AMOUNDERNESS HUNDRED 



wealth period, 56 while a number of ' Papists ' regis- 

 tered estates in ijij." 



The piety of Richard son of Roger 

 CHURCH makes it probable that a chapel existed 

 in his demesne before 1200. Though 

 this is confirmed by remains in the building, there 

 seems to be no direct documentary evidence 58 of the 

 chapel till 1552, when its 'ornaments' were seized 

 for the king. 59 About the same time it was locally 

 styled a 'church.' 60 There was no endowment, but 

 the vicar of St. Michael's allowed ^4 a year to the 

 curate, 61 and service there appears to have been main- 

 tained after the Reformation. In 1650 the minister 

 had an allowance of 50 a year from the Committee 

 of Plundered Ministers. 62 The certified income in 

 1717 was only 3, but further endow- 

 ments were procured about that time, 63 

 and the net value is now given as 



ST. MICHAEL- 

 ON-WYRE 



40 ft. long by 1 6 ft. wide. This may have been 

 extended eastward in the late I5th or early i6th 

 century and a south aisle added, and later again in 

 the 1 6th century a further aisle added on the south 

 side, the first aisle then becoming the nave. The 

 evidence for this is, however, far from being conclu- 

 sive, the chief reasons in support being the nature 

 of the walling at the west end of the north aisle, the 

 width of the aisle itself, which is greater than that of 

 the nave, and the difference of detail of the two 

 nave arcades, which seems to point to that on the 

 south being later in date, though perhaps at no great 

 interval of time, than that on the north. 66 The nave and 

 aisles are under three separate and continuous gabled 

 roofs, that over the south aisle and the north slope of 



14S CENTURY 



15J2CENTUBY 

 152CENTUBY 

 CHI MODERN 



The church of ST. 4NNE stands at 

 the south end of the village, near the 

 edge of the higher ground before its fall 

 to Woodplumpton Brook, and consists of 

 chancel and nave with north and south 

 aisles forming a parallelogram measuring 

 internally 72 ft. 6 in. long by 47 ft. 6 in. 

 wide, with north-east vestry and small 

 western tower with octagonal lantern. 

 The oldest part of the building is the 

 western half of the north aisle wall, in 

 which there are a window of c. 1 300 and 

 a door of about 100 years later, the east 

 part of the wall, together with the east 

 wall of the aisle, being either of 1 5th or 

 early 1 6th-century date, or an older wall 

 restored with later windows inserted. 

 The north and south arcades belong to 

 the late I5th or early 16th-century 

 period, but the rest of the structure, 

 comprising the whole of the west and 

 south walls and the east wall as far as the 

 north side of the chancel, was rebuilt or 

 refaced in the i8th century, probably in 

 1 748, 64a at which time the tower was 

 also erected. The development of the plan is not 

 clear from the evidence of the building, but the 

 present north aisle may represent the nave of a 1 4th- 

 century building which would be perhaps about 



SCALE or FEET 



PLAN OF WOODPLUMPTON CHURCH 



the north aisle being covered with stone slabs and 

 the others with modern blue slates. The older 

 masonry is of red and yellow sandstone intermixed, 

 but the 18th-century walling consists of squared 



66 Edward Browne of Bartle, ' adhering 

 to the forces raised against the Parlia- 

 ment,' had his lands sequestered, but took 

 the National Covenant, &c., in 1646 

 and was allowed to compound ; Royalist 

 Comp. Papers (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 251-5. 



Jane Brewer, widow, had two-thirds 

 of her estate sequestered for recusancy, 

 'conformed' in 1648, but had in 1651 

 failed to secure discharge of her land. 

 She then seems to have renounced Pro- 

 testantism, for she petitioned in 1654 to 

 be allowed to contract for the seques- 

 trated part under the Recusants Act ; Cal. 

 Com. for Comp. iv, 2886. John Ward's 

 cae, 1652, appears to be of the same 

 kind ; ibid. 2991. 



Other recusants were William Beesley 

 and his wife, both dead in 1653, when 

 Peter Blackburn and Katherine his wife 

 (heir of Henry son of William Beesley) 

 petitioned for discharge, and George 



Green ; ibid. 3155, 3174 ; Royalist 

 Comp. Papers, i, 172. 



57 Francis Almond of Lawton House, 

 Edmund Baine of Catforth, Elizabeth 

 Billington, William Billsborough, Richard 

 Clarkson (steward for Sir N. Shireburne), 

 Perpetua Clarkson, Anne Crichlow, Robert 

 Kellet, William Kitchen, Richard Latui 

 and Thomas Willasey ; Estcourt and 

 Payne, Engl. Cath. Nonjurors, 91, 103, &c. 



58 The house of Gilbert the chaplain of 

 Plumpton is named in a Sowerby charter 

 about 1240 : Cockenand Chartul. (Chet. 

 Soc.), i, 245. 'Of Plumpton' may be a 

 surname. The chapel is not named in 

 the grant of St. Michael's to Battlefield. 



59 Fishwick, op. cit. 76. 



60 As in wills quoted ibid. Ellen Top- 

 ham, widow, in 1556 left 2OJ. to the 

 church of Woodplumpton (where she 

 desired to be buried), and 6s. Sd. to 

 Nicholas Lawrenson to pray for her soul ; 

 Richmond Wills, 88. 



289 



61 Commoniv. Ch. Sur-v. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), 147. 



62 Ibid. 148 ; no minister is named. 

 The 50 was given in 1646 out of T. 

 Clifton's sequestered estates ; Plund. 

 Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 26. The chapel was vacant ; ibid. 32. 



63 Gastrell, Notitia Cestr. ii, 454-5. 

 The chapel was ' duly served by a curate.' 



64 Manch. Dioc. Dir. 



64a Among the briefs collected in the 

 parish of Ryton, co. Durham, is one for 

 'Woodplumpton Chapel in Com. Lane." 

 received 12 June 1748. The charge was 

 ,1,246 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. of Newcastle, x, 



34- 



65 A local tradition that the early 

 window and door in the north aisle were 

 brought to Woodplumpton from a place 

 not named and inserted during the igth 

 century would, if true, destroy the argu- 

 ment for the supposed early 14th-century 

 date of part of the north walL 



37 



