A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



probably obtained another building, the existence of 

 which was remembered in i837. 63 



The Wesleyans and the Congregationalists 64 now 

 have churches within the township of Bispham. 



Apart from educational and re- 

 CH4RITIES ligious benefactions the only charities 6i 

 endowed are the Foxton Dispensary 

 and the Victoria Hospital, both of recent foundation 

 in Blackpool. The former is due to a bequest of 

 6,000 in 1878 by Mrs. Catherine Dauntesey 

 Foxton of Agecroft Hall ; the dispensary in Clifton 

 Street, Blackpool, is for the benefit of the poor of the 

 borough and of the parish of Poulton. The endow- 

 ment fund of the hospital amounted to ,5,422 in 

 1898. 



BISPHAM-WITH-NORBRECK 



Biscopham, Dom. Bk. ; Byspham, 1326. 



Norbrec, 1195. 



This composite township stretches along the coast 

 for about 3 miles, and has an area of 1,624 acres, 1 

 including 1,119^ acres in Bispham and 504^ in 

 Norbreck. The church lies close to the eastern 

 boundary, about the centre of the township, with the 

 village of Bispham a little to the south of it. A small 

 detached part of Bispham lay at the south end of 

 Layton ; it was called Bispham Hawes, and was 

 added to Layton in 1883.* Of the three hamlets, 

 Little Bispham is inland to the north of the church, 3 

 with Norbreck to the west of it on the coast ; Great 

 Bispham occupies the southern part of the township. 

 Angersholme is a farm in Norbreck. The population 

 of the present township was 985 in 1901. 



The coast-line is protected by hillocks about 50 ft. 

 high, the inland portion being much lower. The 

 principal road is that from Blackpool to Cleveleys, 

 passing inland through the village and by the church. 

 There is a road from the village to the shore, also 

 one from Little Bispham to Norbreck. Formerly 

 the principal road seems to have gone north along 

 the coast, but it was undermined or washed away by 

 the sea. 4 At present the electric tramway from 

 Blackpool to Fleetwood passes along near the shore. 



The soil is variable, with subsoil of clay. The 

 people are mostly employed in agriculture, but there 

 was formerly some hand-loom weaving. 



Most of the dwellers in Great and Little Bispham 

 seem to have signed the Protestation of 1 64 1. 5 



By the churchyard there was a spring known as 

 the Holy Well, now filled up. 6 A cross stood at 

 Leys near Knowl, but has long disappeared. 7 



The township is governed by an urban district 

 council of nine members. 



Earl Tostig in 1066 held Bispham 

 MANORS and Layton as parts of his lordship of 

 Preston or Amounderness. The former 

 manor was assessed as eight plough-lands. 8 Afterwards 

 it was divided ; one moiety 

 was given to the abbey of 

 Shrewsbury and the other to 

 the lord of Warrington. 



The former moiety, 

 LITTLE BISPH4M and 

 NORBRECK, was given to the 

 monks by Roger of Poitou. 9 

 Between 1 1 29 and 1133 

 Henry I ordered Stephen 

 Count of Mortain to allow 

 them to hold the moiety of 

 Bispham free and quit of all 

 customs, pleas and suits of the 

 hundred court, 10 and a few 

 years later David, King of 



Scots, confirmed the moiety, to be held as freely as 

 in the time of any of his predecessors. 11 About 

 1270 the Abbot and convent of Shrewsbury granted 

 their vills of Norbreck and Little Bispham to the 

 Abbot and convent of Dieulacres, who already held 

 the adjacent Rossall, in fee farm at a rent of 8 marks. 1 * 

 It thus became merged in the Rossall estate, and 

 after the Dissolution was with it granted in 1553 to 

 Thomas Fleetwood, 13 and descended in the same 

 way. A manor of Chornet named in the inquisition 

 after his death as part of the Rossall estate does not 

 occur again. 14 



The other moiety, GREAT BISPH4M, was a 

 member of the lordship of Layton and descended 

 with it. 15 It was purchased in 15 39 by John Browne 

 and sold by him in 1550 to Thomas Fleetwood, 

 who, as just stated, soon afterwards purchased the 

 rest of Bispham as appurtenant to Rossall. 



Of the local families there is little on record. By 

 a grant which may be dated about 1 1 60 Robert 



SHREWSBURY ABBEY. 

 Azure a crosier in bend 

 surmounted by a lion 

 rampant or, all 'within a 

 bordure of the second. 



65 Thornbcr, Blackpool, 322. Some 

 account of the congregation, which seems 

 to have died out about the end of the 

 1 8th century, will be found in Nightingale, 

 Lanes. Nonconf. i, 116. The chapel is 

 noted by Gastrell, Notitia, ii, 398. About 

 1730 the 'teacher' was Thomas Cooper. 

 There were 126 families in the parish in 

 1755, viz. 122 Protestants, 3 Presby- 

 terians, and i Papist ; Return to the 

 Bishop of Chester. 



64 The chapel, called Bethel, was built 

 in 1834, after some years' preaching. 

 See Nightingale, op. cit. i, 119-21. 

 There is a small endowment ; End. Char. 

 Rep. 1899, p. 7. 



65 An official inquiry was made in 

 1898. The report, including a reprint 

 of that of 1824, was published in 1899. 



1 The Census Rep. 1901 gives only 

 1,346 acres, including 5 of inland water. 

 There are also 473 acres of foreshore. 

 The modern area differs from the ancient 

 one by the inclusion of about 20 acres 

 from Little Carleton in 1877 (Loc. Govt. 



Bd. Order 6910) and the loss of Bispham 

 Hawes to Layton, about 300 acres. 

 * Loc. Govt. Bd. Order 14712. 



3 The houses round this are sometimes 

 called Church Town. 



4 William Hutton (in his Description of 

 Blackpool) in 1788 records something of 

 this and tells the story of the Penny 

 Stone, then standing half a mile out to 

 sea : ' According to a tradition which was 

 allowed by the whole country, a public- 

 house some ages back stood by that stone 

 upon land as firm and high as that on 

 which we were ; and that iron hooks had 

 been fixed to the stone to which travellers 

 hung their horses while they drank their 

 penny pots, from whence the stone 

 acquired and still bears the name of Penny 

 Stone.' 



5 The list of names may be seen in 

 Fishwick, Bispham (Chet. Soc.), 20-1. A 

 township assessment dated 1706 is 

 printed ibid. 1256. 



6 Ibid. 34. 7 Ibid. 128. 

 8 V.C.H. Lanes, i, 288*. 



246 



9 Dugdale, Man. iii, 519. Godfrey the 

 Sheriff gave tithes of Bispham to St. 

 Martin's Abbey, Sies ; Farrer, Lanes. Pipe 

 R. 299. 



10 Ibid. 273. Ibid. 274. 



w Dugdale, Man. v, 629. Certain 

 tithes in Layton are mentioned. Accord- 

 ingly in 1291 the rent of 5 6s. %d. from 

 Norbreck and Bispham was recorded 

 among the possessions of the abbey ; Pope 

 Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 309. After the 

 Dissolution j 6s. %d. was received from 

 Bispham, Norbreck and Thelwall ; Dug- 

 dale, op. cit. iii, 528. 



13 Pat. 7 Edw. VI, pt. ix. Little 

 Bispham and Norbreck were regarded as 

 separate manors in 1622 ; Lanes. Inq.p.m. 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 315. 



14 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xii, no. 2. 



15 William le Boteler of Warrington 

 and Sibyl his wife in 1326 purchased two- 

 thirds of an oxgang of land in Great 

 Bispham ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), ii, 64. 



16 See the account of Layton. 



