeries of eagles, herons and 

 goshawks, in honey, millstones, and iron mines, in 

 charcoal-burning, and the like issues, 6os. ; of which 

 the vesture in oaks, elms, and wholly covered with 

 such, 1 60 marks. The said wood is so thoroughly 

 several that no one may enter there without licence, 

 and of every beast found there without licence the 

 owner shall give for that trespass 6</., by fixed cus- 

 tom.' " 



In course of time the woods were cleared and Hor- 

 wich became an ordinary agricultural township ; but 

 the survey of 1473 gives only four tenants' holdings. 18 



3 Subs. R. bdle. 250, no. 9, Lanes. 

 8 Land. Gaz. 20 Aug. 1872. 



4 Hampson, Harwich, 191 ; by Act of 

 55 Geo. Ill, cap. 31 (private). 



5 Hampson, op. cit. 229-35. 



6 Ibid. 239. 



7 Ibid. 36, 37. On pp. 67-70 is related 

 the story of a ghost-laying exploit of the 

 Rev. S. Johnson, curate of Horwich. 



8 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. xix, 1 7. 



9 In 1 246 John de Blackburn gave a 

 mark for licence to concord with Thomas 

 Grelley in a plea ' as to why they chased 

 in his forest ' ; Richard de Ollerton and 

 Henry de Whalley also giving a mark for 

 a similar licence. The three acknow- 

 ledged that they had no right to chase in 

 the forest of Horwich, and that in future 

 neither they nor their heirs should chase 

 therein without the leave of Thomas 

 Grelley and his heirs ; Assize R. 404, 

 m. 8. 



Eight years afterwards a number of men, 

 with dogs, bows, and cross-bows, entered 

 Thomas Grelley's parks in Manchester 

 and his forest of Horwich and took and 

 carried off the wild animals therein ; like- 

 wise seizing the forester and abducting 

 him ; Lanes. Inj. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 193. 



Again in 1277 Robert Grelley pro- 

 secuted Martin de Rumworth and Robert 

 son of Robert de Leigh for carrying off 

 the deer of Horwich Wood ; De Banco 

 R. 21, m. 57 d. 



A century later Sir John La Warre 

 impleaded Nicholas de Worthington and 

 others for cutting down trees and breaking 

 closes at Horwich ; ibid. 459, m. 38, 

 10 d. ; 463, m. 6. 



10 A brief extent of 1282 is printed in 

 I<ancs. Inq. and Extents, i, 247 ; there were 

 then eight vaccaries, worth 19 yearly ; 

 pannage and the eyries of sparrow-hawks 

 were worth 40*. There wete three 

 foresters. 



In 1322 it was stated that these three 

 foresters gave to the lord for their 



bailiwick, one year with another, 4. 

 They answered to the lord for all agist- 

 ments and trespasses, pannage, honey, vert 

 and venison, &c. They were sustained 

 by the townships lying adjacent to the 

 forest ; this being charged on Lostock as 

 8 oxgangs of land ; Rumworth, 14 ; Hea- 

 ton, 4 ; Halliwell, 3 ; Sharpies, 4 ; Long- 

 worth, 2 ; and Anderton, 7 ; the total 

 being (inaccurately) given as 40 oxgangs. 

 At the hawks' nesting time the people of 

 these townships, being warned by the 

 foresters, gathered at Horwich Lee, and, 

 after being sworn, were sent through the 

 forest to see what nests had been made ; 

 from this time until St. Barnabas the 

 foresters themselves had to keep watch in 

 the forest day and night. When the 

 young hawks were hatched the villagers 

 were again sent through the forest to 

 collect the nestlings, which they had to 

 deliver to the foresters or bailiffs of the 

 lord ; see Mamecestre (Chet. Soc.), 376, 



377- 



11 Ibid. 366, &c. 



The eight vaccaries are thus described: 



1. Aquous Booth Lee (wood) and Little 

 Hordern (moor), together with 531.4^. a 

 year, furnished also ten carts of hay ; 



2. Ridley (wood) and Sharpen Lee 

 (moor), 6oj. and twelve loads of hay ; 



3. Calverley (wood) and Wild Boars 

 Clough or Great Hordern (moor), 53*. 4^.5 



4. Wilderhurst (wood) and Brodned 

 (moor), 66s. %d. and twelve loads of hay ; 



5. Lestold (meadow and pasture), 6oj. 

 and twenty loads ; 



6. Hardersollins (moor) ; 



7. Horwich Lee (wood) and Egberden 

 or Haghead (moor), 66s. 8J. and one load 

 of hay ; 



8. Oaken Lee (wood) and Egberden or 

 Withinrod (moor), 66s. 8</. and twenty 

 loads. 



In 1430 Lord La Warre granted to 

 feoffees lands called Oaken Lee Wood, 

 Wilderswood, Calverley Wood, &c., with 

 all oaks growing at Horwich Lee, at a 



rent of 26^ marks ; Anderton of Lostock 

 Evidences (Mr. Stonor), no. 2. 



A traditional story of the vengeance of 

 a band of foresters and outlaws, the wife 

 and three children of the lord being mur- 

 dered by them, is told in Hampson's 

 Harwich, 18-21. 



12 Mamecestre, 484; viz. : Ralph Rad- 

 cliffe, holding a pasture at the rent of 

 ,8 1 6s. So 1 .; Edward Greenhalgh, four 

 messuages in Horwich Lee at ^3 131.4^.5 

 Edward Hulme, six messuages in Oaken 

 Lee at 10 41. id. ; and William Heaton, 

 three messuages at Ridley Wood at zos. 



In 1425 the feoffees restored to James 

 son of Geoffrey Greenhalgh a messuage 

 with the lands adjacent, called Horwich 

 Lee Wood, within bounds beginning near 

 the Roodgate, by the division between the 

 wood and the moor, as far as the head of 

 the Clough between the Strinds and 

 Ridley Head ; by the Clough to Olton 

 Brook to boundary stones between Los- 

 tock and Horwich Lee Wood ; by these 

 stones and others between Blackrod and 

 the same wood to the stones between the 

 wood and Oaken Lee Wood, and so to the 

 starting point ; Anderton Evidences, no. i. 



In the reign of Henry VIII disputes 

 arose between Richard Heaton and Bryan 

 Heaton concerning Ridley Wood and 

 Park Wood, Bryan claiming by a grant 

 from his brother William son and heir of 

 Richard Heaton, deceased. The bounds 

 of Ridley Wood began at the head of the 

 Clough between the Strinds and Ridley 

 Head, went down the Clough to Holton 

 Brook to the bounds of Lostock, by these 

 to the water of Yaresworth, up this to 

 Greenwall Syke and so to a paling between 

 Ridley Head and Horwich Moor. The 

 evidences produced showed that the land 

 had been granted originally by the ances- 

 tors of Lord La Warre ; Duchy Plead. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 121 ; ii, 

 219. 



For some other disputes see Ducatus 

 Lane. (Rec. Com.), iii, 130, 189, 183. 



