A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The abbey of Whallcy h.iJ a bam and a few acres 

 of land at Colne, occupied by John Mitchell in 



The following in 1524 contributed to the subsidy 

 for lands : — Thomas Emmott, Leonard Blakey, 

 Richard Blakey, John. Rishworth."' In 15 + 3 

 John Rishworth, ' squyer,' Lawrence Parker, John 

 Hartley, Robert Blakey and Thomas Driver.'^* In 

 1 5 64 Robert Blakey, Thomas Emmott, Bernard 

 Parker and Edward Marsden.^'' In 1597 Thomas 

 Emmott, Thomas Rishworth, Bernard Parker, Henry 

 Parker, Edward Marsden, Henry Shaw, John Har- 

 greaves, James Paley and Nicholas Mitchell.^'^ In 

 1626 John Emmott, Daniel Barnard, Henry Shaw, 

 Alexander Parker, Edward Marsden, Robert Har- 

 greaves, Nicholas Mitchell, Geoffrey Shakleton and 

 Simon Bulcock. A number of convicted recusants 

 are entered on this list.^l'' 



The hearth tax return for 1666 shows that there 

 were in Colne town 170 hearths liable to the tax 

 and 1 34 in the rest of the township. In the town 

 the principal houses were those of Robert Trueman 

 with eleven hearths, Margaret Emmott and Joseph 

 Shakleton eight each, Francis Robinson seven, 

 Mrs. CunlifFe six, James Hargreaves, Greenfield, 

 William Greene the younger and John Huitt five 

 each. Outside Robert Hammond had fifteen hearths 

 to be taxed, Christopher Smith and Christopher 

 Trueman seven each, John Hargreaves and Henry 

 Shaw six each, John Bankes, William Emmott and 

 Miles Tilltes five each.^^* The hearth tax return of 

 1673 also shows a considerable number of houses in 

 Colne with four hearths and more ; the only occupiers 

 entitled ' Mr.' were Robert Hamond, John Hargreaves 

 and (Robert ?) Trewman.^'*^ 



A local board was formed for 

 BOROUGH COLNE in 1875, the district includ- 

 ing the northern part of Marsden.'" 

 In 1894 this district was constituted the township of 

 Colne,'^'^ and the board became an urban district 

 council. In the following year a charter of incorpo- 

 ration was granted,^^^ the council consisting of a 

 mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors. The 

 borough is divided into six wards : Central, Horsfield, 

 Vivary Bridge, Primet Bridge, Carry Bridge and 

 Laneshaw Bridge. The town hall was opened in 

 1894. Waterworks were established in 1806,''^ the 

 source of supply being at Flass ; the undertaking was 

 acquired by the local board in 1881.'^' Gas-works, 

 erected in 1838 by a company, were also taken over 

 by the local board in 1877.^^^ A commission of the 

 peace was granted to the borough in 1898. There 

 is a voluntary fire brigade. The cemetery, opened 



in l86o, is controlled by the corpor.ition. An 

 isolation hospital has been established. The Jubilee 

 Cottage Hospital, erected in 1900 by Sir W. P. 

 Hartley, is supported by voluntary contributions. 

 There is a public library, given by Mr. Carnegie. The 

 old Free Trade Hall has become the Theatre Royal. 

 The church of ST. BJRTHOLO- 

 CHURCH MEfy^^^ stands in a commanding 

 position 1-^ near to the summit of the 

 hiU on which the town is situated, on the north side 

 of the main street, and consists of chancel with north 

 and south aisles or chapels, together with vestries, and 

 organ chamber forming a kind of transept beyond 

 the north aisle, nave with double north and single 

 south aisle, south porch and west tower. 



