LEYLAND HUNDRED 



purchase of annuities, to the cost of outfit on entering a 

 trade or domestic service, or it may be given in 

 money doles or (up to £\o) in clothing, food, or 

 similar relief. The almspeople are still six in number, 

 ' being Protestants and usually frequenting some place 

 of worship of the Church of England in Chorley.' 

 They receive from 6s. to 8/. a week in addition to 

 their rooms in the almshouse. The net income, 

 about ^220, is actually distributed by the trustees in 

 various ways. The school has £S I V- 4'/. and the 

 township of Duxbury /14, about ^^99 goes to the 

 almspeople and £1$ to the clerk of the trustees; 

 the remainder is given to the local dispensary {£c,o) 

 and other medical charities and to clothing clubs in 

 the town. 



HOOLE 



John Withnell in I 864 left /200 for the benefit 

 of poor widows in Chorley ; the interest, ^^8, is dis- 

 tributed accordingly by the rector of Chorley. 



Dame Susanna Hoghton of Astlcy Hall in 

 I 841 gave the Tithebarn Croft in Whittle-le- Woods 

 for the benefit of the poor. There are now on 

 the land six cottages, the rents of which amount to 

 £zj a )'ear. The net amount is distributed by 

 the rector of Chorley in clothing, coal and other 

 articles. A rent-charge of £2 made for the same 

 purpose by Sir Nicholas Shireburne in 1706 has 

 been lost.' 



Colonel Silvester in 1 90 5 gave the sum of £ 1 0,000, 

 the income to be applied for the benefit of the poor 

 of Chorley. 



HOOLE 



MUCH HOOLE 



LITTLE HOOLE 



This parish was separated from Croston in 1641.^ 

 It has an area of 2,999^ acres,^ and the population 

 in 1 90 1 was 1,125. The agricultural land is at 

 present occupied as follows : arable, 692 acres ; per- 

 manent pasture, 2,117 ; woods and plantations, 6.* 



The story of the place has been quite uneventful, 

 except for the observation of the transit of Venus made 

 in 1639 by the youthful curate or reader, Jeremiah 

 Horrocks, which may be regarded as the starting- 

 point of English astronomy. Horrocks was born at 

 Toxteth, near Liverpool, in 161 9, and of Puritan 

 training. He was sent to Emmanuel College, Cam- 

 bridge, at an early age, and strongly attracted to the 

 study of the mechanism of the heavenly bodies. He 

 had to struggle on unaided, but found a fellow-worker 

 in William Crabtree of Manchester. In June 1639 

 he was assisting at Hoole, and by calculations made 

 by himself he found that Venus would cross the sun's 

 disc on the following 24 November, and advised his 

 friend to observe it. He- himself observed it by the 

 aid of the telescope he had made, and though he 

 duly fulfilled his Sunday duties he was rewarded for 

 his care and study by a view of the transit between 

 the close of his afternoon service and the sunset at 

 3.50 p.m. He wrote an account of his observations 

 in fetius in sole visa. He did not long survive, dying 

 3 January 1640—1.^ 



The hearth tax return of 1666 shows a total of 

 fifty-seven hearths chargeable in Much Hoole and 

 twenty-six in Little Hoole. In the former township 

 the largest house was that of Henry Walton, having 

 five hearths ; there were two other houses having 

 three. In Little Hoole two dwellings had four 

 hearths each.' 



MUCH HOOLE 



Hole, 1212 and usually; Holes, 1223 ; Hoole, 

 1320; Grett Wholle, 1551. 



The township of Much Hoole has an area of 

 1,776 acres,'' and the population numbered 624 in 

 1 90 1. The Douglas or Asland River forms the 

 boundary on the west, and the surface rises slightly 

 from west to east, about 70 ft. above the ordnance 

 datum being reached on the boundary of Leyland. 

 In the south the township is bounded mainly by 

 Carr Brook. 



The principal road is that from Ormskirk to Pres- 

 ton, which goes north-east through the township, 

 passing Mill Hill on the left or west, the church on 

 the right and the village ; Goose Green and Moss- 

 houses are hamlets to the east. The West Lancashire 

 portion of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway from 

 Preston to Southport crosses the north-west corner, 

 and passes into Hesketh by a bridge over the Douglas. 



The township is governed by a parish council. 

 The district is supplied with water by the Preston 

 Corporation. 



The soil is marl, with subsoil various. The chief 

 crops are wheat, oats and potatoes. There are some 

 market gardens. 



The ' land of HOOLE ' was a member 

 MANOR of the barony of Warrington ; by Pain 

 de Vilers it was given to Thomas de 

 Vilers, and in 1212 seems to have been held by 

 Robert and William de Vilers.^ As in the case of 

 Halsall and Windle, the descent is in one part un- 

 certain. In 1242 the Earl of Ferrers was holding 

 Hoole, or a portion of it, of the heir of Amery le 



his daughter Anne, who had married John 

 Warren, and his grandson Hugh Warren, 

 his kinsmen Robert Cooper of Charnock 

 Richard, Hugh Cooper of Chorley and 

 Thomas Cooper of Wigan, three brothers, 

 and other relatives. 



The will of Hugh Cooper of Chorley, 

 dated and proved in 1690, made bequests 

 to Hugh son of William Cooper of.Cop- 

 puU and others. 



' It is not mentioned by Gastrell, 

 and nothing seems to be known of it. 



' By the Act 16 Chas. I, cap. 6 

 (Private), to which the royal assent was 

 given in July 1641. 



^ Including 52 acres of tidal water, 

 according to the ordnance map of 

 1848. 



■> Statistics from Bd. of Agric. 

 (1905). 



' From an essay by G. Napier Clark 

 in Brit. Assoc. Handhk. Southport (1903), 

 237-48. See also Pal. Note-book, ii, 253. 

 A translation of Horrocks' work is 



149 



appended to Whatton's Memoir (ed. 

 1859). 



^ Sabs. R. Lanes. 250, no. 9. 



^ The Census Report of 1901 gives 

 1,757 3cres. There are besides 10 acres 

 of tidal water and 7 of foreshore. 



^ Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 7. It is stated that 

 Robert de Vilers held Hoole and the 

 Warrington moiety of Cropwell, but that 

 William de Vilers held one plough-land of 

 the same. 



