BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



Barcroft of 

 croft. Argent a 

 rampant sable. 



Bar- 



lion 



Hurstwood and Blackburn." His son William, then 

 fifty-six years old, died in 162 1 holding similarly and 

 leaving a son Robert, aged twenty-seven. ^^ Robert 

 Barcroft in 163 1 compounded 

 for having declined knighthood 

 by a fine of ^13 6s. Sa"." 

 He was one of the lay mem- 

 bers of the Presbyterian Classis 

 formed in 1 646, but died the 

 following year."*' The estate 

 descended to his brother 

 Thomas Barcroft, \vho re- 

 corded a pedigree in 1664.''' 

 He died in 1668, leaving 

 several daughters to inherit. 

 Susan, daughter by his first 

 marriage, was wife of Peter 

 Ormerod of Ormerod ; but most of the estate was 

 devised to the issue of the second marriage — Eliza- 

 beth wife of Henry 

 Bradshaw of Marple ; 

 Sarah wife of Nicholas 

 Townley of Royle ; 

 Ruth wife of Peter 

 Leigh of Norbury 

 Booths ; and Anne 

 wife of John Brock- 

 holes of Claughton 

 near Garstang. A 

 large part of the estate 

 became united with 

 Royle and has de- 

 scended with it. The 

 house and demesne 

 descended through 

 Bradshaw to Isher- 

 wood and was in 1 795 

 sold to Charles Towne- 

 ley of Towneley.^' A 

 tradition of the dis- 

 trict says that one of 

 the Barcrofts, alleging 

 that his elder brother 

 was a lunatic, put him 

 in confinement, where 

 he became mad, and 

 seized the estate him- 

 self ; but according to 



' the Idiot's curse ' the lands soon passed away to 

 strangers.^' 



BARCROFT HALL is situated on the outskirts 

 of Towneley Park near the north-west boundary of 

 the township and is a massively built two-story house 

 of gritstone with projecting end-wings and stone- 

 slated roofs. The gables are quite plain without 

 coping or ornaments, and the original windows in the 

 principal front, which faces north, are small, giving 

 an appearance of great solidity to the elevation. 



The house consists of the usual arrangement of 

 central hall with kitchen and offices at the east and the 

 living rooms in the west wing, but modern altera- 

 tions have deprived the interior of much of its interest. 

 The house is now divided into two and an addition has 

 been made at the east end, which, with the original 

 kitchen ^ving, now forms a separate dwelling. The 

 present kitchen is in the basement of the west wing, 

 which owing to the fall of the ground and the 

 raising of the floor is sufliciently lofty, and this end 

 of the house is otherwise modernized, sash windows 

 having been inserted in the ground floor rooms, as 

 also in the east wing, on the north front. The 

 building is said to be of late 16th-century date and 

 the east wing is stated to be the older part, but the 

 evidence of the masonry is inconclusive, and it is likely 

 enough that the house was erected substantially on 

 the present lines all at one time. The total length 

 of the front is about 80 ft., the end wings, which 



CIRCA 1600 



□ no)ekn 



Mqdepn 

 Addition 



Scale (fEet 



Plan of Barcroft Hall 



COTTAGE 



project 1 6 ft., being of slightly different width and 

 36 ft. 9 in. apart, with a central projecting gabled 

 porch the height of both stories. 



The hall is now entered from the porch in the 

 middle of the north side, but the original entrance, 

 which is built up, was by the door to the screens 

 in the north-east corner. Its total length including 

 the passage is 29 ft. and its width 24 ft. 4 in., but the 

 fireplace at the west end has an ingle-nook 7 ft. 6 in. 

 deep and 1 6 ft. 6 in. wide open to the hall by an 



*^ Lancu Inq. p.m. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), i, 215. 



" Ibid, iii, 400. His will mentions 

 Susan his wife and his children Robert, 

 William, Thomas and Elizabeth Belfield. 

 Hele Piatt (now Helly Piatt) was to be 

 given to Thomas for eight years for his 

 maintenance. 



In 1540 Gilbert Holdsworth of 

 Sowerby, clothier, had granted the mes- 

 suage called Helyplatt in Cliviger to Joan 



Holkcr, widow, of Read ; Brockholes of 

 Claughton D. ; Close, 31 Hen. VIII, 

 pt. iii, no. 14, 15. 



William Savin purchased two messuages 

 from John Holker in 155 1 ; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 14, m. 211. See Ducatus 

 Lane, iii, 20. 



''•' Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 217. 



■•■' He was buried at Burnley 26 Mar. 

 1647. 



« Dugdale, Vhit. (Chet. Soc), 27. 



" Whitaker, op. cit. ii, 220 ; 'the last 

 Barcroft was a rapacious man, who, after 

 devouring half the estates of an improvi- 

 dent neighbour in his lifetime, made a 

 very unequal distribution of them at his 

 death." 



^8 Wilkinson, Mem. of Hunttvooci, 106. 

 The pedigree in Whitaker records a secotid 

 son as a lunatic. 



483 



