A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



1 8 10, when by the will of Henry Blundell the 

 Lostock estates were bequeathed to his daughters, 

 Katherine wife of Thomas Stonor of Stonor, and 

 Elizabeth wife of Stephen Tempest of Broughton. 34 

 The estates were divided, and Lostock was joined 

 with Anderton as part of the Stonor share and 

 descended with it, but has recently been sold by 

 Mr. Charles Joseph Stonor. 35 No manor is claimed. 



The partition of the Lostock estates was made in 

 1819 under a private Act, 35a but possession was delayed 

 by lawsuits until 1830. In 1821 John Anderton, a 

 publican of Colne, made claim to them, alleging that 

 he was heir under a settlement by Sir Charles Anderton 

 in 1685, by which there was a remainder to a brother 

 John. Plaintiff was brother of Francis Anderton (d. 

 1804) and son of a John Anderton, who was son of 

 the Rev. John Anderton (d. 1742), supposed by the 

 plaintiff to have been the brother of Sir Charles, and 

 to have been disinherited because he became a Protes- 

 tant. It was proved, however, that he was a son of 

 Stephen Anderton of Hardhill in Clitheroe, and 

 therefore a cousin, not brother, of Sir Charles. 35b 



Of Lostock Hall only the gatehouse remains. The 

 hall is described by Britton in 1807 as ' formed of 

 wooden beams and plaster. Over the entrance door 

 are the initials of the persons who lived here, with the 

 date when it was built, c A D 1563. Most of the 

 rooms are wainscoted with many panels.' The draw- 

 ing in Philips's Views of Old Halls of Lancashire and 

 Cheshire shows a half-timbered house with four 

 overhanging timber gables in the principal front, the 

 lower portion built in either stone or brick. Another 

 of Philips's drawings in the same book shows three 

 gables only, the large southern one having presumably 

 been destroyed. These sketches can, however, only 

 be relied on as giving a fair general idea of the 

 appearance of the house, as his drawing of the gate- 

 house is wrong in many particulars. The hall, which 

 had long been used as a farm-house, was partly pulled 

 down about 1816, and finally disappeared some eight 

 years later. 



The gatehouse, which stood at some little distance 

 east of the hall, is still in existence. It is a stone 

 building of three stories with a staircase tower at its 

 north-west angle. Its main front, which is of ashlar, 

 faces east, and is about 45ft. in length and 33ft. 

 high, the depth from front to back being about 

 22 ft. 6 in. In the ground stage is a centre archway, 

 and above it in the two upper stages mullioned and 

 transomed windows of eight lights each, the archway 

 and windows being flanked on each stage by pairs of 

 widely-spaced columns. Those in the ground stage 

 are of the Tuscan order, and the others of the Ionic 

 and Corinthian orders respectively. Between each 



stage are wide strings taking the form of cornice, 

 frieze, and architrave, and breaking out over the 

 columns, the cornices only continued as strings all 

 round the building. The detail of the whole com- 

 position is poor, but it shows a far more pronounced 

 Renaissance spirit than is usually found in this part of 

 Lancashire. The gateway is now built up and a 

 modern doorway inserted. There were originally no 

 windows on the ground floor, but two modern sash 

 windows have been introduced between the columns, 

 one on each side. Over the large window on the 

 first floor is a square panel with the arms of Anderton 

 surmounted by helm, crest, and mantling, and over 

 the second floor window is a similar panel with a 

 shield bearing the royal arms of Queen Elizabeth, 

 with the date 1591 and the royal initials E.R. 

 The upper cornice is crowned with a scalloped 

 parapet with traces of finials on the alternate crenals. 

 The frieze of the second order is ornamented 

 with hollow flutes, and the others are plain. The 

 other three sides of the building are faced with 

 thin coursed rubble. The west arch of the gateway 

 is also built up, but otherwise this face of the build- 

 ing preserves a good deal of its original appear- 

 ance, having six mullioned windows, the lower ones 

 with hood- moulds. On the south side the original 

 windows remain on the first and second floors, but 

 sash windows have been inserted on the ground story. 

 On the north side the original window on the ground 

 floor is built up, but those to the first and second 

 floors remain. The staircase wing at the north-west 

 corner is built of rough thin-coursed stones and has 

 its original windows ; but the top of the tower, which 

 formerly seems to have terminated in an octagonal 

 turret with conical roof, has disappeared, and it is now 

 finished with a plain pent roof from the level of the 

 upper cornice. The original chimney-stacks, too, 

 have disappeared, and have been replaced by plain 

 modern shafts. The roof is covered with lead. There 

 is a range of buildings beyond the staircase tower on 

 the north-west corner of the house extending west- 

 ward, but this was erected as late as 1810. The 

 gatehouse is now used as a farm-house, and the interior 

 has nothing of interest ; the original gateway, which 

 is 7 ft. wide, is thrown into the house, partly forming 

 an entrance lobby. On the frieze immediately over 

 the gateway was, till recently, a lead panel with the 

 initials s. F. A. and the date 1712, now nailed against 

 a wooden outbuilding on the south side of the house. 

 It measures i6in. by 1 2 in., and looks like the front 

 of a spout-head. 



A portion of Lostock descended, with other Hulton 

 estates, to the Radcliffes and Bartons of Smithills in 

 Halliwell. 34 



34 Details of the descent will be found 

 in the accounts of Lydiate and Ince Blun- 

 dell. During the life of Sir Francis An- 

 derton, who died in 1760, the Lostock 

 estates remained in the hands of the Crown, 

 he having participated in the rebellion of 

 1715 ; Lydiate Hall, 80 ; Lanes, and Cbes. 

 Rec. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 173. 



85 A large number of documents illus- 

 trating the descent of the manor will be 

 found in the Piccope MSS. (Chet. Lib.), 

 iii, fol. 418, &c. 



35a 57 Geo. Ill, cap. 29. 



85b Information of Mr. H. Ince Ander- 

 ton, citing Chancery proceedings 1800-42, 

 Sewell 271 Anderton -v. Wilbraham. 



The Rev. John Anderton had four chil- 

 dren : Francis (1730-1802), unmarried ; 

 John (173 3-76), named in the text ; Anne, 

 and Catherine (married Duckworth). 



86 Ralph de Radcliffe died in 1406 hold- 

 ing messuages, &c., in Lostock and Halli- 

 well, of Lord La Warre ; Towneley MS. 

 DD, no. 1504. In 1473 Ralph Radcliffe 

 held a parcel of Lostock of the lord of 

 Manchester, paying jd. as his share of the 

 sake fee, and joining with John Atherton 

 to pay the 14^. due for castle ward; Mame- 

 cestre ; iii, 480. Ralph Radcliffe died in 

 1485 holding lands in Rumworth, Los- 

 tock, &c., of Thomas Lord La Warre 

 by the rent of 12s. T,d. in all ; Duchy of 



298 



Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, no. 12. The separate 

 service of jd. due from Lostock is stated 

 in the inquisition of his successors Andrew 

 and Robert Barton, who died in 1549 and 

 1580 respectively ; ibid, ix, no. 27 ; xiv, 

 no. 24. In 1612 the estate was described 

 as the capital messuage called the Moss 

 Hall, with demesne lands occupied with it, 

 &c., held of Sir Nicholas Mosley in socage 

 by a rent of 7^., and worth clear 5 5$. $d. 

 a year ; Lanes. Inj. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), i, 209, 211. 



John Barton, the successor of Ralph 

 Radcliffe, granted, by his will in 1513, a 

 certain tenement in Lostock to one of his 

 feoffees, Richard Urmston, for life, 'in 



