A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



used for service by the same society, was built in 

 1803 by a party of seceders, who joined Lady 

 Huntingdon's Connexion, but subsequently rejoined 

 the original congregation.*^ 



There was a school at Tockholes in 1717.*^ 



George Blore in 1730 left £^0 

 CHJRITIES to Livesey and Tockholes, £2^ being 

 assigned to the former township and 

 ^16 to the latter ; he also gave ^40 for Livesey 

 alone. The Livesey gifts, with others from various 

 persons, have disappeared, j^50 in the hands of the 

 owner of Livesey Hall being lost when the estate 

 was sold about 1800 and ^^38 used in building a 

 workhouse being lost when the building was sold 

 about 1850. In each case the forfeiture seems to 

 have been due to the neglect of the trustees. Part 

 of the Tockholes gift was lost before 1826, but the 

 remainder was made up to £I/^. ; this remained in 

 the savings bank till 1878, when the capital was 

 withdrawn by the vicar (Rev. W. Thomason) and 

 paid to the widow of the late schoolmaster. A fund 

 of j^i5 has been subscribed to replace the old one, 

 and is applied to the benefit of the poor. The Rev. 

 Gilmour Robinson in 1857 left his residuary estate 

 for the decent keeping of his tomb and then for poor 

 residents of Tockholes, members of the Church of 

 England; about jflz 4/. is available for the latter 

 purpose, and is given on 27 December in doles of 

 5/. to 25/. For Tockholes there are endowments 

 for school and church and chapel purposes, and 

 Livesey has an interest in the Livesey exhibitions, 

 noticed under Blackburn. 



LIVESEY 



Liveshay, 1 246 ; Lyvesay, xiii-xvii cent. ; Levesay, 

 xiv— XV cent. 



Down to the end of the 17th century Livesey with 

 Tockholes was rated as one township for fiscal and 

 administrative purposes. The township lies to the 

 west of Lower Darwen, the boundary passing over 

 Bank o' th' Hey, at an elevation exceeding 750 ft. 

 above the ordnance datum, and to the east of Bunker's 

 Hill (708 ft.). From these heights the ground slopes 

 downward to the River Darwen on the north and to 

 the River Roddlesworth on the west with an elevation 

 of under 280 ft. at the confluence of these streams. 

 On the south the boundary descends from the north- 

 western slope of Winter Hill in Tockholes to the 

 River Roddlesworth, below Stanworth Edge in the 

 hundred of Leyland. In the northern part of the 

 township and on the high ground the subsoil consists 

 of the Coal Measures, on the intervening hill slopes 

 of the Millstone Grit. The soil is clayey and the land 

 consists entirely of meadow and pasture land ; there 

 is a considerable area of woodland on the slopes of 

 Bunker's Hill and in the lower ground of the Rivers 



Darwen and Roddlesworth.' The area of the town- 

 ship is 2,036 acres. In 1S6S the suburban part of 

 the township was included in the parliamentary 

 borough of Blacklnirn. By the Blackburn Corpora- 

 tion Act, 1)^92, part of the township containing 462 

 acres was included in the borough and civil parish of 

 Blackburn. The population of the reduced township 

 in 1901 was 3,135 persons.^" By the Blackburn Cor- 

 poration Act, 1 90 1, a further portion of the township 

 with 289 separate occupiers has been added to the 

 civil parish of Blackburn.^ 



The Liverpool, Blackburn and Accrington line of 

 the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Compan)' tra- 

 verses the township with stations at Mill Hill and 

 Cherry Tree. Near Livesey Hall the Cherry Tree 

 and Chorley joint line of this and of the London and 

 North Western Railway Company turns southward 

 with a station at Feniscowles. The Leeds and Liver- 

 pool Canal also passes through the township, crossing 

 the Rivers Darwen and Roddlesworth by aqueducts. 



The main road from Preston to Blackburn passes 

 through the north-western part of the township, which 

 it enters over Moulden Water bridge, and passing 

 through Feniscowles and Cherry Tree issues over 

 Feniscliffe Bridge. From Feniscowles an inferior road 

 turns south-eastward with a branch passing through 

 Waterloo and Ewood into the Blackburn and Darwen 

 road, whilst another branch leads over the hills to 

 Lower Darwen. 



Cotton-spinning and weaving form the staple in- 

 dustry, the factories being situated near the canal and 

 railway at Mill Hill and Cherry Tree and near Ewood. 

 There are also two paper-mills and brick, tile and 

 drain-pipe manufactories. Coal was formerly got on 

 Bunker's Hill, where there are traces of many adits 

 to old workings, and down to 1850 there were large 

 calico-printing works at Stakes Hall.^ 



In 1 242 Ralph de Mitton was returned 

 MANOR in the inquest of the Gascon scutage as 

 holding LIFESET of the honor of 

 Clitheroe as part of the dower assigned to Margaret 

 Countess of Lincoln.^ Nothing has been found to 

 show how the tenure of the manor by this family 

 originated. Their mesne tenure of the manor passed 

 to the Hoghtons, and in 1355 upon the collection of 

 the aid granted nine years before Adam de Hoghton, 

 kt., was returned as holding Livesey of the Duke of 

 Lancaster.* 



' Livyesay ' was included among the manors held of 

 Edmund de Lacy at his death in 1258 by the service 

 of thegnage and a rent of 29J. per annum.' 



At least as early as the time of John the family of 

 Bury were lords of the manor, Adam de Bury being 

 in possession in the time of Geoffrey the younger. 

 Dean of Whalley. From Adam it descended to his 

 younger son William, who sometimes bore the local 

 name. In 1227 as William de Bury he called upon 



op. cit. 696-704. Mr. Abram's father, 

 Robert Abram, was minister of the chapel 

 from 1849 till his death in 1852. 



^ Abram, op. cit. 704. 



" Gastrell, op. cit ii, 297. It was 

 ' lately erected,' without endowment, and 

 in Presbyterian hands. 



' The agricultural returns for 1905 give 

 \ acre arable land, 1,391 acres permanent 

 ^ass, 190 acres woods and plantations. 



'» In 1901 the area of the township 

 s'as 1,774 acres, of which 22 were inland 



water, and there were 637 separate occu- 

 piers ; Census Rep. 1 90 1. 



^ The reduced township was estimated 

 to contain 348 separate occupiers num- 

 bering 1,739 per""" ) ''''''• 



' As far back as 1 748 Mr. Thomas 

 Yates was engaged in dyeing calicoes at 

 Moorgate Fold, and at a later date the 

 Haworth family, who were connected 

 with the Peels in the development of 

 calico printing, had their print works at 

 Stakes Hall, which were afterwards ac- 



284 



quired by the Turner family and extended 

 along the river bank to Mill HiU and 

 Primrose by Mr. Robert Turner and his 

 sons early in the 19th century ; Abram, 

 Hist, of Blackburn, 216, 228. 



< Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 297. In 

 1302 Ralph son of Ralph de Mittnn 

 entered a plea of novel disseisin against 

 Adam de Livesey but did not sue ; Assize 

 R. 417, m. 2. ' FeuJ. Aids, iii, 88. 



• Lanes. Inf. and Exienii (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 217. 



