BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



drained by Sabden Brook, which flows south-west to 

 the Calder. 



There are two cotton factories, one at Spen Brook 

 near Newchurch and the other, known as Spring 

 Mill, at Walton Row ; a third, called Fence Mill, 

 has been pulled down within the last few years. 

 The village of Newchurch lies in the north-east 

 corner of the township and extends into Rough Lee 

 Booth ; it is about the centre of Pendle Forest. 

 The soil is clay, overlying clay and rock, and the 

 land is used chiefly for pasture, there being 1,238 

 acres in permanent grass, with only J acre of arable 

 land and no woods.''' 



Old Laund Booth was in iSgS extended to 

 include about 200 acres of Goldshaw Booth,' and in 

 1 904 the newly-formed civil parish of Sabden took a 

 further portion of the township. The population of 

 the original township was 422 in 1 90 1, more than 

 half of which had been taken away by the change of 

 limits. The diminished township is governed by a 

 parish council. 



The accounts of the vaccaries of Pendle in 1296 

 give the names of eleven boothmen or keepers. The 

 names of the stock farms or vaccaries, locally known as 

 booths, are not recorded. In each cattle had died of 

 the murrain ; one boothman had a cow allowed to 

 him, one having been stolen by robbers ; another 

 had lost an ox through the attack of a wolf^ In 

 1305 the number of boothmen was one less.'' There 

 were two vaccaries in Goldshaw Booth in 1323, 

 yielding a rent of 56/.* Richard and John de 

 Whitaker were the farmers or tenants.' In 141 8 

 Roger Flore, chief steward, demised the vaccaries of 

 Over and Nether Goldshaw and Higham Booth, late 

 at j^i3 IS. id. rent, to Sir Richard RadclifFe for ten 

 years at £16 ; Richard Shireburne had the Craggs in 

 Pendle, near Goldea, at 20/., as against the old rent 

 of 13/. ^dJ The rental of 1463-4 shows that 

 William Leyland, Richard Robinson, John Nutter 

 and Richard Fielding paid _^8 6s. %d. for Nether 

 Goldshaw and Over Goldshaw with the Craggs, the 

 rent having been reduced from £t) 6s. Sd.' 



In 1507 the vaccary in Over Goldshaw and 

 Nether Goldshaw with the Craggs was demised by 

 copy of Court Roll for the increased rent of 

 ^13 6s. Sd. to the old farmers or tenants, viz. Robert, 



Edmund, Stephen and Henry Nutter, Edmund, 

 Ellis and Thomas Robinson, William Birkby, Edmund, 

 Lawrence and John Aspden and the wife of Roger 

 Aspden." The Nutter and Robinson families appear 

 in the township for long afterwards, but the other 

 families seem to have been quickly replaced by new- 

 ones, Hargrcaves and Stevenson appearing.'" The 

 names of their tenements are rarely given, but in a 

 17th-century rental John Stevenson of Heights, 

 Richard Nutter of Hall, John Robinson of Hoarstones 

 and Mr. John Moore of Grcenhead occur." 



The old house of Hoarstones, situated in a 

 southerly projection of the township between the two 

 portions ofOld Laund Booth, has been to a large extent 

 rebuilt by the present owner, Mr. W. H. Hartley. 



Goldshaw is closely connected with the famous 

 Pendle Forest witchcraft trials of 1 61 2. Elizabeth 

 Southerns, ' Old Demdike,' confessed that she had 

 first met Tib, her ' familiar,' some twenty years 

 earlier at a stone pit in Goldshaw ; she and her 

 daughter Elizabeth Device (or Devis) and Device's 

 two children Alison and James were among the most 

 prominent persons in the trial, as accused or as wit- 

 nesses, while John Hargreaves of Goldshaw Booth 

 was said to have been a victim. Another ' witch ' 

 of the immediate neighbourhood was Anne Whittle, 

 ' Old Chattox,' who with her daughter Anne wife 

 of Thomas Redferne was tried and executed for 

 witchcraft at the same time, she being then eighty 

 years of age.'' 



