A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Petre in 1^75 ; from him it has come to his son, the 

 present owner, Mr. Oswald Henry Philip Turville- 

 Petre, of Husbands Bosworth. 39 



HIGHER BROCKHOLES, now a farm-house, 

 stands on low ground near the Kibble below Red 

 Scar, the river here flowing in a south-easterly direc- 

 tion on the east side of the house, the front of which 

 faces south. It is a long, low, two-storied stuccoed 

 building very much modernized, but retaining for 

 the most part its grey slated roof and some portions 

 of its original timber framing. 40 The house, how- 

 ever, is architecturally uninteresting except for a 

 portion at the east end now disused, which is a good 

 example of ijth-century black and white work on a 

 low stone base, with overhanging upper floor and 

 gable. The work is simple in detail, consisting 

 mostly of the structural framework filled in with 

 straight and diagonal pieces and quatrefoils. A 

 carved oak panel bears the date 1643 and the initials 

 R E A, probably those of Robert Elston and Ann his 

 wife. The interior has been almost entirely moder- 

 nized, but contains old oak stairs and thick oak 

 doors. 41 



The Singleton moiety 43 descended to William Sin- 

 gleton, who died in 1556 without legitimate issue. 43 

 A pedigree was recorded in i6i3. 44 The estate was 

 in i 564 sold to Sir John Southworth of Samlesbury, 45 



and afterwards changed hands, being at last in 1696 

 acquired by the above-named Thomas Winckley. 46 

 The two moieties thus reunited have so continued to 

 the present time. 



LOWER BROCKHOLES, now a farm-house, 

 stands in a low situation close to the bend of the 

 Ribble near Brockholes Bridge, facing east towards 

 Samlesbury. 47 It is a small two-story bu'lding of 

 no particular interest architecturally, having been very 

 much modernized and the exterior covered with rough- 

 cast. The windows are all modern, but the roof 

 retains its grey stone slates, and the north wing, which 

 has a separate gabled roof at right angles to that of 

 the rest of the house, preserves its old half-timber 

 construction above the ground floor, though much of 

 the timber has been renewed. There is a wide open 

 gabled porch of two stories projecting 9 ft. 6 in. and 

 measuring 8 ft. square inside, over the archway of 

 which is a stone dated 1634 with the initials and 

 arms of Francis Bindloss, the arms with helm, crest 

 and mantling, and a crescent for difference. The 

 interior is structurally uninteresting, but a small oak 

 staircase of good design with turned Jacobean balusters 

 still remains, and in one of the bedrooms is some oak 

 panelling forming a dado, on which is the inscrip- 

 tion, ' Quamlibet expectes horam tibi ducere mortem, 

 disce mori mundo Christoque resurgere spera, 1630.' 



(1637) and of Broughton (1661); he 

 was registrar of the duchy Chancery 

 office. He died in 1710 and was 

 succeeded by his son John, who died in 

 I 7^>7f John's son Thomas left an only 

 daughter Frances, who married Sir John 

 Shelley, sixth baronet (d. 1852). 



39 Mr. E. H. Petre died in 1902. 



40 The timber construction shows 

 externally at the back. 



41 Fishwick, op. cit. 298. 



43 Nicholas Singleton, possessor in 

 the time of Henry VI, has been men- 

 tioned. There was an arbitration in 

 1474 between Alice widow of Nicholas 

 Singleton and the sons James (the 

 heir), John, Lawrence and Roger ; HH, 

 no. 1918. John Singleton of Brockholes 

 in 1485 granted all his lands to Sir 

 Alexander Hoghton, apparently as 

 trustee; ibid. no. 1902. In 14956 

 Robert Singleton, another son of Nicholas, 

 released all his claim to his brother John ; 

 no. 189$. 



In 1487-8 James Singleton and 

 Thomas his son became bound to 

 Richard Singleton of Broughton, en- 

 gaging to make no alienation of the 

 inheritance of Nicholas, father of James, 

 so that it might descend to Richard the 

 son of James, except as to lands of 20 

 marks yearly, the dower of Agnes wife of 

 James and daughter of Richard Hoghton 

 of the Lawnd in Bowland. Richard was 

 to occupy the Bank in Broughton ; 

 Kuerden fol. MS. fol. 389. 



Richard Singleton died in 1499, having 

 been married or betrothed as early as 

 1458, while his grandfather Nicholas was 

 living, to Elizabeth his wife, who survived 

 him. He held the moiety of the manor 

 of Brockholes of Sir Thomas West Lord 

 La Warre in socage and other lands in 

 Bolton-le-Sands, &c. Thomas his son 

 and heir was twenty-seven years of age ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. iii, no. 52. 

