WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WIGAN 



The church of St. John was erected in 1 8 3 8 for the 

 accommodation ofmembersof the Established Church." 

 The rector of Wigan is patron of this, but trustees 

 present to the new church of St. James and St. Eliza- 

 beth, Bickershaw. 



A Congregational chapel was built in 1 897. 



A school was founded at Lowe in 1632 by Mrs. 

 Mary Abram." 



HAIGH 



Hage, 1 193 ; Hagh, 1298, and common, with 

 Haghe ; Ha, Haw, xvi cent. ; also Haigh. 



This township forms the north-eastern corner of 

 the parish. On the west it is bounded by the Doug- 

 las, and on the north a small brook running into the 

 Douglas divides it from Blackrod. The ground rises 

 towards the east and north, and the village of Haigh, 

 near the middle of the AspuU boundary and 2 J miles 

 north-east of Wigan, is one of its highest points, 

 about 520 ft. above sea level. The Hall is on the 

 slope of the hill to the west of the village. The 

 area is 2,1 35J acres.' The population in 1901 was 

 1,164.' 



Roads lead from the village, north to Blackrod, west to 

 Standish, and south to Wigan and AspuU. The London 

 and North Western and Lancashire and Yorkshire Com- 

 panies' joint railway passes through the township on the 

 western side, where it is joined by a short connecting 

 line from the Wigan and Preston Railway ; there is 

 a station called Red Rock. The Lancaster Canal 

 also winds through the western part of the township, 

 near the Douglas. 



The woods and grounds of Haigh Hall, occupying 

 500 acres, clothe the south-western slopes with 

 pleasant scenery in contrast with the surrounding 

 collieries of a black country. It is a common sight 

 to see the gaunt and black coal-shafts rising from 



the midst of corn fields and plantations. For Haigh 

 has its agriculture, as well as mining and manufacturing 

 industries, wheat, oats, and potatoes being grown in 

 spite of an exposed situation and smoke from 

 neighbouring factories &c., the soil being clay upon 

 a shaley rock. The Hall itself commands a fine 

 panorama of the district around Wigan. Haigh has 

 long been celebrated for its cannel coal ; ' this is 

 almost exhausted, but coal-mining is the great indus- 

 try of the place. There are also a brewery, and 

 dyeing and bleaching works. 



The township is governed by a parish council. 



William Roby, 1766 to 1830, a Congregational 

 divine of note, was a native of Haigh.* 



The early history of the manor of 

 MANOR HJIGH cannot be traced. About 

 122 0-1230 it belonged to the Marsey 

 fee, sold to Ranulf, Earl of Chester.' A Hugh de 

 Haigh, most probably Hugh le Norreys, to whom the 

 adjacent Blackrod was granted, paid 3 marks in 

 1 193-4 for having the king's good will.' Richard 

 de Orrell granted to Cockersand Abbey land in 

 Haigh, adjacent to Hugh's ridding, about 1220 ;' 

 and as a century later Sir Robert de Holland held 

 it of the Earl of Lancaster,* together with other 

 manors which had belonged to Richard de Orrell, 

 it might be supposed that Haigh was part of the 

 Orrell family's holding.^ In 1282, however, Hugh 

 son of Alan le Norreys was lord of Haigh.'" 



In 1298 William son of Richard de Bradshagh 

 and Mabel his wife were in possession of the manors 

 of Haigh and Blackrod," which were Mabel's right 

 as heir of the last-named Hugh le Norreys. Her 

 husband from his name is supposed to have been a 

 descendant of the Bradshaghs of Bradshaw, near 

 Turton. 



In 1302 William de Bradshagh held the twelfth 

 part of a knight's fee in Haigh of the Earl of 

 Lancaster ; '* ten years later the title of William and 



51 Leyland, y^iraw, 29-35. The tenures 

 of the second and third of the incumbents 

 appear to have been shortened by their 

 parishioners* objection to what was called 

 ' ritualism.' The district chapelry was 

 formed in 1843 ; Lond, Gaz, i Aug. and 

 3 Oct. 1843. 



*2 Gastrell, Notitia, ii, 256. 



^ 2,130 acres, including 68 acres of 

 inland water ; Census Rep. of 1901. 



