LEYLAND HUNDRED 



BRINDLE 



BRINDLE 



Brumhuil, 1202; Bunihull, 1205, and commonly; 

 Burnul, 1212; Brunhill, 1227; Brunchill, 1247; 

 Bryndill, 1 5 1 1 . 



The parish is rem-arkable as being one of the few 

 ancient parishes in the county having but a single 

 township. The area is 3,104 acres.^ The surface is 

 elevated, as will be inferred from the name, and 

 rises at two points,^ north and south, to 525 ft. ; 

 it slopes to the north-west somewhat rapidly. In 

 the slight hollow between the highest points lie the 

 village and church of Brindle, near the centre of the 

 township. There are several hamlets ; to the west 



Pippin Street, to the north Jack Green and Brindle 

 Lodge, to the south-west Thorpe Green, Radburn 

 and Rip Row. A brook, the Lostock, rising near the 

 church runs east to the boundary, and then turning 

 south-west itself forms the boundary for some distance. 



The population in 1901 was 1,026. 



The principal roads meet at the village ; they come 

 from Hoghton, Walton-le-Dale, Clayton-le-Woods 

 and Whittle-le- Woods. The nearest raihvay stations 



are Bamber Bridge and Hoghton, nearly 2 miles 

 from the church. The Wigau and Lancaster Canal 

 goes along near the western border. 



St. Helen's wells are near the border of Whittle-le- 

 Woods.' There are remains of several ancient crosses.^ 



The wake was held on the Friday in Whitsun 

 week.' 



The government is in the hands of a parish council. 



To the ancient fifteenth Brindle paid I is. ?id. 

 when the hundred paid ^^30 izs. id. ; and to the 

 county l.iy of 1624 it paid £e, i is. \^d. out of ^100." 

 From its secluded situation in a hilly district the parish 

 has had an uneventful history' ; yet it saw a little of 

 the Civil War.' In more recent times some scandal 

 was caused by its workhouse and lunatic asylum.' 



A muslin manufactory is mentioned in the Directory 

 of 1824. There are now a cotton factory and 

 chemical works, and the valuable stone quarries are 

 worked. Grass and potatoes are the chief crops. 

 There are 444 acres of arable land, 2,362 acres of 

 permanent grass and 70 of woods and plantations."^ 

 The soil is mainly clay and sand. 



One of Wesley's most prominent fellow-labourers, 

 the Rev. William Grimshaw, was born at Brindle in 

 1708. Ordained for the Anglican ministry and 

 curate of Howarth he worked energetically with the 

 Methodists, and had great in- 

 fluence in the border district of 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire. 

 He died in 1763.'! 



The manor of 

 MJNOR BRINDLE was a 

 member of the fee 

 of Penwortham, and was in 

 1 2 1 2 held, together with 

 Anderton, by Robert Grelley, 

 lord of Manchester, but no 

 service was rendered.^^ It 

 continued to be reckoned '"^' 

 among the possessions of the 



Grelleys and their successors down to the 17th cen- 

 tury.*' In 1320 the lord of Brindle owed suit of court 



E L L E Y . Gules 



bendlets enhanced 



^ 3,106, including n of inland water ; 

 Census Rep. 1 90 1. 



- The southern one is called Haugh 

 Hill and the northern Duxon Hill. 



^ * Over against Swansey house, a little 

 towards the hill, standcth an ancient 

 fabric once the manor-house of Brindle, 

 where hath been a chapel belonging to 

 the same, and a little above it a spring of 

 very clear water, rushing straight up- 

 ward into the midst of a fair fountain, 

 walled square about in stone and flagged 

 in the bottom, very transparent to be 

 Been, and a strong stream issuing out of 

 the same. This fountain is called St. 

 Helen's well, to which the vulgar neigh- 

 bouring people of the Red Letter [Roman 

 Catholics] do much resort with pre- 

 tended devotion in each year upon St. 

 Helen's day, where and when out of a 

 foolish ceremony they offer or throw into 

 the well pins which there being left may 

 be seen a long time after by any visitor 

 of that fountain ' ; Kuerden in Baines' 

 Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 497. See also 

 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Sec, xvii, 28, 

 where there are drawings. 



* Ibid. 27, &c. 



^ Baines, op. cit. ill, 500. 



^ Grcgson, FragmE>:ts (ed. Harland), 

 19, 22. 



'' Sir Thomas Gerard is stated to have 

 led many of his tenants and archers from 

 Brindle to the battle of Flodden in 15 13 ; 

 H. Weber, Flodden Field, 183. 



* In 1651, the Earl of Derby having 

 left the Isle of Man and arrived at Preston 

 to raise a force for Charles II, Colonel 

 Lilburne advanced north from Chester to 

 meet him, and with his horsemen came 

 to Brindle on 23 August, where 'they 

 put their horses to grass in those low 

 meadows between the church and Pres- 

 ton,' and took their ease. Som»Royalist3, 

 'they being all enemies thereabouts,' sent 

 word to Preston, and a bold attempt was 

 made to capture the horses. Though 

 surprised Lilburne's men drove off the 

 attack, 'the young men' being 'soundly 

 paid home for their forwardness. None 

 escaped but either slain or taken, save 

 one called Newsham, who forsaking his 

 horse fled into a thick oiler tree and 

 there hid himself in the leaves thereof 



75 



and at night went away.' Some com- 

 panies of foot had been quartered within 

 Brindle and kept guard in the church. 

 The fight at Wigan Lane followed. See 

 J^Far in Lanes. (Chet. Soc), 73-5. 



^ * The workhouse, about a mile from 

 the village, is for the support of the poor 

 of any township that may choose to con- 

 tribute towards the support of the house. 

 There are about eighty townships m 

 England that send hither their poor. For 

 many years this was used as a general 

 receptacle for pauper lunatics and the 

 idle and refractory poor of other town- 

 ships were sent here. A severity of dis- 

 cipline was thus introduced which in 

 consequence of the building of the county 

 asylum at Lancaster [1816], and the sub- 

 sequent interference of several magis- 

 trates, has been done away ' j Baines, 

 Lanes. Dir. 1825, ii, 644. 



^^ Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905). 



^^ Diet. Nat. Biog. 



1- Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Chcs.), i, 34, 



^^ It is not mentioned after 1473 in 

 Manchester documents, but the Pen- 