 Thomas Singleton about two years later 

 made a feoffment of messuages and lands 

 in Brockholes called Rishmelfield, Gam- 



ridding, a water-mill and a fishing, to 

 fulfil the marriage covenants of his sons 

 Robert and Henry with Anne and Aline, 

 daughters of John Singleton of Shingle 

 Hall ; Kuerden fol. MS. fol. 381. 



Robert Singleton died in 1525, his wife 

 Anne having died before him, leaving a 

 son and heir William, only about two 

 years old. He held one moiety of the 

 manor of Brockholes and various lands, 

 &c., in the other moiety of Lord La 

 Warre, as of his manor of Manchester, 

 by knight's service. He also held a 

 burgage and land in Preston of the heir 

 of Adam Brockholes by the rent of three 

 grains of pepper, and other tenements in 

 Broughton, Barton, Ribchester, Whitting- 

 ham, Bolton-le-Sands, &c. ; Duchy of 

 Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, no. 64. 



43 Ibid, x, no. I, in which his will is 

 recited as well as various family settle- 

 ments. To Mary his wife he allowed his 

 dwelling-house, a close called Gamridding, 

 with mill and fishing ; to Robert his 

 bastard son he gave certain closes and 

 his interest in the tithe of Brockholes. 

 Brockholes was held of Lord La Warre 

 by the seventeenth part of a knight's 

 fee and the rent of 4^. The heir was 

 his uncle Henry Singleton, chaplain, 

 aged fifty-five. From later depositions it 

 appears that Henry had been a friar. 

 For Robert Brockholes see Exch. Dep. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 2. 



44 Visit. (Chet. Soc.), Si. 



45 An indenture concerning the manor 

 is enrolled in the Common Pleas, Mich. 

 3 & 4 Phil, and Mary. An account of 

 the disputes which followed William 

 Singleton's death will be found, with 

 copies of depositions, in Fishwick's 

 Preston, 94-6, 289-93. It appears that 

 the above Henry Singleton and his 

 nephew William son of Thomas Single- 

 ton of Bank Hall in Broughton sold the 

 estate to John Singleton of Ripley, who 

 in 1565 sold to Sir John Southworth. 

 John son of Henry Singleton in 1557 

 gave his life interest in the Eyes in 



112 



Brockholes to John Singleton of Ripley ; 

 Kuerden fol. MS. fol. 389, no. 399. 

 Fines relating to the settlements at the 

 same time are Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. 

 bdles. 17, m. 33, 80 ; 27, m. 171. 



After the death of Sir John Southworth 

 in 1595 his estate in Brockholes, not 

 called a manor, was said to have been 

 held of the lord of Manchester by the 

 three-hundredth part of a knight's fee 

 and the rent of 4</. A free fishery in 

 the Ribble was included ; Duchy of Lane. 

 Inq. p.m. xvii, no. 3. 



By Thomas Southworth (son of Sir 

 John) Brockholes was mortgaged and 

 then (1620) sold to Edmund Breres of 

 Preston, and sold again the next year 

 to Sir Robert Bindloss of Berwick Hall. 

 It descended to a grandson Francis and 

 then to his sister Dorothy wife of Sir 

 Charles Wheler, who in 1668 sold to 

 Paul Moreau, owner of Higher Brock- 

 holes, and John Walshman of Preston, 

 who divided the estate ; Preston Chron., 

 May 1862. Fishwick (op. cit. 96) states 

 that Lower Brockholes was in 1682 

 the property of Hugh (John) Walshman, 

 who died in 1694. 



48 The Walshman share was sold to 

 Winckley in 1696 and the Moreau share 

 in 1698. A full abstract of the title is in 

 Piccope MSS. (Chet. Lib.), iii, 292-310. 



47 Lower Brockholes was formerly 

 reached from Preston by a roadway 

 known as Brockall Lane, which now 

 forms part of the high road from Preston 

 to Blackburn made in 1824. There was 

 a direct way between the two towns 

 previous to that date, but it was a mere 

 lane, and there was either no bridge or 

 a very primitive one across the river at 

 Lower Brockholes. When the road and 

 bridge were projected the landowners and 

 farmers petitioned Parliament to refuse 

 authority for its construction, their con- 

 tention being that if the new road were 

 made it would give Samlesbury farmers 

 the means of competing with them at 

 Preston ; Preston Guardian, 28 Dec. 1907. 



