SALFORD HUNDRED 



ROCHDALE 



Ashtons. 57 It afterwards passed through various 

 hands, becoming at last the property of the Fentons. 

 It was sold by Mr. R. K. Fenton in 1906. 



CLEGG HALL stands on the site of an older 

 house on high ground about z\ miles north-east of 

 Rochdale. It is a strong-looking stone building of 

 three stories and an attic, rectangular in plan, mea- 

 suring about 68 ft. in length by 50 ft. from front to 

 back, with three gables on each face and a projecting 

 porch on the principal or north front. It was appar- 

 ently built at the end of the 1 6th or beginning of 

 the I yth century (the Ashton mullet carved in the 

 spandrels of the entrance doorway fixing the date 

 somewhere between 1571 and 1622), and is a good 

 example of the stone-built house of the period, with 

 mullioned and transomed windows. The lower 

 story forms a basement with a high plinth at the 

 level of the sill of the windows of the principal floor, 

 the ground being raised in front opposite to the 

 entrance, which no doubt was approached by steps. 

 In front the building is therefore apparently of less 

 height than at the sides and back, where the ground 

 retains its natural level. 



The plan is interesting, and of quite a different 

 type from the traditional one from which the majority 

 of house plans in the district are derived. It has 

 indeed on the ground floor a large room taking up 

 the north-east angle, which represents the hall, and 

 has at the west doorways opening north and south to 

 the porch and main staircase, recalling in some degree 

 the passage through the screens at the lower end of 

 a hall. But otherwise the disposition of the rooms is 

 entirely dictated by the simple rectangular plan, with 

 the staircase set centrally in the back or south half, 

 and four approximately equal rooms on each floor. 

 The kitchen is in the base, at the south-west angle, 



and the fireplaces of the various rooms are arranged 

 back to back in a wall running east and west through 

 the middle of the building. 



The building as a whole is very plain in detail,, 

 the whole of the ornamentation being concentrated 

 in the porch, which is of two stories under the middle 

 gable, with a round-arched doorway under a square 

 head on the ground floor, and a five-light mullioned 

 and transomed window above, with two lights on 

 each return. The doorway is flanked by pairs of 

 classic columns, with entablatures over, and the win- 

 dow above also has a column on each side with a 

 smaller entablature and cornice of less projection. 

 The detail of this Renaissance work is coarse and 

 poor, and the capitals of the columns of a rather non- 

 descript character. The elevations are very symme- 

 trical ; on each side of the porch are two windows- 

 on each floor, of four or five lights, and the gables 

 have copings and ornamental finials. The principal 

 first-floor room, or hall, is distinguished by having 

 five-light windows. The north and west sides are 

 faced with large coursed stones, but on the east and 

 south the walling is of rubble. All the windows have 

 labels, those of the first floor being continued round 

 the building as a string-course, and nearly all the 

 windows retain their original mullions and transoms. 

 The roofs are covered with stone slates. The original 

 appearance of the interior has been entirely lost by 

 the house having been divided for a long time into 

 separate tenements, a use to which it is still put. 57a 



CLEGGSWOOD * became the seat of the Belfields of 

 Belfield about I joo, 59 and by the marriage of Anne Bel- 

 field to Richard Ingham was about 1 640 carried to the 

 latter family, who owned it for the greater part of a 

 century. 60 Little Clegg was owned by a family 

 named Clegg. 61 Whitacre or Whittaker was at one 



Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 210, m. 16. Ralph 

 son of Christopher was living in 1445 ; 

 Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 7, m. 15 ; 12, 

 m. 82 ; Ralph senior and Ralph his son 

 in 1482 ; Pal. of Lane. Writs Proton. 

 22 Edw. IV. The Inq. p.m. of Adam 

 Belfield has been preserved ; it shows 

 that he died in 1543 holding messuages, 

 &c., in Butterworth of Sir John Byron 

 by a rent of 6*. 8</., and in Spotland of 

 Robert Holt by a rent of 6*. ; Arthur, his 

 son and heir, was over thirty-six years of 

 age ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii, no. 34. 



5 ? Ralph Belfield of Clegg died in August 

 1557, leaving two daughters, Elizabeth 

 and Anne, to share the inheritance ; his 

 will is printed in Piccope's Wills (Chet. 

 Soc.), iii, 83-6. 



The two sisters, after child marriages 

 and divorces, married brothers Edward 

 and William, sons of Arthur Ashton. 