2 Including Willoughby's. 



' See the account by Roger North in 

 1676, quoted in Baines, Lancs^ (ed. 1836), 

 from the Life of Lord Guildford, iii, 554 ; 

 see also Baines, Lanes. Dir. 1825, ii, 613. 

 There is a notice of a cannel mine being 

 on fire in 1737 in Lanes, and Ches. Hist, 

 and Gin, Notes, iii, 106. 



* Diet, Nat. Biog. 



* Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 37, 

 from the Duchy Coucher. The Marsey 

 fee is only imperfectly described in the 

 survey of I2I2. 



<> Farrer, Lanes, Fife 5. 78 ; after the 

 rebellion of John, Count of Mortain, 

 afterwards king. If Hugh le Norreys be 

 rightly identified with Hugh de Haigh it 

 may indicate that he had been settled in 

 Haigh before Blackrod was granted to him; 

 Lanes. Jnq. and Extents (Rec Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), i, 68, where he is called Hugh 

 de Blackrod. 



7 Cockersand Chart. (Chet. Soc), ii, 

 612. The boundaries began at 'the road 

 to the church,' and went up to the head 



of Green syke, and so to Hugh's ridding, 

 and by the dyke to the starting point. 



^ Inq. 1 1 Edw. II, no. 4, quoted 

 below. Haigh and Blackrod were both 

 held of Sir Robert. 



After Robert de Holland's forfeiture it 

 was found that he had held the manor by 

 a rent of lod. ; Roil of Foreign Rent 

 of Derbyshire in Duchy of Lane. Ren- 

 tals, 379. In an account of his lands 

 made about 1326 it is stated that his 

 manor of Haigh had been leased to Henry 

 de Atherton and Adam de Bradshaw for 

 ,^20 a year ; Duchy of Lane. Misc. 



lo/'5- 



In the Feodary compiled in 1324 it is 

 stated that Robert de Holland held the 

 manor of Haigh by the service of \od. 

 as the fourth part of a knight's fee ; Dods. 

 MSS. cxxxi, fol. 36*. In all other 

 inquisitions the twelfth, not the fourth, 

 part of a fee is recorded. The \od, rent 

 continued down to the 17th century. 



5 See the account of Orrell. 



It is more likely that Robert de Hol- 

 land had had the grant of a mesne manor 

 from Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, and that 

 it was not restored to him by Edward III. 



^^ So described he attested a Haydock 

 charter of Robert de Holland's in that 

 year ; Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxxviii, 

 231. From the account of Blackrod it 

 will be found that the descent was as 

 follows ! — Hugh le Norreys (1191-1221) 

 — s. Hugh (1233) — bro. Alan — s. 



Hugh — dau. Mabel. Hugh soa of Alan 

 had a brother Henry, &c. 



Emma la Norreys held messuages and 

 lands in Haigh in 1290; De Banco R. 

 86, m. 95. 



^^ Final Cone, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 185 ; a surrender to William 

 de Atherton. It is recorded that Thomas 

 de Osbaldeston put in his claim. Kuerden 

 (MSS, Ii, fol. 213, no. 5) has preserved a 

 grant of tlie manor by William de Ather- 

 ton to William de Bradshagh, about that 

 time or earlier. 



In 1295 William and Mabel de Brad- 

 shagh had a contest with Adam de Walton, 

 rector of Wigan, the latter charging them 

 with having diverted the water-course 

 between Haigh and Standish to the injury 

 of his mills. They replied that they had 

 only erected a mill by the Douglas, two 

 leagues from Adam's mill. The jury 

 found that the new mill had been made 

 by William's father, Richard de Bradshagh, 

 while he was guardian of William and 

 Mabel, and that it had been to the loss 

 of the rector's mill; Assize R. 1306, m. 

 19 ; 1321, m. 7 d. 



Brief and unsatisfactory abstracts of 

 some Bradshaw deeds are printed in 

 Croston's edition of Baines, Lanes, iv, 

 291, 292. There are others in Kuerdea 

 MSS. loc. cit. 



12 Lanes. Inq. and Extents, 1, 313 ; Feud. 

 Aids^m^Zi. The mesne lordship of Robert 

 de Holland is not recognized here or later. 



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