The earliest part of the building is the north 

 arcade of the nave, which dates from the end of the 

 1 2th or beginning of the 13th century, and forms 

 the only remaining part of a transitional church 

 consisting of chancel and nave with north aisle, the 

 dimensions of which would be, approximately, chancel 

 25 ft. by 18 ft. and nave as at present. No evidence 

 of its western termination or whether there was a 

 south aisle can be deduced from the plan, but it 

 probably ended in a western gable and was aislelcss 

 on the south side. No doubt the building p.issed 

 through the usual processes of enlargement and 

 alteration during the next two centuries, but there 

 is little positive evidence of this in the structure 

 itself till the beginning of the 1 6th century, 

 when the church having probably become dilapi- 

 dated the people determined upon its repair and 

 restoration. The greater part of the building belongs 

 to this date, but a fragment of 14th-century work 

 remains at the east end of the north side of the 

 chancel in a narrow doorway opening into the north 

 aisle, which shows that in the 14th century the 

 chancel was of the same extent as at present, and had 

 an aisle its full length on the north side, the door, as 

 may be seen by the reveals, never having been an 

 external one. In the last restoration, when the east 

 wall of the north chancel aisle was pulled down, the 

 masonry was found to be very largely of 14th-century 

 date and contained fragments of a window of the 

 same perlod,i^' so that it may be assumed that the 

 chancel ^^' at least of the early church had been 

 rebuilt in the 14th century, at which date probably 

 the plan would assume more or less of its present 

 form. The lower part of the tower may belong to 

 this period, though it bears little external evidence of 

 a date earlier than the 16th-century building. 



There was apparently an almost complete re- 

 construction of the church ^^' early in the 1 6th 



mentions his cousin John Hargreaves of 

 Greenfield. His children were all young. 

 Robert his son conveyed Carry Heys to 

 Ambrose Barcroft of Colne Hall in 1678, 

 and in 1 704 Thomas Barcroft of Noyna 

 had it. It afterwards (1791) was in the 

 hands of Matthew Wilson of Otley, in 

 right of his wife Martha daughter and 

 co-heir of William Barcroft of Noyna, 

 and was in 1799 released to Mary Folds 

 of Trawden. She had by inheritance 

 the Folds share of Carry Heys. These 

 particulars are from the Folds D. 

 (W. Farrer). 



112 fTAalley C ouc A. {Chet. Soc.),iv, 1221. 



1" Subs. R. Lanes, bdle. 130, no. 82. 



m Ibid. no. 125. 



"5 Ibid. bdle. 131, no. 212. 



"' Ibid. no. 274.. '1' Ibid. no. 317. 



"* Ibid. bdle. 250, no. 9. 



118» Carr, op. cit. 28-9. 



11' Act 38 & 39 Vict. cap. 176 ; the 

 name was * Colne and Marsden local 

 government district.* 



12» Local Govt. Bd. Order 30592. 



"1 Charter dated 17 July 1895. 



'^ Under an Act 46 Geo. Ill, cap. 27. 



128 Act 44 & 45 Vict. cap. 83. 



'^ Act 40 & 41 Vict. cap. 159. 



12^ An account of the church in Carr, 

 op. cit. chap, iv, has been used in the 

 following description. Cf. Latics, Churches 

 (Chet. Soc), 16. 



128 There is a local version of the story 

 of the stones having been carried to the 

 top of the hill by supernatural agency 



from a proposed site at Church Clough, 

 about half a mile from the town ; Carr, 

 op. cit. 197. 



1^ Ex inform. Austin and Paley. 



^^ The principal image in the chancel la 

 mentioned in a penance ordered in 1515 ; 

 Act Bk. ofWhalUy (Chet. Soc), 45. 



^29 In 1577 again a commission was 

 issued for the repair of the chapel of 

 Colne ; Pennant's MS. AccL Bk. 



The following were the proportions 

 payable to a * fifteenth ' of ^3 31. hd. for 

 the repair of the chapel : Colne, town part, 

 ji. i.\d.\ township part, 1 31. 6^(/. ; Grcit 

 Marsden, 141. zd, ; Little Marsden, 

 ■ji. 6d. ; Trawden, 8j. 4^*/. ; Foulrldge, 

 5J. 8Ji/. i Penley, 7/, \d. ; Carr, op. ciu 

 105. 



