LEYLAND HUNDRED 



CROSTON 



Of the pre-Reformation clergy little is i<no\vn. 

 Some of them occur as trustees or witnesses to 

 charters. There was no endowed chantry, but in 

 1 54 1 there were two priests living in Brindle, paid 

 by Thomas Gerard ; the rector at that time may 

 have been non-resident.' The visitation list of 1548 

 shows the rector and three others, one perhaps absent, 

 that of 1554 gives three names ; those of 1562 to 

 1565 give the rector's name alone.' Many of the 

 subsequent rectors were pluralists, and a curate was 

 placed in charge of this out-of-the-way parish. Samuel 

 Pegge is the most noteworthy of the later rectors. 



A school was founded about 1623, the master being 

 appointed by the rector.^ 



There is a Methodist chapel near the northern 

 boundary, opened in 1828.' 



A large proportion of the inhabitants have from 

 the Reformation onwards remained faithful to Roman 



Catholicism.' Very little is known of the priests 

 who ministered to them in the first part of the penal 

 times," but from 1704 the Benedictines have been in 

 charge, and a chapel and residence were built.' 

 The present church of St. Joseph dates from 

 1786; the district attached to it is peculiar, inas- 

 much as it lies in two dioceses — Liverpool and 

 Salford. There is an ancient cross in the church- 

 yard.' 



Apart from the school there are 

 CHJRITIES only two endowed charities.' The 

 poor's stocic and the gift of Edward 

 Blacklidge'" produce j£ 5 6s., and from the Shuttling- 

 fields estate" £38 iSs. \d. is received, of which j^zo 

 is given to the school. The remainder, about £zo 

 after charges have been paid, is given in sums of 

 money to the poor, preference being given to widows 

 and aged persons. 



CROSTON 



CROSTON 



MAWDESLEY 



BISPHAM 

 BRETHERTON 



ULNES WALTON 



The parish of Croston, now containing five town- 

 ships and an area of 10,740 acres,'' was formerly much 

 more extensive. Much Hoole, with two townships, 

 was separated in 1642, the detached township of 

 Chorley, 4 or 5 miles to the east, became an inde- 

 pendent parish in 1793, while the townships to the 

 west of the Douglas or Asland River — Ruflbrd, Tar- 

 leton, and Hesketh-with-Becconsall — were separated 

 in 1793 and 1 82 1. The existing parish lies on the 

 east bank of the Douglas, which forms the boundary 

 for nearly 6 miles as it flows north to the Ribble 

 estuary, and receives the Yarrow from the east. On 

 the north bank of the latter stream, almost in the 

 centre of the parish, stands the ancient church of 



Croston. Generally speaking, the surface is level, 

 about a third being below the 25-ft. level, but in the 

 south-east and south there are hills. The population 

 in 1901 was 4,752." 



There are now in the parish 3,855 acres occupied 

 as arable land, 5,579 as permanent grass and 203 

 as woods and plantations." 



To the ancient fifteenth the various townships of 

 the complete parish paid thus : Croston and Mawdes- 

 ley, each 17/. \d. ; Ulnes Walton, [^\ 2s. ; Brether- 

 ton, £1 3/. 412'.; Much Hoole, 15/. ^d. ; Little 

 Hoole, 10/. ; Chorley with Bijpham, £1 4/. yd. ; 

 Ruiford, £1 IS. id. ; Tarleton, £1 zs. z\d. ; 

 Hesketh-with-Becconsall, 11/., giving a total of 



1 Clergy List (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), 17. 



Sir Thomas Gerard, who died in 1523, 

 charged his estates at Brindle with £<^. a 

 year for ever, * to find an honest priest 

 to say divine service * in the church, 

 where also he desired to be buried ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. v, no. 52. 



^ Visitation Lists at Chester Dioc. 

 Reg. The ornaments of the church re- 

 maining in 1552 are given in Church 

 Goods {Chtt. Soc), 131. They included 

 a Bible. 



^ Notitia Cestr, ii, 349 ; Endowed Char. 

 Rep. 1899, It is now a public elementary 

 school. 



* Baines, Lanes. (ed. 1836), iii, 

 500. 



' A list of recusants in 1628 is printed 

 in Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 

 183-4. A list of all the families in the 

 parish, compiled in 1754 by Mr. Pegge, 

 the rector, is in the possession of W. 

 Farrer ; it shows 'Protestants' (headed 

 by the Rev. Richard Dewhurst, the 

 curate), 91; ' Papists,' 69 ; and 'Non- 

 conformists,* 4. See also Trans. Hist. Soc. 

 (new ser.), xviii, 217. 



® A presentment from Brindle to the 

 Bishop of Chester in 1669 states : 'No 

 unlawful meetings except of papists, who 

 generally meet on Sabbath days and other 



holy days at the house of Ellen Shay 

 spinster and Richard Ridley cowper. 

 The gentleman who reads mass and 

 inhabits in the town goes under the name 

 of John Birkett ' ; Chester Dioc. Reg. 

 For the priest named, who died a prisoner 

 in Lancaster Castle in 1680, see Misc. 

 (Cath. Rec. Soc), iv, 43 1-40. 



John (Anselm) Bolton of Brindle, who 

 became a monk of Dieulouard in 1751, 

 and afterwards served in England, ' is 

 connected with one of the very latest, if 

 not the last, of the trials for high treason 

 to which Catholic priests were liable till 

 the end of the l8th century. During 

 the time he was chaplain and incumbent 

 at Gilling Castle, Yorkshire (1764-93), 

 he was, through the ill-will of a dis- 

 charged bailiff, accused and tried for his 

 priesthood ; but to the credit of the court 

 was acquitted ' ; Trans. Hist. Soc. (new 

 ser.), xiii, 134. He died in 180;. 



' Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xiii, 159- 

 60. It is stated that in 1783 the com- 

 municants numbered 600 ; in 1784 

 Bishop M. Gibson confirmed 168 per- 

 sons. Extracts from the registers, going 

 back to 1721, are given in Lanes, and 

 Ches. Antij. Notes, i, 220. Dom William 

 Huddleston, in charge from 1717 to 1722, 

 became a Protestant in 1729 ; Local 

 Gleanings Lanes, and Ches. ii, 128. 



81 



^ Removed from eome place in the 

 neighbourhood ; Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. 

 Soc. xvii, 30. 



^ A report on the charities was made 

 in 1826; another official inquiry was 

 held in 1898, and the report, published 

 the following year, includes a reprint of 

 that of 1826. 



^^ The capital stock of ;^200 was in 

 1826 invested in a mortgage, and pro- 

 duced X^o ^ year. It had been given by 

 several benefactors from 1684 onwards, 

 and included ;^20 for books for poor 

 children left by Edward Blacklidge, a 

 benefactor of the school, in 1722. The 

 capital is still intact, but produces only 

 ;^6 a year ; of this 14^., representing the 

 Blacklidge gift, is paid for books for the 

 school, 



^^ This estate was originally given by 

 William Gradell in 1735. The farm and 

 other lands were sold in 1868 and 1879 

 by order of the Charity Commissioners, 

 and the proceeds invested in consols in 

 the name of the official trustees. Half 

 belongs to Brindle and the other half to 

 Walton-le-Dale. 



^^ In addition are 235^ acres of tidal 

 water. 



^2 Census Rep. 1901. 



1* Statistics from Bd. of Agric. 

 (1905). 



II 