Richard Legh and Anne his wife, 

 Alexander Barlow and Elizabeth his wife 

 in 1563 obtained the manor of Clegg, &c., 

 from Alexander Belfield ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 25, m. 35. In 1572 

 Alexander, son and heir of Alexander 

 Barlow and Elizabeth his wife, had a 

 moiety of the manors of Clegg and Dut- 

 ton ; ibid. bdle. 34, m. 98. Arthur Ash- 

 ton in 1552 purchased a messuage and 

 land in Butterworth from Richard Butter- 

 worth and Joan his wife ; ibid. bdle. 26, 

 m. 245. His will is in Pal. Note Bk. 

 iv, 1 1 8. 



Edward and Elizabeth Ashton had no 

 issue, so that the whole came to Anne 

 and William Ashton, whose son Theo- 

 philus succeeded. A settlement by William 



Ashton, Anne his wife, and Elizabeth Bel- 

 field her sister, was made in 1576; Pal. 

 of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 38, m. 40. 

 Theophilus sold it in 1618 to his sister 

 Elizabeth and her husband Edmund 

 Howarth, and by descent and purchase 

 it came to the Fentons ; see Fishwick, 

 op. cit. 352, 353. Susan, another sister, 

 married John Hyde, and they had a third 

 of the manor in 1599; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 61, m. 143. In 1626 

 Elizabeth Howarth and Robert her son 

 held Clegg Hall with 179 acres of land, 

 by grant of the trustees of Theophilus 

 Ashton of Clegg ; while Grace, widow of 

 Alexander Butterworth, as co-heir of Anne, 

 late wife of William Ashton of Clegg, 

 held 8 1 acres. In all a rent of 6s. id. 

 was paid to the Saviles (or their repre- 

 sentatives) ; Surv. in Raines MSS. xxi, 60. 

 " There is a local proverb, * As ill as 

 Clegg Hall boggart,' referring to a tra- 

 dition that the man in possession at one 

 time destroyed the rightful heirs by 

 drowning them in the moat, the house 

 being afterwards haunted ; Fishwick. 



48 Thomas the Barber of Coventry 

 and Joan his wife, daughter of Edmund 

 son of Jordan, and heir of Alice daughter 

 of William Pearson of Cleggswood, his 

 mother, in 1401 granted lands in Falinge 

 to William the Cook of Rochdale ; Towne- 

 ley MS. GG, no. 569. 



49 See Fishwick, op. cit. 348-50. 

 Thomas Belfield died in 1 532, holding mes- 

 suages, manors, and lands in Butterworth, 

 Hundersfield, Spotland, and Castleton of 

 Robert Holt by knight's service and a 

 rent of 51. -jd. ; the annual value was 20 



219 



marks. Thomas, the son and heir, was 

 fourteen years of age ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Inq. p.m. vi, no. 26. From the account 

 of Belfield it will be seen that that estate 

 was in 1557 held partly of Thomas Bel- 

 field by a rent of zs. Thomas was suc- 

 ceeded by his son John, who in 1601 

 made a settlement of his lands in Butter- 

 worth, Hundersfield, and Spotland, in 

 conjunction with his wife Margaret ; the 

 capital messuage or manor of Cleggswood 

 was assigned for life to Deborah, wife of 

 Abraham Belfield, son and heir of John ; 

 the lands in Butterworth, &c., were held 

 of John Holt by a rent of 5*. j\d. t but 

 some in Hundersfield were held of the 

 king ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), ii, 22-4. Abraham died in 

 1614, and wag succeeded by his son John, 

 fourteen years of age, who died in 1632, 

 leaving, by Elizabeth his wife, a son and 

 heir Thomas, seven years old. The three 

 widows Margaret, Deborah, and Eliza- 

 beth were living when the inquisition 

 was made. The estate was held of John 

 Holt ; Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xxvii, 

 no. 3. Thomas succeeded, but his sister 

 Anne ultimately inherited. 



60 Fishwick, loc. cit. 



61 Ibid. 389. Oliver son of John 

 Holt of Hundersfield, was charged with 

 having maltreated Alice wife of John 



' Clegg in 1445. He replied that he had 

 submitted to an arbitration as to the mat- 

 ter, and should not be troubled further ; 

 John Clegg had been ordered to pay him 

 40*. The said John, however, averred 

 that he had consented to an arbitration 

 only on condition that Henry Marl and, 



