A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The outer gateway is 65 ft. 6 in. in front of the 

 gate-hou^e and was erected in 1607, the date being 

 carved over the archway together with the arms and 

 initials of Robert Hesketh. It is a picturesque structure 

 ivith stepped gable and ornamental finial over a three- 

 centred arched opening 8 ft. wide and 9 ft. 6 in. high 

 in the middle of a high rubble fence wall inclosing 

 a grasi forecourt the width of the gate-house, and 

 forming with it a very charming picture. The 

 feature of the two courts, however, belongs only 

 to the late i6th and early 17th-century building, 

 and the position of the gate-house, the opening 

 through which is opposite the old arched doorway 

 to the screens on the lower end of the hall, seems 

 to imply that at that date the arrangement of the 

 original plan had been altered, the east wing, 

 originally the servants' part of the house, being then 

 apparently put to other uses. 



In I I 92 Thomas the Priest gave to Gilbert de Lacy 

 2 oxgangs of land in Harwood held of Henry de 

 Elland ; a rent of 3/. and spurs worth 3d', were to be 

 given. The grant was of importance, for it was made 

 in open court, and the witnesses included ' the wapen- 

 take.' "" 



The principal families of yeomen settled here in 

 the 1 6th and succeeding centuries were those of 

 Cockshutt, Duxbury, Feilden and Mer^^cr. In 1523-4 

 Lionel Foole and Roger Cockshott were assessed upon 

 lands to the subsidy then collected. Twenty years 

 later James Dobson, Nicholas Duxbury and EdwarJ 

 Mercer were each assessed upon goods valued at £^, 

 and Robert Brown, Lionel Foole, Robert Norham, 

 Thomas Peacock and Ralph Pollard each on ^^3 value. 

 In 1599-1600 Lawrence Duxbury paid upon lands 

 valued at £3 per annum, and in 1626 John PicKoppe 

 on goods of £\ value. In 1 666 hearth tax was 

 levied upon fifty-six hearths in Martholme and the 

 Overtown, the hall representing five and the tene- 

 ments of Alexander and William Mercer and 

 Nicholas Sudcll three each. In the Lower Town 

 out of forty-two hearths Edmund and Thomas 

 Cockshutt together paid on eleven and Robert and 

 Henry Feilden on seven hearths. In 1788 John 

 Smalley was the largest contributor to the land tax 

 after Mr. Hesketh." 



The church of ST. BJRTHO- 

 CHURCH LOMEir stands on high ground at the 

 north end of the town and consists of 

 chancel 26 ft. by I 7 ft. 6 in. with organ chamber on 

 the north side, clearstoried nave 66 ft. 9 in. by 

 1 5 ft. 6 in., with north and south aisles 7 ft. 6 in. 

 wide, south porch, and west tower 9 ft. by 

 10 ft. with vestry on the north side, all these 

 measurements being internal. The chancel and 

 organ chamber are modern, having been erected in 

 1 88 1, but the tower is of 15th-century date and the 

 nave belongs to the 1 6th century. The east wall of 

 the tower shows internally the line of an older high- 

 pitched roof presumably belonging to a I5th-ceutur7 

 or earlier nave, but the plan and extent of the former 

 building can only be surmised. In the 1 6th century 

 rebuilding the nave and sanctuary were included 

 under one roof in a rectangular building without 



structural division, and so remained till the modern 

 chancel was added. The walls of the nave and 

 aisles are constructed of long thin Jtoncs, and the roofs 

 which overhang are covered with stone slates, the 

 work being of a very pl.iin character. The windo\\ > to 

 both aisles and clearstory are square-headed, each of 

 three lights with four-centred heads, except on the 

 north side, where three of the aisle windows have 

 trefoil-headed lights. 



The new chancel has a four-light cist window 

 under a segmental head with perpendicular tracery, 

 and two segmental-headed windows of two lights on 

 the south side. On the north it is open to the organ 

 chamber, the east wall of which is constructed with 

 the stones of the old sanctuary and including the 

 1 6th-century three-light square-headed window. The 

 chancel arch is of course modern and of two moulded 

 orders. 



The nave consists of five bays with an arcade of 

 low pointed arches almost semicircular in form, of 

 two chamfered orders springing from octagonal piers 

 with moulded caps and bases. There are five clear- 

 story windows on each side and all the internal walls 

 are faced with rough stone. The roof, which dates 

 trom 1864, is of flat pitch and consists of nine prin- 

 cipals, forming eight panelled bays. The east end of 

 the south aisle was formerly the Hesketh chantry, 

 and two fragments of ancient glass with the Hesketh 

 garb and the initials of Thomas Hesketh remain in 

 one of the windows. There is also a recess, probably 

 a piscina, in the south wall. The doorway in the 

 north aisle is now built up. 



The tower has a projecting vice in the south-e.ist 

 angle and diagon.il buttresses of five stages. The 

 west door with flat four-centred arch is now built up. 

 The west window is a pointed one of three trefoiled 

 lights with tracery, moulded jambs and head, and 

 external hood mould, and above is a canopied 

 niche. The north and south sides are plain to 

 the belfry stage. There is no clock. The belfry 

 windows are pointed and of two lights with hood 

 mould and stone louvres and the walls terminate 

 in an embattled parapet without pinnacles. The 

 tower arch is lofty, of two chamfered orders dying 

 into the wall at the springing, and is open to the 

 church. 



The south porch is very plain with a wood gabled 

 rjof resting on side walls. In it is preserved a 15th- 

 century stone font with traceried panels. 



The font now in use stands under the tower, and 

 has on one of its eight sides the initials and date 

 I E 1662. The other sides have traceried panels. 

 The fittings are all modern, but under the tower is 

 preserved an old oak bench with poppy end, on which 

 is carved ' Orate p' aiab Hugois Stanworth et Letecie 

 uxor' ci' qui fieri istu . . .' " There is also an old oak 

 chest in the vestry 8 ft. 6 in. long, with three locks, 

 and at the west end of the north aisle a rather good 

 1 8th-century monument 7 ft. 3 in. high with fluted 

 columnto the memory of Thomas Whalley, who died 

 in 1724. 



The tower contains one bell by Mears & Stainbank, 

 1866. 



•*> Pantefract Chartui. (Yorks. Arch. 

 Assoc), ii, 325, 526. The subsequent 

 histon' of the land does not appear, but 

 the grant may have been connected with 

 the chape:. 



*^ Lay Subs. Lanes, bdies. 130, no. 82, 

 125; 131, no. 274, 317; 250, no. 9. 

 Mr. Abram notices most of the families 

 here named in the Hist, of Blackburn., 

 541-5. Numerous references to the local 



342 



family of Harwood during the 13th and 

 14th centuries occur in the Assize R. ^ 

 Whitaker, IVkalUy (ed. 1876), ii, 393. 

 *' Ibid. Note by Mr. Allen. 



