BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



CLAYTON-LE-MOORS 



Cleyton, 1242 ; Clayton, 1292. 



This township lies to the north of Accrington, from 

 which it is separated by a piece of Altham, and is 

 bounded on the west and north-west by Hyndburn 

 Brook, towards which the surface in general slopes 

 down from the south-east side, where the land is 

 about 550 ft. above sea level. The area is 1,059 acres, 

 including 2 1 of inland water, and the population in 

 1901 numbered 8,153. The principal roads are 

 those from Blackburn east to Padiham and from 

 Accrington north to Whalley. At their crossing is 

 the place called Henfield or Enfield, now urban in 

 character, from which streets of houses extend in a 

 north-west direction through Oakenshaw towards the 

 mills and works on the Hyndburn. To the north-east 

 and south-west of this urban district are the rural 

 portions, in which stand Clayton Hall and Dunken- 

 halgh respectively ; each of them is surrounded by a 

 park. Sparth is on the Whalley road, at the east side 

 of Oakenshaw. There was formerly a race-course to 

 the south of Henfield. 



A local board was formed in 1863,' and this became 

 an urban district council in 1894; it has twelve 

 members. There are recreation grounds and public 

 baths, a mechanics' institute with a library, also 

 Conservative, Liberal and working men's clubs. 



Calico printing works,^ cotton factories, soap works, 

 corn-mills, brick and tile works and engineering works 

 afford employment to the inhabitants. The land is 

 heavy, with clay subsoil ; there are 828 acres in per- 

 manent grass and 68 in woods and plantations.^" A 

 sea-coal mine is mentioned in the 1376 deed of par- 

 tition. All the north end of the township has been 

 worked for coal, and, though some of the mines are 

 exhausted, coal is still obtained here. 



Edward Rishton, probably a younger son of the 

 Dunkenhalgh family, was born about 1550. Educated 

 at Oxford, where he graduated in 1572, he renounced 

 Protestantism and went over to Douay and the English 

 College at Rome, being ordained and sent on the 

 English mission in 1580. He was arrested very 

 quickly, and condemned to death for treason, but 

 reprieved, and after aa imprisonment in the Tower 

 was exiled in 1585. He died of the plague in that 

 year. He published Sander's account of the Anglican 

 Schism, with a continuation.^ 



John Harper, born at Dunkenhalgh in 1809, 

 attained some distinction as an architect, and was the 

 friend of Etty and Stanfield. He died at Naples in 

 1842.4 



' Nick of Dungnow ' was a local notability of a 

 different kind.' 



CLAYTON-LE-MOORS formed part 

 MANOR of Henry de Lacy's feoffment to Hugh 

 son of Lcoiwlne, lord of Altham, as 

 noticed in the account of that place ; it was rated as 

 one plough-land, and the service due was the eighth 

 part of a knight's fee. The superior lordship 

 descended like Altham. 



The inferior lordship of the manor, or tenure in 

 demesne, descended from Hugh son of Lcofwine to 

 his younger son Henry de Clayton, sometimes called 

 Henry the Clerk of Clayton and sometimes Henry 

 p.arson of Altham. Early in the 13th century he 

 acquired from his brothers Alan and Thomas their 

 estates in the manor, each consisting of 2 oxgangs 

 of land. Thomas, who seems to have been a priest, 

 held of Henry de EUand 2 other oxgangs, which he 

 gave to Gilbert de Lacy of Cromwellhotham, near 

 Elland, CO. York., who gave them to the priory of 

 Pontefract in or about I 192." Henry de Clayton 

 afterwards gave to John Fitton 2 oxgangs of land 

 which he held of him in Great Harwood in exchange 

 for land there lying between the old mill-stream and 

 the brook near Gamelsgate, and between Hyndburn 

 Water and the ditch which ran from the old mill- 

 stream through the town field to a great stone lying 

 in the bed of the brook near Gamelsgate.' He was 

 succeeded about 1220 by his son Henry, who was 

 also clerk or parson of Altham. From Hugh son of 

 Richard de Altham he obtained a confirmation of 

 the grant to his father made by Alan de Altham, 

 and from Uctred son of Hugh son of David of 

 I oxgang of land in Clayton in exchange for other 

 specified lands, now forming part of the hamlet of 

 Henfield.' Early in 1243 he was a juror on the 

 inquest of the Gascon scutage, in which he was 

 returned as holding Clayton for the eighth part of a 

 knight's fee. He was succeeded after 1262 by his 

 son Henry, to whom William son of Richard de 

 Altham, as superior lord, confirmed 8 oxgangs of 

 land in Clayton and 6 oxgangs in WiswelL' The 

 same persons made an agreement in 1277 to make no 

 more inclosures from the wastes in their respective 

 manors without mutual consent, but certain ridges in 

 the Quitacres in Clayton belonging to the oxgangs in 

 that town were assured to Henry de Clayton. i" 



Thomas de Clayton, brother of Henry, was the first 

 grantee of Oakenshaw. William, another brother, 

 had lands adjoining the River Calder, in the northern 

 part of the township, from both his father and brother 

 Henry.^' 



' Lond. Gax. 25 Dec. 1863. 



" Such works are mentioned in the 

 Directory of 1826. 



"» Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905). 



' Diet. Nat. Biog. ; Gillow, Bib/. Diet. 

 ofEngJ. Cath. v, 425-8. 



* Diet. Nat. Biag. 



* Aikin (179;) says he was an idiot, 

 ' of whose simplicity united with a natural 

 shrewdness many tales are still current in 

 popular tradition ' ; Country round Manch. 

 278. 



» Clayton D. in Towneley MS. DD, 

 1607, 1619 ; Pontefract Chartul. (Yorks. 

 Arch. Soc), 24, 325, 526. Alan de 

 Alvetham describes the grantee as 'Henry 

 the clerk, my brother,' and himself as 

 holding the oxgangs of 'my lord and 

 brother William de Alvetham.' 



7 Hesketh D. DD, 1735. 



« Clayton D. Towneley MSS. RR, 557 

 (Add. MSS.) ; DD, 1606, 1621. UctreJ 

 de Church describes the grantee as 

 ' Henry de Elvatham, son of Henry the 

 clerk,' and also as 'dominus mens.' The 

 land taken in exchange was described 

 as lying upon Hindil (HindhiU) ; the 

 boundary ran from a great stone between 

 the highway from Rishton to Altham 

 and the spring called Horsewell, follow- 

 ing southward between the hill of Hindil 

 and the Haislackes to a little hill running 

 westward from Levenate Lane, thence to 

 the moss on the north side of that lane 

 and northward by the Moss Brook to the 

 highway upon Hindil, and so along the 

 road westward to the great stone near 

 Horsewell. The locality formed part of 



the hamlet of Henfield and was probably 

 the land described later as belonging to 

 John del Grene. 



Afterwards John son of Benedict de 

 Derwin released the same land to Clayton • 

 RR, 567. 



" hancs. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 151 ; DD, 1616. 



" DD, 1626. 



" Ibid. 1617 ; RR, 570. The bounds 

 of the land given by the father began at 

 a cross in the Merelachc between Altham 

 and Clayton and ran westward to Mere- 

 gatelache Clough, thence northward to 

 the highway from Harwood to Altham 

 and eastward along it to Harestan within 

 the 'wascellum,' following the 'wascel- 

 lum ' northward to Kalder Water, ascend- 

 ing the same to a brook runnmg from 



53 



