A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



value beyond reprises ; the park, with moss and 

 herbage, was valued at 40/. ; and in demesne there 

 were 8 acres of land worth 2s. SJ. and an acre of 

 meadow worth is. The halmote, with a perquisite 

 called Thistletake, was worth 40/. Tenants at will 

 had 52 1 acres, paying 50/. 5^. Thus the value 

 was £6 I4J. id. in all.' 



During the rebellion of Earl Thomas a great part 

 of the stock at Ightenhill and in the forests of Black- 

 burnshire ^^•as driven away to Skipton.' In con- 

 sequence there were no mares here in 1324, and but 

 a trifling head of rounceys and colts. In Ightenhill 

 outside the park rent and farm that year yielded 

 59/. 6J., and 6| acres improved from the waste 

 were demised .it the customary farm of ^J. the acre. 

 In the park 68 beasts were agisted at &d. a head. 

 Xo corn was reaped, but 46 acres of meadow were 

 mown for hay, and repairs had been executed in the 

 king's chamber and other buildings a: the manor- 

 house in preparation for the royal visit of October 

 1323. Richard the Skinner, park keeper, received 

 4^". a day wages as well as 10/. for a robe.'° He 

 was in 1327 succeeded by John de Hemingburgh," 

 who was followed by Richard de Norton, one of the 

 king's archers, in 1333." There are a number of 

 references to unlawful hunting in Ightenhill in the 

 time of Edward III in the Patent Rolls." 



Accounts of the stock have been preserved,'* and 

 in 1344 Roger de Normanvill was made keeper of 

 the king's stud beyond Trent and of the herbage of 

 Ightenhill Park." In 1348 he was, in conjunction 

 with John de Radcliffe and John de Altham, com- 

 missioned to inquire into offences alleged against 

 Richard de Norton in agisting forty animals in the 

 park to his own profit and keeping three mares with 

 the king's stallions there.'* In 1380 the keeper of 

 Pendle Chase was ordered to mclose the park with a 

 ditch and quickwood hedge in the best manner 

 possible." In and before 1400 John the Parker held 

 the office of parker of Ightenhill and was in 1416 

 succeeded by his son John, who is called the younger 

 parker in I423." 



Roger Flore, chief steward, demised the farm of 

 the herbage of the park in 141 8 to Oliver de Stans- 



field and John the Parker of Ightenhill for a term of 

 ten years at a rental of j^20 6/. 8J. a year ; it had 

 previously been let at £zO." The kitchen, granary 

 and other buildings of the manor-house were in 1426 

 thoroughly repaired at a cost of j^lj 3/. 6d. under 

 the superintendence of James Banastre." Thomas 

 Lord Stanley held the park at farm in 1459 at the 

 rent of ^^20 6s. SJ., John Pilkington in 1464, and 

 Hugh Gartside in 1474. In 1495 Sir Thomas 

 Walton was tenant." The manor courts appear to 

 have been held at Ightenhill till the time of 

 Henry VIII, when Higham was adopted. 



The park was not granted as a copyhold tenement 

 by the Commissioners of 1507, but the herbage was 

 in that year demised to Robert Rishton for a term of 

 twenty-one years, together with the Burnley water- 

 mill."' Rishton in I 518-19 surrendered his lease to Sir 

 John Towneley, to whom in 1524 the Crown granted 

 a lease of the park in fee farm at a rent of ^^30, 

 together with the mills of Burnley and Clitheroe." 

 At Sir John's instance a view of the state of the 

 manor-house was on i6 July 1522 made by twelve 

 copyholders, their report being enrolled on the hal- 

 mote roll as follows " : — 



At the day of taking this inquest the great hall and the 

 timber of the manor-house of Ightenhill are in ruins and fallen 

 to the ground, a great part carried away and not to be found 

 there. The gre.it chamber at the western end of the hall is in 

 like state j the kitchen, butler's house, and pantry are destroyed 

 and no part to be found, nor are any timbers or slate-stones now 

 left. The oven-house and great barn are in like state. The 

 long chamber at the western end of the hall has fallen down 

 and no part of it remains. Only the park-keeper's house 

 remains standing, with timber and slate-stones ; but the doors 

 and windows have been taken away, and it is like to fall for 

 lack of repair. The chapel there and the stable also remain in 

 like state. John Towneley has not been found guilty of the 

 removal or destruction of any timber or stone of the said 

 bouses. 



