AMOUNDERNESS HUNDRED 



doubled its width. The de criptions left of the 

 building do not materially assist in determining the 

 date of its erection. The tower, which stood at the 

 west end of the original nave, was retained when the 

 church was pulled down, and, the walls of the new 

 building being erected on the old foundations, is 

 therefore at the south-west corner of the present 

 church. A stone with the date 1622 and the name 

 of Peter White, vicar, and another with the initials 

 of six churchwardens and the date 1638, apparently 

 indicate some rebuilding or alterations in these 

 years. 14 In 1883 the building underwent extensive 

 repairs, and a further renovation and decoration took 

 place in 1908. 



The apse is built in a modern Norman style with 

 three groups of double round-headed windows, and 

 forms the sanctuary, the chancel arrangement being 

 carried into the nave for a distance of 19 ft. The 

 chancel arch is of 1868 date and is semicircular in 

 form. The nave is a fairly good example of 18th- 

 century work, with round-headed two-light windows 

 and drafted quoins at the angles. On the south side 

 are two good classic doorways with Tuscan pilasters 

 carrying entablature and pediment, above which the 

 wall is pierced by elliptical windows. The doorway 

 on the north side has a plain moulded architrave. 

 The roof, which is of one wide span and covered with 

 slate and with an external stone cornice, is divided 

 inside into nine bays by eight plain principals 

 plastered between. On the south-east corner is the 

 vault of the Fleetwood family, approached from the 

 outside by a door within a small stone porch of good 

 classic design with moulded architrave and pedimented 

 head carried on consoles. Over the door is the 

 inscription, now somewhat defaced, ' Insignia Rici 

 Fleetwood afi hujus eccliae patronis, Anno Dni 

 i699.' 15 The spout heads on each side of the 

 building are of handsome design with the date 1753, 

 the arms of Fleetwood-Hesketh, and the Hesketh 

 double-headed eagle. 



The tower is of gritstone and very plain in design, 

 with diagonal buttresses of seven stages and a vice in 

 the south-east corner. It finishes with an embattled 

 parapet and angle pinnacles of Renaissance type, and 

 the belfry windows are of two plain, round-headed 

 lights with slate louvres, but without hood mould or 

 any ornament, the whole having the appearance of 

 very late work and giving some credibility to the 

 local tradition of its being of I yth-century date. The 

 west side is quite plain, without door or window, but 

 the masonry in the lower part appears to have been 

 rebuilt in a way suggesting a former window. There 

 is a clock on the south side to the market-place, 

 and also a small round-headed doorway, apparently 

 an 1 8th-century insertion, which is the only means 

 of access to the tower, the arch having presumably 

 been built up when the nave was erected. The 

 interior of the tower was renovated in 1908. 



POULTON Lfc 

 FYLDE 



The nave has galleries on the north, south and 

 west sides supported by small stone classic columns 

 and approached by a staircase in the north-west 

 corner. The north and south galleries, which stop 

 about 20 ft. from the east end of the nave, retain 

 their original square pews, but the west gallery, 

 along with the nave, has been reseated with modern 

 benches and all the fittings are of modern date. 

 Over the vault in the south-east corner were originally 

 the Fleetwood pews, but the whole of the east end 

 of the 1 8th-century structure is now thrown into 

 the quire, the organ being placed on the north side. 

 The baptistery, however, which occupies the south- 

 west corner, is formed by a carved oak I yth-century 

 screen of good design, originally part of the pew 

 belonging to Sir Peter Hesketh, the Hesketh garb 

 being carved on two of the posts and the double- 

 headed eagle and a griffon introduced into the 

 decorative treatment. The low door, however, 

 bears the crest of the Rigbys of Layton, together 

 with the initials A.R. and the date 1636, and belongs 

 to a pew of that family's. In the baptistery are the 

 two dated stones already mentioned, and there is 

 also an oak cupboard with the date 1730 and the 

 names of the churchwardens. On the south wall at 

 the east end are preserved four sides of an octagonal 

 oak Jacobean pulpit discovered in 1877 encased in a 

 later pulpit supposed to have been erected in 1753. 

 The sides are richly carved and divided into three 

 panels of unequal size, the middle ones with the 

 common semicircular arched ornament of the time, 

 while along the top is carved CRIE ALOVD SPARE NOT 

 LIFT UP THY VOYCE LYKE . . . 16 There are some brasses 

 belonging to the older church, one to Ann wife of 

 Richard Harrison, vicar (d. 1697), and others to 

 Geoffrey Hornby (d. 1732) and Dorothy his daughter 

 (d. 1740). A number of hatchments of the Fleet- 

 wood and Hesketh families are hung on the walls 

 above the galleries, and there are monuments to 

 Fleetwood Hesketh (d. 1769), Francis Hesketh (d. 

 1809), Bold Fleetwood Hesketh (d. 1819), and 

 Edward Thomas Hesketh (d. iSao). 17 



There is a ring of six bells cast in 1741 by Abel 

 Rudhall of Gloucester. The sixth was recast in 1865 

 and has the names of the vicar and wardens of that 

 date. The whole were re-hung in igo8. }8 



The old plate 19 consists of a large paten of 1698-9 

 inscribed ' Poulton 1699'; a small visiting chalice 

 6 in. high and cover paten, the chalice inscribed 

 ' Given for the use of the poor sick Communicants in 

 the Parish of Poulton in the County of Lancaster ' 

 and the cover * 1735,' both by R. Richardson of 

 Chester ; and a flagon with the makers' mark B and 

 W. There are also two modern chalices, two patens, 

 and a flagon presented by the Rev. T. Clark in 

 1866. 



The registers begin in 1591. The three earliest 

 volumes, extending to 1677, have been printed.* 



14 These two stones are now fixed in the 

 wall of the baptistery at the south-west 

 corner of the nave. The latter was dis- 

 covered in 1 8 3 6 on the removal of the pul- 

 pit. Thornber (op. cit. 286) conjectured that 

 it commemorated the erection of the tower. 



15 'In 1882 some workmen discovered, 

 in removing the lead gutter over this vault, 

 that a portion of a similar inscription was 

 cut on the stone cornice in raised 3-inch 

 letters' ; Fishwick, op. cit. 45. 



16 The panels were placed in their 

 present position on the south wall in Nov. 

 1878. 



17 The inscriptions on all the mural 

 monuments in the church are given in 

 full in Fishwick, op. cit. 50-8. 



18 The inscriptions are : (i) ' Prosperity 

 to all our benefactors, A R. 1741'; (2) 

 ' Peace and good neighbourhood, AR. 

 1741'; (3) 'Prosperity to this parish, 

 A R. 1741 ' ; (4) 'When you us ring we'll 



221 



sweetly sing, A. 1741'; (5) 'Able 

 Rudhall cast us all at Gloucester, 1741 ' ; 

 (6) Originally had names of church- 

 wardens. 



19 A return of church goods sent to the 

 Bishop of Chester in 1725 records a paten, 

 flagon and chalice. 



30 Lanes. Parish Reg. Soc. Publ. vol. xix 

 (1904), transcribed and edited by Wm. 

 Edward Robinson. The Churchwardens' 

 Accts. begin 1708 ; Fishwick, op. cit. 88. 



