A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



There was an ancient school in Kiricby, built on 

 the glebe, but it was burnt down. The children 

 were afterwards taught in the vestry, until Lord 

 Sefton erected a school on his own land.' 



Mass is occasionally said on Sundays at a mission 

 room which is served from Maghull.' 



1297 



SIMONSWOOD 



Simundeswude, 1207; Simundeswod, 

 Symondcswode, 1391.' The / is short. 



This township, placed within the forest, and so 

 becoming extra-parochial,* measures about three miles 

 by one and a half^ with an area of 2,626 acres.' It is 

 a flat open agricultural country, consisting chiefly of 



through the township westwards towards the River Alt. 

 The geological formation is triassic, similar to that found 

 in Kirkby, with a small area of the middle coal mea- 

 sures extending across the north-eastern portion of the 

 moss. The population was 358 in 1901. The 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's railway from 

 Liverpool to Wigan crosses the township. 

 There is a parish council. 



Simonswood was taken into the forest 

 MANOR after the first coronation of Henry II, and 

 therefore the knights who made the per- 

 ambulation of the forest in 1228 declared that it 

 ought to be disafforested and restored to the heirs of 

 Richard son of Roger, lords of the vill of Kirkby.' 

 Hugh de Moreton, who had married Margaret, 

 daughter and coheir of that Richard, had in 1 207 



Simonswood Hall 



arable fields, with but few plantations. The soil is 

 partly sandy and partly peaty, with traces of old 

 mossbnd. A large patch of moss still exists In the 

 east of the township, with the characteristic vegetation 

 of white-stemmed birch-trees waving above bracken, 

 sedges, and rushes. Peat is dug, dried and stacked 

 ready for fuel, the grounds thus cleared being con- 

 verted into valuable arable fields, where potatoes and 

 other root crops, cabbages and some com grow 

 luxuriantly. Copses and plantations afford cover for 

 much game. The district is very sparsely populated, 

 the farm-houses and cottages being too scattered to 

 be described as a village. 



The Simonswood brook and another of equally 

 insignificant size, rising in mossland to the east, flow 



proffered a palfrey for the pasture of Simonswood, 

 which ought to belong to his wife's manor of Kirkby ; 

 but though he undertook to cause no injury to the 

 forest, his offer was at length declined.' 



The wood was not disafforested, and until the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century remained parcel 

 of the forest and demesne of West Derby. It was 

 placed under the care of a forester, who permitted 

 pasturage and the taking of estovers by the people of 

 Kirkby, and safeguarded the vert and venison. The 

 yearly issues probably no more than covered the 

 wages of the forester and his bailiff; in 1257 the 

 issues from hay sold, turbary and perquisites amounted 

 to 16s. zd.y in 1327 the gross income was 

 X3 i)!. %d. ;'■' and in 1348 had risen to £^ 5/. 6^.'° 



* £nJ. Char. Rrf. 1 903. 



' Liverpool Cath. Annual. There are 

 some traces of a regular mission for this 

 township and the adjoining Fazakerley in 

 the eighteenth century and early part of 

 the nineteenth j see Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 

 290. 



3 The origin of the name is traditionally 

 referred to one Simon, who defeated in a 

 race a famous runner of King John's, 

 and in consequence received the custody 

 of the wood ; Trjis. Hisr. Sot:, vi, 45. 



* It was sometimes said to be in the 

 parish of Lancaster like other forest land. 



^ The Census Rep. of 1 90 1 gives 2,645 

 acres. A small detached portion of 

 Melling was added to Simonswood in 

 1877 ', Loc Gov. Bd. order 7,218. 



* li'taUfy Ccucbcr (Chet. See), ii, 372 ; 



this, like some other portions of the 

 finding, is not found in the enrolment of 

 the Perambulation in the Close R. of 12 

 Hen. Ill ; Cal. of Close, 1227-31, p. 100. 



? Farrer, Laves. Pipe R. ziy. A debt 

 of 2j marks in lien of the pallrey was 

 cancelled in 12 11, the record stating in 

 explanation that Hugh had not, nor could 

 have, the pasture for which he had bar- 

 gained. Ibid. 240. 



8 Latics. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 210. They were 

 not given separately in 1297 ; Ibid. 287, 

 300. 



Thomas, earl of Lancaster, gave this 

 with other demesne lands of the hundred 

 to Sir Robert de Holand, but these after 

 the forfeiture were not restored to him • 

 Pari. R. ii, 29A. ' 



56 



For the verderer see Cal. Close R. 

 '330-3> 74- 



^ Inq. p.m. 1 Edw. Ill, „. 88. 

 1" Duchy of Lane. Var. Accts. bdle. 32, 

 ". 17, m. yd. The details are thus 

 given :— Of the herbage, winter and sum- 

 '".^'■> £4- ; of wood blown down by the 

 wind, 51. 6d. ; of the pannage of swine, 

 perquisites of the wood-motes, farm of a 

 smithy, honey and woodland wai, alders, 

 dead wood, crop (twigs), bark, sparrow- 

 hawks, escapes and waifs, nil. 



That there were deer in the wood is 

 shown by the pardon granted in 1391 to 

 Sir Richard de Clifton ; he had entered 

 the duke's chase of Simonswood in 

 August, 1386, with his harriers and uken 

 a hind of the duke's beasts of the forest ; 

 Kuerden MSS. ii, fol. 174. 