An echo of the earlier proceedings against witches 

 occurred in 1634, and resulted in the indictment at 

 Lancaster of seventeen inhabitants of Pendle Forest 

 charged with witchcraft. At the examination of 

 witnesses previous to the trial it was deposed that 

 witches to the number of thirty or more had met on 

 several occasions at a new house called Hoarstones. 

 The principal accuser, a boy ten years of age named 

 Edmund Robinson, of Newchurch in Pendle, actually 

 described how whilst gathering bullaces a black 

 hound and a grey one had appeared, with which he 

 thought to have coursed a hare. They would not 

 run, and upon his beating the black one there stood 

 up in its place one Dickenson's wife, whom he 

 at once charged with being a witch. Failing to 

 bribe him to silence, she conjured a little boy, who 



la Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905). 



« Loc. Govt. Bd. Order 37367. Tlie 

 area at the census of 1 901 was 1,834 

 acres, including 11 of inland water. 



3 De Lacy Comfoii (Chet. Soc), 23- 

 30. 



'' Ibid. 71-6. In one case (p. 75) the 

 tenant had an animal more than his 

 account showed j it was found on the 

 view, 



^ Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 200, 



^ Lanes, Ct. R. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), 72. At Michaelmas 1341 there 

 was in Over Goldshaw a stock of 2 bulls, 

 32 cows, 8 heifers, 7 twinters, and during 

 the ensuing year an increase of 19 calves, 

 of which four died of murrain. In 

 Nether Goldshaw a bull, 5 cows, 6 heifers, 

 10 twinters and 12 calves of the year's 

 issue, with five drafted from elsewhere ; 

 of these 17 calves 5 died of murrain. 

 See Mins. Accts. bdle. 109 1, no. 6. 



7 Ibid. bdle. 76, no. 1498. 



8 'Whitaker, PFhalley, i, 359. Richard 

 Robinson, John Nutter and Richard 



Fielding were still tenants at the rent of 

 ^8 65. 8t/. in 1474- ; Receivers' Accts. 

 bdle. 90, no. 1650. The same names 

 appear in the accounts of Michaelmas 

 1495 ; ibid. bdle. 91, no. 1662. 



" The account of the forest allotments 

 made in 1507 is derived from a MS. at 

 Huntroyde. 



"^ In 1527 the principal tenants were 

 Edmund Stevenson the elder, James Har- 

 greaves, Edmund Robinson the elder, Ellis 

 Robinson, John Halliday and John 

 Nowell i the others were Richard, John, 

 Anthony and Marculph (or Mark) Nutter, 

 the wife of Edmund Nutter, John Robin- 

 son, John, Sibyl and Edmund Stevenson 

 the younger and the wife of James Halli- 

 day. The rents as given amount to 

 j^i3 ij. yd. ; Duchy of Lane. Rcnt^ils, 

 bdle. 5, no. 12. 



In 1609 John Crombock and John 

 Moor answered for Nutter's land ^ the 

 other considerable tenants were Thomas 

 Robinson, Nicholas Duxbury, James 

 Hargreaves, Nicholas and William Steven- 

 son. John Nutter and John Nutter of 



Bull Hole are named ; Grimshaw MS. 

 (in possession of W. Farrer), p. 77. 



In 1 662 John Robinson paid the 

 largest rent ; the next were Christopher 

 Hartley (in right of his wife), Lawrence 

 Duxbury and Nicholas Stevenson ; Honor 

 of Clitheroe MS. (Towneley), in posses- 

 sion of W. Farrer, p. 246. 



1' Ibid. pp. 339-40. James Robinson 

 of Goldshaw Booth was a freeholder in 

 1600 ; Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 

 i, 236. 



*2 Potts' Disco-very (Chet. Soc). Potts 

 does not usually give the names of places. 

 Malkin Tower is said to be at Blacko in 

 Barrowford, but fields called Malkin are 

 at Sadler's Farm in Goldshaw Booth ; 

 note by Dr. Laycock. 



An * aghendole ' of meal {Potts' Dis- 

 co'uery, E, p. 8) was promised to one of 

 the witches by John Device, on condition 

 that she did not hurt him. The word, 

 which denotes a measure of 8iV lb., has 

 recently become obsolete in the district. 

 See Engl. Dialect Diet, under ' Haughen- 

 dole.* 



