A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



arch I 3 ft. " ide, which practically increases the length 

 of the room to 36 ft. From the north-west corner 

 a mutilated spiral stone staircase leads to the upper 

 floors, and at the south end of the screens the old 

 doorvav still remains, retaining it5 original oak nail- 

 ^tuJded door. The screen itself, however, and the 

 front of the gallery were removed about 1 90 1 ," though 

 the old gallerj- floor remains and modern panelling 

 and a balustrade have been erected altogether out of 

 keeping with the rest of the room. The hall, how- 

 ever, retains some of its ancient features. It is lit on 

 the south side by a long muUioned and transomed 

 window often lights and there is a two-light window 

 to the ingle-nook and one of four lights high up in 

 the north-east comer above the gallery. The floor 

 is flagged, and the roof, which is I 2 ft. 8 in. high to 

 the undenide of the beams, is the original flat one of 

 oak, with two chamfered beams forming three bays 

 and divided by intermediate pieces into eight panels. 

 The high table dated 1613 and with the initials 

 \V. B., S. B. formerly stood under the window on the 

 south side but is now at Towneley Hall. The porch 

 has on the outside over the square-headed doonvay 

 the name of William Barcroft and the date 16 14, 

 but this inscription appears to belong to an alteration 

 in the original plan whereby a square bay window- 

 on the north side was altered to its present purpose, 

 at the time probably \vhen the doorway at the north 

 end of the passage was built up. The porch door- 

 u,T\-, which has classic detail and a moulded string 

 immediately above the inscription, is manifestly an 

 insertion in an older wall, the wider hood mould 

 of the previously existing window being still in posi- 

 tion above. On the inside the opening to the bay is 

 no-.v filled in ^^ith a modern glazed screen forming 

 an inner doorway. 



The rooms in the west wing are almost entirely 

 modernized and of little interest, one of them, how- 

 ever, on the ground floor having a 1 7th-century 

 plaster panel w ith vine ornament in the ceiling. The 

 ron's are apparently the old ones restored, and have 

 clay floors in the roof space in the gables. .At the 

 back the wings are flush with the south wall of the 

 hall and the east gable has been rebuilt, but though 

 the ^^ indows are more numerous than on the front 

 the elevation is of little interest. 



In front of the house is a small grass forecourt 

 47 ft. by 38 ft. 6 in., inclosed by high stone walls 

 with moulded copings, and entered in the middle 

 through a semicircular headed gateway with pic- 

 turesque stepped gable bearing the date 1636. The 

 inclosing end walls are set back a few feet from the 

 inner angles of the wings an.l project 22 ft. 6 in. 

 in front of them. The fact of the forecourt being 

 confined to the middle part of the elevation, leaving 

 the wings partly outside, adds much to the good 

 general effect of the front, the ornamental detail 

 being in this manner more concentrated. 



ORMEROD also was held by a family of the same 



surname." John Ormerod died in 1525 holding 

 of the king as duke four messuages, lands, &c., in 

 Cliviger in socage by a rent of i^J. yearly. His son 

 and heir Peter was twenty-two years of age." Peter 

 Ormerod died in 1578 holding similarly and leaving 

 as heir a son Lawrence, aged fourteen." Peter 

 Ormerod of Ormerod and John Ormerod of Cliviger 

 each paid ^10 in 1631 as composition on declining 

 knighthood." The estate descended to Lawrence 

 Ormerod, who died in 1793"; his only child, 

 Charlotte Anne, married John Hargreaves of Good- 

 shaw, and died in 1 806, leaving a son, who died in 

 1826 unmarried, and two daughters, of whom an 

 account has been given under Bank Hall in Burnley. 

 Sir John Ormerod Scarlett Thursby, bart., is the 

 present owner of Ormerod. 



0».^tEROD of 



Ormerod. Or three bars 

 gulel in chief a lion 

 passant of the second. 



Thursby, baronet. 

 ^"Irgeni a chei'eron he- 

 fween three lions ram- 

 pant sable. 



Ormerod House is situated at the extreme north- 

 west of the township on the top of a steep declivity 

 forming the south bank of the River Brun. The 

 front faces south, and as the ground continues to 

 slope upwards from the river the building appears 

 to some disadvantage when approached in the usual 

 way from higher ground on the south side. The 

 house is almost entirely modern, but some por- 

 tions of the original late 16th-century building 

 remain at the back with their old muUioned 

 windows, and an inscribed stone is preserved in the 

 grounds with the date 1595 and the initials of 

 Lawrence Ormerod, the builder, and Elizabeth 

 (Barcroft) his wife. The plan of the original building 

 is now lost, but was probably the usual one of central 

 and projecting end-wings, and work seems to have 

 been in progress for some years after the date 

 mentioned." An old undated picture presen'ed at 

 the house, which is said to represent the building as 

 it was in 1734,'* shows the south front then rebuilt 

 in a rather plain classic style, with straight parapets, 

 square-headed sash windows and central porch. This 

 18th-century elevation now forms the middle part 

 of the principal elevation, but the house was greatly 

 added to in the early part of the last century, when 

 a third gable was added to the front at the east end, 

 and at the other a considerable extension was made 

 with two similar gables facing west, the classic style of 



*^ The oak panelling and gallery front 

 were taken away by Lady OHagan and 

 are now in her town residence. 



^ Matthew de Ormerod occurs as a 

 witness about 12-0 ; C 8, 13, F 36. 

 Gilbert de Ormerod his son occurs 

 likewise from 1301 to 1325; Add. MS. 

 32104, no. 8::5, Sec. Two of the name 

 (Adam and Tille) occur in the list of free 

 tenants in 1311. There is a pedigree in 



Whitaker, op. cit. ii, 221 ; see also Orme- 

 rod, Parentalia. There was another 

 Ormerod family in the adjacent forest of 

 Rossendalc. 



^' Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vi, no. 49. 

 The rent is incorrectly given in Lanes, 

 In J. p.m. (Chet. Soc), ii, 153. 



'' Ibid, ii, 159. 



" Misc, (Rec Soc. Lano. and Che>.), 

 i, 217. 



" The descent after 1578 is thus given 

 by Whitaker ; Lawrence Ormerod, d. 

 circa 1614 -s. Peter, d. 1653 -s. 

 Lawrence, d. 1674 -». Peter (who 

 married a Barcroft heiress) -*. Lawrence, 

 d. 171 7 -s. Lawrence, d. i-^S -f. 

 Peter, d. 1767 -s. Lawrence, d. 1793. 



" Another stone in the grounds is 

 dated 1604. 



^Whitaker, op. cit. ii, ZII. 



484 