Sir John Towneley in 1536 derived a clear rental 

 of j£ I I 12/. ^d. from the park, including seventy- 

 eight boon mallards and thirty-nine boon days' ' shear- 

 ing' and thirteen days' mowing, commuted for 23;. io</. 

 The tenants were the vicar of Rochdale (Gilbert Hiy- 

 dock), £3; Thomas Folds, £2 8s. lid.; William 



' Lana. IrK). and Exitnti (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), li, 8. 



* Cj/. Cloie^ 1323-7, p. 2~. 



^^ Lanct. Inq. and Extents^ ii, 190, 197. 

 The former parker was Richard fn of 

 Hiche, who was amerced for trespasses in 

 1324; Memo. R. (L.T.R.), 88, m. 90. 



" Cal. Pat. 1327-30, p. 9. John de 

 Newsom was keeper of the king's stud 

 beyond Trent, and of the park of Ighten- 

 hill in 1332; Cal. Close, 1330-3, p. 

 449- 



1^ Cal. Pat. 1330-4, p. 472. He was 

 in 1332 ordered to repair the palings and 

 inclosures about the park and the three 

 closes belonging to it, namely West Close, 

 Higham and Filly Close ; Cal. Clj:t, 

 •3iO-3. P-+4r- 



"Ca/. Pat. 1330-4, p. 573, &c. 

 Richard de Hulton in 1334 and John 

 Dautrey in 1339 received pardon for 

 trespasses in the park; ibid. 1334-8, 

 p. 8 ; 1338-40, p. 342. 



" In 1 341 the stock of horses had 

 been replenished, and at .Michaelmas there 

 were of mares thirt)--five, of three to four 

 years old eight, of two to three years five, 

 of one to two years three, of foals eleven. 



In 1542 there were of issue fourteen foals. 

 Hay of 60 acres of meadow at lid. the 

 acre, and 104 thraves of oats, yielding 

 by estimation twenty-six quarters at 14^/. 

 the quarter, were bought for the support 

 of the stock ; Exch. K. R. Equicium 

 Regis, 358/16 (in Whitaker, Whalley, 

 i, 310-12). In addition to the Cornfield 

 there were inclosures of meadow called 

 Middleyard and Stodmcrhalgh. 



In 1340 the summer herbage of the 

 park was agisted by ninety-six head, in- 

 cluding cattle (aWria) forty-five, steers 

 twenty-one, cows seventeen, young stock 

 thirteen, yielding 781. 6d. ; Rentals and 

 Surveys, portf. 9, no. 74. Two years later 

 the number was fifty-five and the rent 541. 

 In the winter of 1341-2 there were 

 agisted in Ightenhill Park, Higham Close 

 and Filly Close 141 beasts, of which five 

 were 314^., sixty-nine at ^d., twenty-two 

 at 2d., twenty-one at i^d., and twenty-four 

 at id. Of the hey or hedge round these 

 inclosures and the meadows in the park 

 155 perches were repaired at ^d. the 

 perch, and forty-five perches of new palings 

 were made round the park at id. the rod ; 

 Whitaker, loc. ciu 



48b 



" Cal. Pat. 1343-5, p. 189. 



1" Ibid. 1348-50, p. 157. Henry de 

 Standen and other keepers of the stud 

 were charged with mismanagement and 

 heavy losses of the king's stud ; ibid. 

 .76. 



" Whitaker, op. cit. i, 307 ; from the 

 register of John of Gaunt. 



'" Duchy of Lane. Reg.no. 14, fol. 25 ; 

 no. 15, fol. 63 i, 79. Whitaker gives the 

 following later parkers : John Talbot, 

 Charles Belfield (1461), Alexander But- 

 terworth(r46i), John Talbot and Robert 

 Rishton (1502) J op. cit. i, 313. 



" Mins. Accts. bdle. 76, no. 1498. 



™ Duchy of Lane. Receivers' Accts. 

 bdle. 89, no. 1633 ; Whitaker, op. cit. i, 

 312. 



" Receivers' Accts. bdlet. 8g, no. 1648 j 

 90, no. 1649, 1650 ; 91, no. 1662. The 

 rent had previously been £2 1 61. id. 



** Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. xxi, fol. 

 A/60 d. 



" CaL of Towneley D. The ^30 rent 

 was paid in 1 5 27 ; Duchy of Lane. Rentals 

 bdle. 5, no. 12. 



" Court R. at Clitheroe Castle, 14 

 Hen. VIIL 



