A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 

 FLIXTON 



FLIXTON URMSTON 



The parish of Flixton, 1 a compact area of three 

 plough-lands ancient assessment lying in the tongue 

 between the Irwell and Mersey, appears to have been 

 cut off from Barton ; the boundary between them is 

 a straight line running east and west, while the 

 eastern boundary is merely a part of that between 

 Barton and Stretford, also a straight line running 

 south from the boundary of Whittleswick to the 

 Mersey. Similarly the division between the com- 

 ponent townships of Flixton is a straight line running 

 southwards. The area is 2,581 acres, and the popu- 

 lation in 1901 was 10,250. The geological forma- 

 tion consists of the Upper Mottled Sandstone (Bunter 

 series) of the New Red Sandstone. 



From its position the parish has had a quiet and 

 uneventful history. It lies out of touch with the 

 old main roads from Manchester to Warrington and 

 to Chester, and only one of its local gentry has taken 

 any prominent part in the movements of the day, 

 namely Peter Egerton of Shaw, an active partisan 

 of the Parliament during the Civil War. 



To the ancient 'fifteenth' Flixton paid 14*. 6d. 

 and Urmston 8/. 6</., the hundred in all paying 

 41 I4_f. \d? For the county lay of 1624 Flixton 

 was assessed at 3 js. ^\d. when the hundred paid 

 jioo, the townships of Flixton and Urmston con- 

 tributing in the proportions of seven and four. 8 



The parishioners of Flixton making the Protes- 

 tation in 1641 numbered 171, being headed by the 

 two squires and the curate. 4 



To the hearth tax of 1666 eighty-nine hearths 

 were found liable in Flixton, where the only house 

 with more than four hearths was that of Leonard 

 Egerton, with eleven ; and sixty hearths in Urmston, 

 where the chief houses were those of Roger Rogers 

 and Richard Starkie, with nine and six hearths 

 respectively. 4 



There are at present 863 acres of arable land in 

 the parish, 8 1 3 devoted to permanent grass, and 3 to 

 woods and plantations. 



The church of ST. MICHAEL stands 

 CHURCH at the east end of the village on high 

 ground about 250 yds. north of the 

 River Mersey with a very extensive view from the 

 churchyard southward over Carrington Moss. It 

 consists of chancel 2 7 ft. by 1 7 ft., with north vestry 

 and organ chamber, nave 36ft. 6 in. by 17 ft. 6 in. 

 with north and south aisles, and west tower 1 3 ft. 

 square. These measurements are all internal. The 

 south aisle extends the whole length of the nave and 

 chancel, and is 6 1 ft. 4 in. long by 1 2 ft. 3 in. wide. 

 The north aisle is the same width and 37ft. loin, 

 in length. Though the foundation is a very ancient 

 one, and a church is known to have existed here 

 since the 1 2th century, the present structure retains 



so little ancient work that little or nothing can be 

 said of the development of the plan. Two fragments 

 of what appear to be 12th-century stones with 

 lozenge ornament are built into the east wall on the 

 outside, but apart from these the oldest work in the 

 building is contained in the chancel, which, in some- 

 thing of its present form, dates from the i 5th century. 

 It has been so much rebuilt, however, that little or 

 nothing of the original work remains except in the 

 reconstructed walling, the lower part of which appears 

 to be old or entirely rebuilt of ancient masonry. 



The 15th-century church apparently occupied 

 pretty much the same area as at present, with the 

 exception of the north vestry, and stood in all prob- 

 ability till the 1 8th century. In 1731 the parish 

 rebuilt the tower 6 in the style of the day, and in 

 1756 the nave and aisles. The chancel had to be 

 partly rebuilt in 1815, when one of the piers gave 

 way and the wall fell in. 7 In 1851 the north-east 

 vestry was built ; and in 1863, the tower, of which 

 there had been a partial restoration in 1824, was 

 declared unsafe, and the ringing of the bells was 

 stopped. A general restoration took place in 1877, 

 when the galleries which had been erected in the 

 1 8th century were removed, the ceiling opened out, 

 new seats put in, and two doors, one at the west end 

 of the north aisle and the other at the east end of the 

 south aisle, were built up. In 1888 the tower was 

 entirely rebuilt and the ringing of the bells resumed. 

 The church is built of red sandstone, the roofs of the 

 chancel, nave, and aisles being covered with stone 

 slates, and that of the vestry with green slates. 



The chancel of two bays is open to the nave without 

 structural division and has an east window of late 

 15th-century style, of three cinquefoiled lights under a 

 four-centred head in modern stonework. Its east 

 wall stands slightly in front of those of the vestry 

 and south aisle, and has diagonal buttresses at the 

 angles. On the north are the vestry and organ 

 chamber, and on the south an aisle. Before the 

 building of the vestry the north wall was solid, with 

 an external buttress, 8 but has now an arcade of two 

 low arches of two chamfered orders springing from 

 an octagonal shaft and responds with moulded capitals. 

 The west respond is built against a 3 ft. length of 

 old walling which marks the extent of the north 

 aisle. The vestry and organ chamber are built in 

 15th-century style, and are separated from the aisle 

 by an arch constructed when the east wall of the 

 aisle was taken down. On the south side the chancel 

 has an arcade of two pointed arches of two chamfered 

 orders, the crowns of which come immediately under 

 the wall plate. They spring from octagonal shafts 

 21 in. in diameter with moulded capitals and cham- 

 fered bases, and are probably a modern copy of the 



1 For map of this parish, see Eccles. 



9 Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 

 1 8. 



8 Ibid. 15, 22. 



4 Richard Lawson, Hist, of Flixton 

 (1898), 148, 149. This work, containing 



a large amount of information regarding 

 the parish, has been freely drawn upon 

 in the present account. A similar work, 

 published in the same year by David 

 Herbert Langton, has also been used. 

 5 Subs. R. bdle. 250, no. 9. 



4? 



6 Inscription on tower ' This steeple 

 was rebuilt at ye sole charge of ye Parish 

 Anno Domini 1731.' 



7 Baines, Lanes. (1836), iii, 164. 



8 See drawing of building in 1731, in 

 Lawson, Hist, of Flixton, 5. 



