BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



1755 Thomas Cooper, B.A. 



1799 WiEiam Lutener 



1816 Thomas Exton 



1839 William Hartley 



1859 Robert Atherton Rawstorne, M. A."* (Brase- 



nose Coll., Oxf.) 

 1897 John Arthur Rushton, M.A. (Emmanuel 



Coll., Camb.) 

 1907 William Thomason 



A chapel at Mellor Brook, erected in 1 824. for the 

 Independent Connexion,'^ was purchased in 1833 by 

 members of the Church of England, and, with some 

 intermission between 1859 and 1869, has since been 

 used for the purpose of divine service on Sundays or 

 as a mission room, and as a public elementary school 

 on weekdays. It is known as St. Saviour's Chapel. 



In a dispute in 1567 touching the tithe corn and 

 hay growing upon the demesne lands of the manor, 

 between Gilbert Gerard, attorney-general, and 

 Anne his wife and John Osbaldeston of Osbaldeston 

 upon the one part, and William Farington of Haldley, 

 farmer of the rectory and parsonage of Blackburn, on 

 the other, they were awarded by arbitrators to 

 Gerard and Osbaldeston.^* 



In 1 767 there were eighty-two ' Papists ' resident 

 in the chapelry.'* 



About 1686 Margaret RadclifFe 

 CHARITIES gave a parcel of land and two cottages 

 in Carr Lane for poor housekeepers. 

 In 1 716 Michael Waterhouse bequeathed by will los. 

 charged upon his messuage called Waterhouse tene- 

 ment. Other donations made between 1733 and 

 1766 were employed about 1799 to rebuild the 

 cottages in Carr Lane. 



The charity has a net income of ^^5 to £^, which 

 is distributed on 21 December, by the vicar and 

 churchwardens, in flannel, calico or blankets ; more 

 recently in clothing also. 



OSBALDESTON 



Osbaldeston, xiii-xx cent. ; Osebaldreston, 1256 ; 

 locally 'Osboston.' 



This rural township is bounded by the River Ribble 

 on the north and west and contains an area of 

 1,084 scres.i From the river, where the elevation 

 does not exceed 70 ft. above the ordnance datum, 

 the land rises towards the south-east to an elevation 

 of 360 ft. below the village of Mellor, near the source 

 of a brook which forms the eastern boundary. On 

 the south-west a brook which falls into the Ribble 

 near Sunderland Hall divides the township from 

 Balderston. The subsoil consists of the Millstone 

 Grit. The land is almost entirely under grass, and 

 there is a considerable area of woodland scattered 

 along the ravines which descend to the Ribble and 

 in Old Park Wood, near Oxendale Hall.^ The 

 population in 1 90 1 numbered 182 persons. 



BLACKBURN 



The main road from Clitheroe to Blackburn passes 

 through the hamlet of Osbaldeston in the south-eastern 

 angle of the township, where a lane branches north- 

 ward to Osbaldeston Green and connects with occu- 

 pation roads. A Roman road is mentioned in a 

 13th-century charter.^" The nearest station is at 

 Wilpshire on the Bolton, Blackburn and Hellifield 

 Ime of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Com- 

 pany. Blackburn is distant 4 miles. 



The township was included in 1842 in the district 

 chapelry of St. Peter, Salesbury.' Under the Divided 

 Parishes Act it was joined in 1892 to the ecclesiastical 

 parish of Balderston, 



Pennant whilst on a tour to the north of England 

 in 1773 passed through the district and notes : 



Opposite to Ribchcster stand several ancient seats, such as 

 Osbaldeston Hall, once the residence of the great family of 

 that name, sold by the last owner about forty years ago ; the 

 remainder of the estate he bequeathed to a distant relation, a 

 friend and a servant.'' A younger branch of the family, a 

 baronet descended from this house, had a fortune near Oxford. 

 I remember Sir Charles, I believe the last of the title, when I 

 was at the University, a poor profligate old fellow, who in all 

 weathers went in his waistcoat only, and for a shilling would 

 at any time leap up to his neck in water.'-' 



Dr. Whitaker's description written in i 8 1 8 is as 

 follows : — 



This is a small township, but of great fertility, stretching 

 along the southern bank of the Ribble, about half of which 

 was the demesne of the Osbaldestons and the rest demised to 

 tenants. The manor-house, which stands low and sheltered, 

 within a moat, is pretty entire, though greatly mutilated. It 

 appears to have consisted of a centre and two wings, opening 

 southward, with a deep projection in the middle of the central 

 part. What remains appears, from the style and arms, to have 

 been erected by Sir Edward Osbaldeston about the latter end 

 of the reign of James the First. The present cow-house, at 

 the west end, appears to have been a gallery about 60 ft. long, 

 with two deep embayed windows and transom lights. The 

 upper room in the central projection is fitted up with brown 

 wainscot in oblong and lozenge panels. In the plaster above 

 the chimney-piece are the arms and numerous quartcrings of 

 the family, with the cyphers E. O. — D. O. 



Over the stable door, on the impost, are the family arms, with 

 the cyphers « and D, with the date 1593. 



On the open green, westward from the house, are lines of 

 large stones, forming three sides of a quadrangle, which seems 

 to have been intended as bases for crooks of oak, and to have 

 formed the outline of a more ancient house. There is yet 

 a tradition that the chapel projected from the north wall, near 

 the kitchen door, and nearly from the corner where the rude 

 figure of Hercules is wrought into the wall.^ 



The woods of this township and Salesbury, which had been 

 completely destroyed, are now rising again into consequence 

 under the fostering hand of their present noble possessor,^ so 

 that the aspect of several miles along the north side of this 

 fertile valley is annually improving in beauty, as is the estate 

 itself in value. 



In 1587 John son and heir of Edward Osbaldeston, 

 esq., granted to his younger brother Hamlet an 

 annuity of j^l3 6/. 8<^. out of closes called Grene 

 Holme, Wheat Field, the Chapel Flat, Sweton, 

 Croucke Spit and the Great Meadow.' The town- 

 ship was probably rated as 6 oxgangs of land and 

 contributed only 4/. id. to the fifteenth out of 



" See Penwortham ; Archdeacon of 

 Blackburn 1885. 



"^ Nightingale ; Lanes. NonconJ. ii, 1 14. 



''Add. MS. 32104, no. 965. 



^ Tram, Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xviii, 



2l6. 



^ The new ordnance survey gives the 

 area as 1,059 acres, of which 26 are 

 inland water; Census Rep. 1901. The 

 survey of 1848 includes the whole course 

 of the Ribble in this township. 



^ The agricultural returns for 1905 

 give arable land 2 acres, permanent grass 

 809 acres, woods and plantations 5^ 

 acres. 



*• See note 19 below. 



' Land. Gax. 2533. 



* See his will, p. 322, n. 67. 



'■* Sir Charles Osbaldeston, fifth and last 

 baronet, of Chadlington, co. Oxon., died 

 without issue in 1749 ; G.E.C. Complete 

 Baronetage^ iii, 292. 



7 Elsewhere Dr. Whitaker describes 

 this as *a bas-relief of Hercules, evidently 

 Roman, and from Ribchester.' Mr. Allen 

 pronounced it to be a Mars with his 

 apcar, not Hercules with his club. It 

 was removed to the Old Hall, Tabley ; 

 Journ. Arch. Assoc, vi, 240. 



® Thomas James seventh Viscount 

 Bulkelcy, who died in 1822. See the 

 account of Salesbury above. 



* Add. MS. 32106, no, 1063. 



