BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



BLACKBURN 



place for the proscribed worship is known to have 

 existed within it until the end of the 1 8th century." 

 About 1770 mass was said at Wensley Fold, on the 

 western edge of the township, in a house belonging 

 to Mr. Anderton, the builder of the first cotton 

 factory in the town." In 1773 a temporary place 

 of worship was formed in an upper room in Chapel 

 Street," and in 1781 a resident priest" took charge 

 of the chapel opened that year in the space between 

 Chapel Street and King Street." This was deserted 

 in 1826 for St. Alban's, Lark Hill," on the eastern 

 side of the town, and this church, with some enlarge- 

 ment, was used until 1 90 1, when the present church 

 was opened. St. Ann's mission was begun in 1846, 

 the church being opened in 1849 ; St. Mary's, 

 Islington, 1860-4; St. Joseph's, Audley, 1870-7; 

 and the Sacred Heart, formerly a chapel of ease to 

 St. Ann's, 1901—5. There are convents of sisters of 

 Notre Dame and Franciscan sisters ; connected with the 

 former is a large girls' school and pupil-teachers' college. 

 The Jews have had a synagogue for many years. 

 The Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and the Spiritualists 

 have meeting-places. 



LITTLE HARWOOD 



Harewude,xiii cent. ; Parva Harewode, xiv-xvi cent. 



Little Harwood is separated from Great Harwood 

 on the north-east by an irregular boundary which 

 slopes gradually downward from an elevation of over 

 700 ft. near Side Beet in Rishton to the source of 

 Showley Brook on the boundary of Wilpshire on the 

 north-west, the River Blackwater and a tributary 

 stream from the boundary on the south and east and 

 Harwood Brook on the west, until it falls into the 

 same river, near Little Harwood Hall, on the out- 

 skirts of the town of Blackburn, at a point 380 ft. 

 above the ordnance datum. The Millstone Grit 

 underlies the north-western half of the township, the 

 Coal Measures the south-eastern. The soil is clayey 

 and the land under permanent grass, which is benty 

 on the high ground.' The high road from Blackburn 

 to Clitheroe skirts the township on the west, and the 

 Blackburn and Whalley road passes through the centre 

 with a connecting road called Bank Hey Lane. The 

 Liverpool, Blackburn and Accrington line of the Lan- 

 cashire and Yorkshire Railway Company traverses the 



southern part of the township, from which the Great 

 Harwood loop branches off towards the north-east. 

 The same company's Bolton, Blackburn and Helli- 

 field line just touches the western boundary. There 

 is no station within the township, but that at Wilp- 

 shire serves the northern part of the township and 

 Blackburn station the southern. 



Under the provisions of the Blackburn Corpora- 

 tion Act, 1892, this township now forms part of the 

 civil parish of Blackburn and lies wholly within the 

 county and parliamentary borough boundary.' The 

 area of the township is 895 acres. The Blackburn 

 Public Cemetery is within the township. 



The common called Brown Hill, containing about 

 70 acres of the customary measure, was allotted and 

 inclosed under an Inclosure Act, 1776.' 



