A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



adverse to Protestantism, declined in fortune in the 

 time of Elizabeth, and their estates were early in the 

 I yth century dispersed among the smaller gentry and 

 prosperous traders ; the great manor of Manchester 

 itself was about the same time purchased by a wealthy 

 merchant. The smaller gentry, excepting the Barlows, 

 appear as a rule to have gone with the times, often 

 becoming zealous Puritans, while the trading and 

 artisan classes, iri Manchester as elsewhere, soon em- 

 braced the new doctrines.^' Thus by the end of 

 Elizabeth's reign the population was almost wholly 

 Protestant, and of the more extreme type. The 

 change was, of course, chiefly due to the clergy of the 

 parish church, the more respected and influential of 

 the ministers serving there and in the dependent 

 chapelries being of the Puritan school. 



William Camden visited the place in 1586, and ap- 

 pears to have been pleased with it ; he found the notable 

 things to be the woollen manufacture, the market, 

 church, and college.'* John Taylor, the 'Water 

 Poet,' passed through it about thirty years later." 



The Marprelate press was set up in 1 5 88 at Newton 

 Lane near Manchester, but discovered and suppressed 

 soon after starting work.'' 



The number of recognized townships was formerly 

 but small. In the Subsidy Roll of l 541 only seven are 

 named — Salford, Manchester, Cheetham, Reddish, 

 Withington, Heaton Norris, and Stretford — but 

 Moston was taxed with Ashton." The contributions 

 to the ancient tax called the Fifteenth were arranged 

 on the following basis : — When the hundred paid 

 ^41 14/. 41/., Salford paid £1 a., Manchester with 

 its members ^t,, Cheetham 4?. lod., Reddish £1 zs., 

 Withington ^^3 15/., Heaton Norris 13/. Gd., Chorl- 

 ton 3 J. \d., and Stretford £\ \s. %d^ The county 

 lay, established in 1624, also recognized eight town- 

 ships : — Manchester paying £() 3/. \\\d., Salford 

 £■>, \s. l\d., Stretford ^^l 4/. 6\d., Withington 

 £1 4/. zf^., Heaton Norris £\ \6s. ()\d., Chorlton 

 Row 12/. 3f<2'., Reddish £\ \os. 7f<^., and Cheetham 



11/. z\d., or j^23 5/. in all, when the hundred con- 

 tributed ^^loo.*" At this time, however, the 'mem- 

 bers ' or ' hamlets ' of Manchester had separate con- 

 stables, and were therefore townships."* 



The geology of the parish of Manchester is re- 

 presented by the New Red Sandstone, the Permian 

 Beds, and the Carboniferous Rocks. The formation 

 lying on the west side of a line drawn from Reddish 

 through the Manchester Waterworks, Fairfield, New- 

 ton Heath, and Blackley, consists almost entirely of the 

 New Red Sandstone, the exception being a long and 

 irregular-shaped patch of the Permian Rocks and, at 

 the widest part to the north-east of Manchester, of 

 the Coal Measures, and lying on the west side of, and 

 brought up by, a fault which extends northward from 

 Heaton Norris, through Kirkmanshulme and Open- 

 shaw, trending north-west around Cheetham to Crump- 

 sail. At the widest part this patch of the Coal 

 Measures is \\ mile in width, tapering out at Crump- 

 sail Hall on the north and at Kirkmanshulme on the 

 south. Further to the east a broad belt of the Per- 

 mian Rocks, varying in width from f mile to l\ 

 mile, crops out above the Coal Measures. These 

 occur over the remainder of the parish on the east 

 side of a line drawn from Hyde Hall in Denton 

 through Audenshaw to Failsworth, and from Newton 

 Heath between Blackley and the River Irk to the 

 limits of the parish near Heaton Park. 



The principal features of the town of Manchester 

 as it was about 1600 still exist, though changed" — 

 the church with the college '' to the north of it, the 

 bridges over Irk and Irwell adjacent, and the market- 

 place a little distance to the south — originally on the 

 edge of the town. In Salford the small triangle 

 formed by Chapel Street,^' Gravel Lane,'* and Green- 

 gate '' was the village or inhabited portion, the dwell- 

 ings naturally clustering round the bridge over the 

 Irwell.'^ Then, as now, the road through Manches- 

 ter from this bridge '' went winding east and north 

 round the church as Cateaton Street,^' Hanging Ditch,'* 



™ Ellis Hall, known as 'Elias, the 

 Manchester prophet,' was born in 1502. 

