LEYLAND HUNDRED 



ECCLESTON 



ECCLESTON 



ECCLESTON 



HESKIN 



WRIGHTINGTON 

 PARBOLD 



the 

 the 

 the 



The ancient parish of Eccleston is noteworthy as 

 the only one in the hundred which had no depen- 

 dence on the barony of Penwortham, for its northern 

 half was part of the forest fee, while the southern 

 half belonged to the barony of Manchester. This 

 detachment may have had an influence in deter- 

 mining or preserving its parochial unity. 



The area of the parish is 8,406-^ acres, and 

 population in 1901 numbered 4,234- To 

 ancient fifteenth it paid £7, ly. %rl. when 

 hundred paid ^^30 izs. 8a'.' and to the county lay 

 of 1624 it paid j^li 21. 2\d. when the hundred 

 gave X'°°-' 



Though at one time the courts for the wapentalce 

 appear to have been kept at Eccleston,' the 

 history of the place has been quite uneventful, 

 nor have any families of eminence been seated 

 there. The manors were much divided among 

 non-resident lords, and the Lathoms of Parbold 

 seem to have been the principal residents until 

 the 1 7th century. Thus William Lathom was 

 the chief landowner contributing to the subsidy 

 of 1525, the others being Gilbert Banastre, 

 Thomas Wrightington, John Dicconson, Richard 

 Edmundson, Henry Rawe, William Alanson and 

 Nicholas Rigby. William Fleetwood also paid, 

 bat not for lands.' 



The wake was held on the Sunday next after 

 8 September.* 



In 1836 there were no manufactures in the 

 parish, except ' hand weaving for the cotton 

 manufacturers in Preston and Chorley, and a 

 furniture calico printing work recently estab- 

 lished.' The coal-mines and quarries were 

 worked.' The agricultural land in the parish is 

 now occupied thus : arable, 2,577 acres ; per- 

 manent grass, 4,832 ; woods and plantations, 

 259.' 



Each of the four townships has a parish 

 council. 



The Ven. John Finch was one of the victims of 

 the Elizabethan persecution, being executed at Lan- 

 caster 20 April I 5 84 for rejecting the queen's religious 

 supremacy.* Sir William Fleetwood of Heskin, 

 recorder of London 1569-94, and Edward Diccon- 

 lon of Wrightington, vicar apostolic of the Northern 

 district 1740-52, are noticed in the Dictionary of 

 National Biography. 



The church of THE BLESSED 

 CHURCH VIRGIN MART' stands at some 

 little distance from the village on the 

 north side in a pleasant situation among flat meadows 

 on the left or south bank of the Yarrow about 20 yds. 

 from the stream. The building consists of chancel 

 30 ft. by 17 ft., with south aisle its full length, and 

 14 ft. 6 in. wide, nave 51 ft. by 24 ft. 9 in., with 

 south aisle 10 ft. 6 in. wide, west tower 1 1 ft. 6 in. 

 square, and south porch 10 ft. 6 in. square, all these 

 measurements being internal. There is also a 

 small modern vestry and hearse-house north of the 

 chancel. 



The building seems to have been erected at two 



periods, the south aisles being an addition to an aisle- 

 less church consisting of chancel, nave, and west 

 tower apparently of 14th-century date. Nearly all 

 the original detail of this period has, however, dis- 

 appeared in the reconstruction and alterations of the 

 1 8th century and the later restoration, but the 

 chancel and tower arches and the belfry windows are 

 of 14th-century type, and the two windows on the 

 north side of the chancel, one of which has been 



' Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 

 19. Eccleston with Heskin paid £1 8j., 

 Wrightington ^^i I2j. id. and Parbold 

 1 3 J. 



' Ibid. 22. The parish was divided 

 into two ' quarters,' each paying equally, 

 viz. ! (i) Eccleston and Heskin ; (2) 

 Wrightington and Parbold. 



' In 1 324 the three weeks court of the 

 wapentake was held at the Cross Green 

 in Eccleston ; Dods. MSS. cxxxi, fol. 44. 

 The 'wapentake court of Eccleston' is 

 mentioned in 1288 ; Lanes. Inq. and 

 Extents (Rec. See. Lanes, and Ches,), i, 270. 



* Subs. R. Lanes, bdle. 130, no. 86. 



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



477- 



6 Ibid. 482. 



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



^ John Finch was a yeoman of Eccles- 

 ton, perhaps of the Wrightington family. 

 Renouncing the established religion and 

 becoming a fervent Roman Catholic, he 

 assisted the missionary priests in Lanca- 

 shire. He was betrayed in 1581 and 

 imprisoned at Salford. After three years 

 he was brought to trial and executed as a 

 traitor in 1584,^3 crime being that he 



affirmed that ' the Pope hath power or 

 jurisdiction in the kingdom of England, 

 and that he is the head of the Catholic 

 Church, of which church some part is in 

 this kingdom.' The first step in the 

 cause of his beatification was allowed at 

 Rome in 1886. See Challoner, Mission- 

 ary Priests, no. 27 ; Gillow, Bihl. Diet, of 

 Engl. Catholics, ii, 257 ; Engl. Martyrs 

 (Cath. Rec. Soc), i, 44-6, 78-88. 



' Land in Deepclough in Wrightington 

 was in 1344 given to God and B. Mary 

 and the rector of Eccleston j Kuerdcn 

 MSS. iii, E 4, no. 17. 



