30 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF BLACKPOOL AND DISTRICT 



Harrison (1789). In the map of Yates and Billinge, however, along the line 

 of the stream from Nateby to Pilling, the main area of Pilling moss was separated 

 from the section lying in Cockerham except at a point south of Bonehill. 

 Moreover, in the south a road marked in dots across the moss from Rawchffe 

 to Stalmine, and the presence of Skitham and Heskham Houses on it, indicated 

 the coming separation of the moss of Upper Rawchffe. Finally, an enclosure 

 of solid land appears to the south of the town of Pilling. On maps of 

 Greenwood (1818) and Hennet (1828) the marsh of Cockerham is separated 

 from the Pilling area along the line of the stream from Nateby to Pilling, while 

 roads divide the Pilling moss west of the stream into two almost equal areas 

 and a smaller patch called Out Rawchffe moss. South of the road from 

 Rawchffe to Garstang there is the moss of Rawchffe with Tarnicar. However, 

 a petition for a private enclosure bill (February 16th, 1825) said that these 

 mosses were still liable to flood and overflow, 7 and in 1833 a private bill 

 legalised reclamation and enclosure, though in Pilling itself the work was done 

 under the General Enclosure Act. 



Little change had occurred by the time of the survey for the 1842-9 1 inch 

 O.S. map. The eastern half of Pilling moss is divided into two halves, while 

 Out Rawcliffe moss now occupied an extremely small area. Similar reductions 

 had occurred in the size of the moss of Rawcliffe with Tarnicar, but Cockerham 

 moss still remained largely unchanged. On the 6 inch map of 1 891 reclamation 

 is virtually complete in the area west of the stream from Nateby to Pilling, 

 that is, in the moss of Pilling, Rawcliffe, Stalmine and Tarnicar, much less 

 than five per cent, remaining as moss. 



In Cockerham, though considerable progress was made in this period, a 

 comparatively large area of moss about one mile long from north-east to 

 south-west and half-a-mile from north-west to south-east still existed, but 

 round it considerable progress had been made. Several isolated marsh fields 

 within the circle of the road to the west through Moss House, Moss Edge and 

 Moss Farm, and similar patches south of Winmarley indicated the former 

 extent of the moss. In the 1911 survey all the isolated marshy fields had 

 disappeared, and only the names on the map indicate their former existence, 

 while the sole remaining moss of Cockerham had greatly shrunk, and Crowley's 

 Dyke dividing it showed reclamation in progress. 



Thus, in the later eighteenth century, the moss round Marton, and, in the 

 second half of the last century, the mosses to the north of Wyre yielded to 

 organised reclamation. 



Marton Mere was formerly a very large expanse of water some six miles 

 by one-and-a-half miles lying north of the moss already described, and as 

 such it was marked on all the maps of this area until the late eighteenth century. 

 During the mediaeval period it was important for both fishing and water 

 supply ; a thirteenth century grant from Theebald Walter le Botiller gave the 

 abbots of Stanlawe the right to make a pool and use the water for their mill 

 at Staining," while the fishing rights were let out separately. 9 However, with 

 the process of silting the mere became more and more like the surrounding 



7 Commons Journals, 16th February, 1825. 



8 Coucher Book of Walley Abbey, p. 424. 



9 Lancashire Survey. Chetham Society, LXXIV., p. 55. 



