A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



top under a classic cornice, and elaborately carved. 

 The fireplace has Ionic pilasters, and the whole is a 

 good specimen of Renaissance woodwork. The ceil- 

 ing is of plaster divided by beams into four bays, the 

 two end ones having ornamental plaster-work, and 

 the middle ones being plain. In the bay at the west 

 end of the ceiling are the arms of the see of Chester 

 on a large shield surrounded by strap-work with 

 four smaller shields, one at each corner, bearing the 

 arms of Bridgeman. The east wall has apparently 

 been rebuilt after the demolition of the part of the 

 house on that side, and is quite plain. Another room 

 on the first floor is also panelled in oak, but is less rich 

 in detail." 



Samuel Pepys, writing under date 10 November 

 1662, refers to some heraldic glass in the windows 

 at Great Lever, but this, if it were ever placed there, 

 has now disappeared. There is now no painted or 

 heraldic glass in any of the windows of the house.* 6 



The chapel, which is dedicated in honour of the Holy 

 Trinity, is built of brick on a stone base. It stands 

 about 40 ft. to the south of the house, from which it 

 is separated by a courtyard paved with cobbles. A 

 stone wall at one time inclosed the court on the east 

 side, but this has now given way to a lattice screen. 

 The chapel occupies the east portion of a detached 

 building, the total length of which is about 5 7 ft., 

 and the western half of which is a dwelling-house, 

 now a cottage, with a timber front to the courtyard. 

 The brickwork of the outer walls of the chapel is 

 yellow-washed, and the roof is covered with grey 

 stone slates. Inside the chapel is now quite bare, and 

 a movable wood floor has been inserted above the 

 original tiled one, which raises the floor level about 

 10 in. The interior, which measures 27 ft. in length 

 and 1 6 ft. 6 in. in width, is lighted at the east end 

 by a window of eight lights with stone mullions and 

 double transoms, under a four- centred arch with 

 external hood-moulding. The lights of the two lower 

 tiers have rounded heads, those in the head of the 

 window under the arch being plain. There is a 

 square-headed six-light window on each side of the 

 chapel, north and south, with stone mullions and 

 transoms, the heads of the top lights only being 

 rounded. The entrance is at the west end of the 

 north side, the doorway having a four-centred arch, 

 and the door being the original one of oak, nail- 

 studded. The glass is all plain and in square quarries. 

 The walls and ceiling, which partly follows the line 

 of the roof, are plastered. A description of the cha- 

 pel written 87 in 1787 speaks of it as being no longer 

 in use, but of marriages having been solemnized there 

 before 1764-7. 'At the end, opposite to the altar, 



to which there is an ascent of two steps,' says the 

 writer, ' is a gallery formerly for the use of the family, 

 and a bench runs round the chapel below.' The 

 gallery no longer remains, but its position is marked 

 by the coupled roof-trusses about 5 ft. apart at the 

 west end. The ridge of the roof does not coincide 

 with the centre line of the chapel, but is slightly 

 to the south of it, making an irregular gable at the 

 ends. The ends of the two roof-trusses rest on 

 the wall in the usual way on the south side, but on 

 the north they project in front of the wall and carry 

 the roof in the form of a penthouse further forward 

 over the entrance doorway. This may have served 

 originally as shelter to a doorway higher up in the wall, 

 giving access to the gallery from the outside, the 

 bricked-up opening of which may still be seen. 

 There is a door out of the chapel opposite the 

 entrance into the adjoining house, which may have 

 been originally the house of the chaplain. A bell 

 belonging to the chapel is still kept at the hall, 

 though it has not been in use for a very long time. 

 It may have hung from the projecting ends of the 

 chapel roof principals over the doorway. It bears the 

 inscription RAF ASH TOM c s K. 



To the west of the hall is a stone boundary wall 

 and gateway, on the head of which are the initials of 

 Bishop Bridgeman (i. B.) and the date 1631, as on 

 the timber front of the house. Farther to the west 

 again was until recently one of the finest barns in 

 the district, with timbers of enormous size. Part of 

 this, however, has been demolished to make way for 

 a new schoolhouse, and the portion which remains 

 has been refaced at the end and between the timbers 

 in brick, but enough is left to show the strength and 

 massiveness of the original timber construction. 



Robert son of Roger de Middleton, who may have 

 acquired the right of Henry de Lever, 28 about 1300 

 granted to Sir Roger de Pilkington and Margery his 

 wife all his lands in Great Lever, with a moiety of 

 the waste.* 9 In 1332 Roger de Pilkington, son of 

 Sir Roger, granted the same to his brother Richard. 30 

 A later Sir Roger de Pilkington in 1378 exchanged 

 his lands in Great Lever with Adam de Lever the 

 younger, receiving from the latter certain lands in 

 Kearsley ; the exchange was to be for life only, but 

 the Pilkingtons do not seem to have had any further 

 interest in the township. 31 



BURN DEN was an estate of the priory of Birken- 

 head. Robert the prior granted to Siward son of 

 Robert the chaplain of Deane an acre in Great Lever 

 by the hill of Burnden, above the road from Bolton 

 to Lever, and land by Bolton Brook, at a rent of 6d, 

 on St James's Day." The Burnden family are 



25 In Bishop Bridgeman's correspond- 

 ence, under date Aug. 1631, there is men- 

 tion of the birth of a grandchild in ' the 

 chamber next to the Lord's chamber under 

 the study galleiy,' in Great Lever. The 

 family must therefore have been living in 

 one part of the house (probably now de- 

 molished) while the nevr buildings were 

 in progress. 



26 The passage in Pepys' Diary is as 

 follows : ' By-and-by come in Mr. Swin- 

 fen, the Parliament-man, who, among 

 the discourse of the rise and fall of fami- 

 lies, told us of Bishop Bridgeman (father 

 of Sir Orlando), who lately hath bought a 

 seat anciently of the Levers, and then the 

 Ashtons ; and so he hath in his great hall 

 window (having repaired and beautified the 



house) caused four great places to be left 

 for coats of arms. In one he hath put 

 the Levers, with this motto " Olim." In 

 another the Ashtons with this, " Heri." In 

 the next his own, with this, " Hodie." In 

 the fourth nothing, but this motto, " Cras 

 nescio cujus." ' Quoted in Bridgeman, 

 Wtgan Ch. iii, 331. 



27 By Doming Rasbotham. 



28 In 1302 Alice widow of Henry de 

 Lever claimed dower against Matthew son 

 of Henry de Lever, and against Robert 

 son of Roger de Middleton, respecting lands 

 in Middleton ; De Banco R. 141, m. 176. 



29 Lever Chartul. no. 32; William de 

 Lever was a witness. Lands in Great 

 Lever were among the Pilkington estates 

 in 1322; Cal. Close, 1318-23, pp. 610,648. 



186 



so Lever Chartul. no. 91, 92 ; the former 

 of these grants includes half the waste, but 

 the latter only the fourth part. 



81 Ibid. no. 101. 



82 Lever Chartul. no. I ; Lever is de- 

 scribed as a vill.' By another charter R. 

 Prior of Birkenhead gave to Gervase son 

 of Robert the Chaplain of Deane the house 

 of Alward brother of Henry son of 

 Leising de Lever, land between the house 

 of Ellis and the hill, and a moiety of 

 Goldrunsnape ; this last was bounded as 

 follows the road between Lever and Bol- 

 ton, the ascent by Burnden (Bruvel Dene) 

 to the great oak, thence across to the syke 

 and to the head of Brun Hill, thence by 

 the valley to the waste by the thorn, and 

 so to the start ; ibid. no. 207. 



