BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



BLACKBURN 



1764 

 1767 

 1786 



1797 

 1799 

 1803 

 1829 

 1830 

 1832 

 1881 



Sunday in the morning and next Sunday in the after- 

 noon and in winter every other Sunday. The two 

 wardens were chosen by the minister and principal 

 inhabitants.'* From 1763 the chapel seems to have 

 had a curate of its own, and some further endow- 

 ments were procured about that time and subsequently. 

 The income is now stated as ^(^290 net.**' A district 

 was assigned to it in 1837. The incumbents, now 

 styled vicars, are presented by the vicar of Blackburn. 

 The following is a list '^ : — 



1763 Thomas Baldwin, M.A. " (Peterhouse, 

 Camb.) 



George Astley, B.A.i"" 



William Stockdale 



Thomas Middleton i 



William Lutener 



William Barton 



James Barnes 



Patrick Comerford Law, B.A. 



Henry Walter McGrath, M.A. (T.C.D.) 



Francis Law, B.A.^oi (Queens' Coll., Camb.) 



William Scholes 

 There is a Wesleyan Methodist mission room. 

 Through the protection of the Southworths ^"^ and 

 then of the Walmsleys and Petres of Lower Hall it 

 is probable that mass was said in this township pretty 

 constantly even during the severest times of persecu- 

 tion.i"' In 1709 Bishop Smith confirmed and 

 preached there to a great concourse of people, the 

 vicar of Blackburn remarking : ' The neighbouring 

 Protestants seemed to take little notice of the matter, 

 it being no novelty with them.' ^"^ The chapel of 

 St. Chad at Lower Hall was used till about 18 16, 

 when it was ruined by the encroachment of the 

 Ribble. It was served by Franciscans in the 1 8th 

 century; since 18 16 by seculars.^"' The present 

 church of St. Mary, Southbank, was built in 

 i8i7-i8.i<'6 



Mrs. Dorothy Langdale in 1 7 1 5 

 CHARITIES left X^°° f""" ^^ maintenance of 

 aged poor persons or the binding of 

 apprentices. Land in Whittle-le- Woods was pur- 

 chased, but in 1826 it was found that the rent had 

 usually been applied to relieve the poor rate, though 

 apprenticeship fees had from time to time been paid. 

 This abuse was corrected and fresh schemes were 

 made in 1829 and 1877, the latter accidentally 

 enlarging the area concerned to the ecclesiastical parish 

 of Samlesbury instead of the township. The gross 

 income is ^^23 ; the distribution was formerly in 

 kind, but now in money, sums of 5/. to ^^3 being 

 given at Christmas. Under Richard Houghton's 

 Preston charity a fourth part of the rent of Wood 

 Crook in Whittingham was to be applied to the poor 



of Samlesbury. The land was sold in 1 87 1 and the 

 proceeds invested in consols; £z l()s. l\d., being 

 a fourth part of the interest, is distributed in money 

 doles in the same way as the Langdale charity. The 

 Rev. William Lawson Barnes in 1854 gave a rent- 

 charge of j£3 on land called the Glebe Farm in 

 Osbaldeston for the benefit of 'poor persons residing 

 in the chapelry of Samlesbury, who should be members 

 of the Protestant Episcopal Church of England as by 

 law established at the time of executing the indenture, 

 exclusive of all persons in any manner howsoever 

 being in membership or communion with the Church 

 of Rome.' It is given by the vicar as required in 

 sums of 2/. 6d. to 25/. There is also an endowment 

 for the Sunday school. 



BALDERSTON 



Baldeston, Baldcrston, 1246 ; Baldreston, xiii-xv 

 cent. Balderstone is a common modern spelling. 



The township of Balderston lies in the Ribble 

 valley, having for its northern boundary the serpentine 

 course of that river. Mellor Brook, called after 

 uniting with another stream Bezza Brook, flows 

 through the southern part of the township. From 50 ft. 

 above the ordnance datum at the River Ribble the 

 land rises towards the south-east to an elevation of 

 350 ft. at the Bay Horse Inn on the main road lead- 

 ing from Whalley to Preston which skirts the town- 

 ship and for some distance forms its southern boundary. 

 Here the subsoil consists of the Yoredale Rocks, which 

 soon give place to the Millstone Grit. The area is 

 1,807^ acres, of which 44 are inland water, and the 

 population in 1 90 1 numbered 456 persons, mainly 

 engaged in agriculture. The land is mostly meadow 

 and pasture, the soil being somewhat clayey. There 

 is a considerable area of wood-land by the Ribble and 

 in the ravines through which the Bezza and Mellor 

 Brooks flow.l The nearest railway station is Wilpshire 

 on the Hellifield and Blackburn branch of the 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, but Blackburn, 

 distant 4^ miles, is the more convenient station. 

 There was recently a ferry here.^ 



Myerscough is a hamlet in the township. 



There is a parish council. 



This township was originally rated as 2 oxgangs of 

 land, paying 6s. for a fifteenth out of ^37 11. "jd. levied 

 on the hundred exclusive of the forests.' Names of 

 inclosures, probably made from the abundant wood- 

 lands, which occur in the I 3th century were Monkfal, 

 Micklefal and Horsfal.^ In a demise of Le Milnerid- 

 ing, lying by Boseburn Brook, made in 1336, licence 

 was given to make a mill-dam there.' 



'* Gastrell, Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc), 

 ii, 292-3. 



" Manch. Dioc. Dir. 



'^ From the church papers at Chester, 

 which begin in 1688. 



" He was vicar of Leyland and served 

 this chapel by a curate. 



100 Previously curate of Nantwich. 



'"' Author of Traas on Romish Contro- 

 vtrsy. For a description of him and the 

 church in his time see A. Hewitson, Our 

 Country Churches, 123-5. 



"' The troubles of Sir John Southworth 

 have already been told. In 1586 it was 

 reported to the government that masses 

 were said daily at the lodge in Samles- 



bury Park and sometimes in two other 

 houses. 



^'^ 'In the penal times mass was often 

 said in Bezza Wood near Samlesbury, and 

 among the relics treasured at the present 

 church of St. Mary is an old viaticum 

 pyx, dated 1695, and a chasuble five 

 hundred years old ' ; ICclly, Engl, Ctth. 

 Missions, 346. 



^0* Abram, Blackburn, 355. For the 

 convicted recusants about 1670 see Misc. 

 (Cath. Rec. Soc), v, 157. In 1767 

 there were 351 'Papists' in Samlesbury 

 chapelry, according to a report made to 

 the Bishop of Chester ; Trans. Hist. Soc. 

 (new ser.), xviii, 216. 



"' Abram, op. cit. 677 ; Thaddeus, 

 Engl. Franciscans, 166. 



'"* A. Hewitson, op. cit. 126, for its 

 state in 1872. 



' The agricultural returns for 1905 

 give arable land 109J acres, permanent 

 grass 1,459^ acres, woods and plantations 

 142J acres. 



' Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. xii, 26. 



' Bk. of Rates, MS. fienes W. Farrer. 

 To the subsidy of 1332 the contribution 

 was ys. %d. 



■"Reg. of Sawley, Harl. MS. H2, 

 fol. 63-4. 



* Kuerden MSS. (Coll. of Arms), iii, 



B3. 



40 