 Probably acted upon by the religious ex- 

 citement of the period he began to have 

 visions, and In 1562 went to London to 

 see the queen. He was condemned to the 

 pillory and whipped bjr two ministers ; see 

 W. E. A. Axon's Lanes. Glean. 312 ; 

 Local Glean, Lanes, and Ches. i, 72, 84. 

 A monstrous birth in 1579 appealed to 

 the superstitious in another way ; Pa '. 

 Note Bk. iii, 269. 



" Camden, Brit. (1695), 746, 747. 

 He mentions the famous quarries of 

 CoUyhurst. Saxton's map of the county 

 was published in 1577 ; he visited the 

 towQ again in 1596 and made a survey 

 of it, spending several days on the work ; 

 Dr. Dee's Diary (ed. Bailey), 36-8. 



^ Quoted in Procter's Manch, Streets, 

 218. 



'^ Acts of P.C. 1589-90, p. 62; also 

 W. Axon in N. and Q. IV, iii, 97, quoting 

 Strype's^nH<2/j (1824), IH, ii, 602. Coin- 

 ing was suspected in the same district in 

 1577 ; Acts of P.C. 1577-8, p. 63. 



^7 Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 138, &c. 



^ Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 

 18. 



» Ibid. 22. 



^ There were in 1623 constables for 

 Newton, Droylsden, Ardwick, Bradford, 

 Blackley, Crumpsall, Failsworth, Open- 



shaw, Gorton, and Harpurhey ; and in 

 some of these places the appointment of 

 constables can be traced back somewhat 

 earlier ; Manch. Constables^ Accts. i, 92. 



^^ In appearance one of the greatest 

 changes has been the concealment of the 

 steep and rocky banks of the Irwell at 

 Hunt's Bank, There was a rookery on 

 the banks of the Irk, near the site of 

 Ducie Bridge, as late as 1 770 ; Procter, 

 Manch. Streets, 39. 



" In 1600 this belonged to the Earl of 

 Derby, from whom it was rented by the 

 famous warden. Dr. Dee. 



^ This name did not come into use 

 until some time after the chapel was built 

 in 1634. The old name was Lower Gate, 

 Lower Lane, or Lower Street ; see Salford 

 Court Leet (Chet. Soc. new ser.). It was 

 also calkd Serjeant Street, and in the plan 

 of 175 1 is named Salford Street. 



8< As 'the Gravel Hole' it is fre- 

 quently named in the Salford Port mote 

 records. 



'* This name occurs regularly in the 

 Salford Port mote records. The street is 

 called Back Salford in the plan of 1751. 

 The court house and cross stood there, so 

 that it was probably the main thorough- 

 fare. 



8' It was for the three streets named 

 that scavengers were appointed in the i6th 

 and early I yth centuries. 



^^ There were steps down to the river 



176 



near the bridge ; Manch. Court Leet Rec, 

 ii, 50. 



■The fishmarket, which had been in 

 Smithy Door, was in 161 8 removed to the 

 end of Salford Bridge ; ibid, iii, 9. Hunt's 

 Bank, where the House of Correction 

 was, then as now went north to Irk 

 Bridge, but there were probably houses on 

 the Irwell side of it. 



** Cateaton Street occurs by name in 

 the Hearth Tax return of 1666. 



From Cateaton Street Hanging Bridge, 

 now concealed, led to the church. The 

 name points out the course of a brook, 

 which eventually became the ' common 

 shore ' or sewer, descending from Shude 

 Hill to the Irwell ; Court Leet Rec. iii, 50, 

 53 ; Ogdeii,MaBc^.(ed.W.E.A.Axon), 13. 



A description and plans of a bridge built 

 over it about 1420 are given in Lanes, and 

 Ches. Antij. Soc. viii, 97. This bridge 

 still exists, and is occasionally exposed on 

 rebuilding adjacent business houses. There 

 must have been an earlier one, for to 

 Ellen daughter of Geoffrey de Hulme 

 were, in 1343, given a burgage in the 

 market-place, a half burgage adjoining 

 Hanging Bridge (Hangand Brigge), and 

 land north of the Irk called Wrenowe 

 Yard ; Booth's Coll. liber H, p. 47. 



'' A burgage in Hanging Ditch was in 

 1469 granted to William son of Thomas' 

 Pendleton of Salford ; De Trafford D. 

 no. 52. 



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