TOPOGRAPHY 



THE HUNDRED OF WEST DERBY 



CONTAINING THE PARISHES OF 



At the time of the Domesday Survey this hundred consisted of the three 

 hundreds of West Derby, Warrington, and Newton.^ At what date the last 

 two were united with West Derby to form the present hundred is not known, 

 but it occurred before the reign of Henry II, probably early in that of 

 Henry I. The hundred is bounded on the west by the Irish Sea and River 

 Mersey from the Snoter Stone at Hundred End on the Ribble estuary to 

 Hale Head ; thence on the south by the Mersey ^ to Glazebrook, from which 

 point, north-west to Arley Hall, it is bounded on the east by Salford hundred. 

 From Arley Hall it is for the most part divided from Leyland hundred on 

 the north by the River Douglas until near RufFord Hall, whence the boundary 

 runs through Martin Mere (now drained) in a north-westerly direction to 

 the above-named Snoter Stone. The township of AspuU in Wigan lies in 

 the hundred of Salford. 



Around the chief manor of West Derby with its castle, supposed to 

 have been built by Roger of Poitou, lay a number of manors belonging to 

 the demesne of the county. At the Conquest these included, in addition to 

 the chief manor of West Derby, six berewicks embracing the vills of 

 Thingwall, Liverpool, Great Crosby, Aintree with part of Walton, Everton, 

 Garston with Aigburth, and Hale with Halewood, the whole containing four 

 hides or twenty-four carucates of land.'' By the end of the twelfth century 

 this demesne had undergone some change by the inclusion of part of Walton, 

 Wavertree, part of Formby, Altcar, Raven Meols, Ainsdale, and Uplitherland, 

 which had been held by thegns before the date of the Domesday Survey ; and 

 by the grant of some portions of West Derby, Great Crosby, Walton, 

 Wavertree, Formby, Raven Meols, Ainsdale, and Uplitherland to be held by 



' See vol. i, 283-6. The parishes of Prescot, Warrington, and Leigh practically formed the Domesday- 

 hundred of Warrington, and the parishes of Wigan and Winwick that of Newton. 



' In 1896 the boundary of the county was extended to include the whole of the borough of Warrington, 

 the Latchford portion of which lay in Ches. 



^ /»f. and Extents (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 25. 