LITTLE HARWOOD was a member 

 MANOR of the lordship of Walton, forming part of 

 the feoffment of one knight's fee made by 

 Henry de Lacy to Robert Banastre about the year 

 1 1 60. The service rendered for the township to the 

 lords of Walton-le-Dale was 4/. per annum, which 

 represented a portion of the castle-guard rent of 

 Lancaster Castle and sake fee due from the lord 

 of Clitheroe to the chief lord of the honour of 

 Lancaster. The descent of the mesne lordship corre- 

 sponds with that of Walton-le-Dale.* 



The actual tenant of the manor about 1300 was 

 Henry de Clayton, probably of the Clayton-le-Dale 

 family.^ In 13 10 Ralph de Clayton gave to his 

 brother Henry the lands held by John Page and 

 Henry de Bury in exchange for lands held by Richard 

 de Co uf hull, John de Barouweford and Adam de 

 Edyefholes.^ Henry de Clayton, described as of Har- 

 wood in 1326, was party to an exchange of land here 

 with his brother Ralph in 1328 and the chief con- 

 tributor to the subsidy of 1332.' Ralph his son gave 

 half his mill of Hallhead in Little Harwood to Henry 

 de Clayton of Dutton in I 348, and was living in I 374, 

 at which time he was holding his lands here of the said 

 Henry for 1 2ii. per annum. Before that year Henry de 

 Clayton of Dutton had enfeoffed Thomas de Molyneux 

 of Cuerdale of his lands here, probably including 

 the manor.' After the death of Thomas de Moly- 

 neux, his feoffees in 1388, in accordance with the 

 terms of his will, delivered the estate to John son of 

 Geoffrey de Osbaldeston.' 



^2 The nearest missionary stations were 

 at Showley, Dunkenhalgh, Samlesbury 

 and Brindle. There were reported to be 

 239 'Papists' in Blackburn and neigh- 

 bourhood in 1767 i Trans. Hist. Soc. {new 

 ser.), xviii, 216. The Blackburn Catholic 

 Brethren Sick and Burial Club was 

 originally formed in 1772 ; note of Rev. 

 R. Smith. 



" Cath. Conf. Handbook {1905), 95 ; 

 ' There is a tradition to the effect that 

 when these Andertons were engaged in 

 the cotton trade they gave their work- 

 people a holiday on every holy day of 

 obligation and paid them wages as if 

 working.' 



'< Over what is now 16 and 18 Chapel 

 Street. 



" William Dunn, D.D., educated at 

 Douay and Paris. His true name was 

 Earpe ; Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Engl. Cath. 

 ii, 147. He died suddenly in 1805, 

 after which services were discontinued for 

 a year. At that time there were supposed 

 to be 745 Roman Catholics in the town. 



"^^ The building still exists as business 

 premises. Its erection was no doubt due 

 to a legacy of £^00 by IVIary Hodgson, 

 widow, of Little Plumpton, in 1780. 



'7 Its first priest, James Sharpies, 

 remained till 1839. In 1843 he was con- 

 secrated Bishop of Samaria and appointed 

 coadjutor of the Northern District. 



1 The agricultural returns for 1905 

 give I acre of arable land, 616 acres of 

 permanent grass and no woodland. 



^ A small portion of the township was 

 added to the borough of Blackburn in 

 1877 by the Blackburn Borough Exten- 

 sion Act, 1877 5 ^^ remainder was in- 

 cluded in the borough by the Blackburn 

 Improvement Act, 1879. 



^ Inclosure award in the county offices 

 at Preston. 



'' See the account of Walton-Ie-Dale. 



^ The matter is obscure, but see the 

 account of Dutton in Ribchester. 



^ The lands held by Page and Bury 

 lay south of a ditch running from Elew- 

 ynekar on the east to a lache on the 



249 



west, which ran to the end of the Stoni- 

 causee and formed the western boundary. 

 The other tenants' land lay west of a 

 boundary running from Robert de Berde- 

 worth's old dyke to the new boundary 

 between Ralph and Henry de Clayton, 

 saving two 'stanylondes,' and north of a 

 boundary continued westward to the 

 Saltemyre, and so to the Roside Brook ; 

 Norrls D. B. M. no. 78. 



" Lanes, inq. and Extents (Rec Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 220. 



8 Towneley MS. OO, 1019 ; Add. 

 MS. 32104., no. 942. 



It is allttleuncertainwhetherthemanor 

 descended in the elder line of Clayton of 

 Dutton or was acquired by Henry of 

 Dutton from Ralph of Little Harwood. 



^ Norris D. 79. Osbaldeston recovered 

 at the sessions at Lancaster a few months 

 later from Thomas son of Henry de 

 Clayton of Dutton four messuages, 200 

 acres of land, &c., in Little Harwood ; 

 Towneley MS. C 8, 13 (Chet. Lib.), 

 5113. 



32 



