A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Peter Halcwood's gift of ^(^loo in 1815, afterwards 

 augmented by X^°° bequeathed by his daughter 

 Margaret ; the interest, /lo 17/. (>d. net, is distri- 

 buted by trustees appointed by the parish council.' 

 James Holland Lancaster desired ^^loo to be given as 

 a prize for St. Philip's National School, Litherland ; 

 and in 1886 his representatives carried out his wish.' 



For Great Crosby the j^io left by John Lurting 

 and James Rice had been gradually augmented, and 

 in 1898 was supposed to be represented by £,\\; 

 formerly the interest was applied to apprenticing poor 

 boys, but now is handed to the vicar of Great Crosby 

 to be used for the poor at his discretion.' Over 

 j^i,ooo has in more recent times been given by the 

 brothers John and Samuel Bradshaw.* Thomas 

 Fowler's bequest of jf20 for binding poor children to 

 trades appears to have been lost,' but the interest on 

 Anne Molyneux's [^\o provides a junior prize in 

 divinity for Merchant Taylors' School.' George 

 Blinkhorn of Great Crosby, by his will dated 1820, 

 charged his lands with ;^4 a year for the benefit of 

 the poor ; this continues in force.' 



At Little Crosby in 1828 the poor received 

 j^2 7/. dd. a year, and a small portion of this is still 

 paid, a voluntary rate being levied.' Various suras 

 have been given for the school at Ince Blundell,' and 

 j^5 \0i. is still paid to the priest in charge of the 

 mission there for the benefit of the poor ; but as the 

 'constable's levy' can no longer be enforced, various 

 sums charged upon it for the poor have ceased to be 

 paid." Edward Holme in 1695 left the residue of 

 his estate as a poor's stock for Thornton ; it realized 

 ;^I00, now said to be represented by a field in 

 Holmer Green, let at 10/. a year. The parish 

 council has charge of this charity." 



SEFTON 



Sextone, Dom. Bk. ; CefFton, 1242 ; Sefton, 1292, 

 and afterwards general; but Shefton (1300) appears 

 at times. Sephton became a common spelling in the 

 xvii cent. 



This township has an area of 1,233! acres," with 

 a population of 343 in 1901. The eastern boundary 

 is formed by the River Alt, except where the present 

 course of the stream has been restricted to the centre 

 of Sefton meadows, the whole of these lying within 

 the township. In time of frost they are flooded for 

 the amusement of skaters. The church and the mill 

 stand at the western edge. A few dwellings amid a 

 clump of trees cluster round the church ; there are 

 also hamlets called Sefton Town, Buckley Hill, and 

 Windle's Green. The moated site of the ancient 

 house of the Molyneux family" lies to the south-east 

 of the church, but nothing remains above the ground 

 of the buildings finally dismantled in 1720. Part of 

 it was standing till 1 81 7. Close to the site, on the 

 south, is a farmhouse, known as The Grange, retaining 

 some seventeenth-century details, and a barn of late 

 sixteenth-century date, though much patched with 

 later work. The mill over the Alt is said to have 

 been built in 1595, and has a four-centred doorway 

 and chimney-piece which may well be of that 

 date. 



The geological formation consists of the lower 

 keuper sandstone of the new red sandstone or 

 trias, overlaid by sand and thick boulder clay and by 

 alluvial deposit between the village and the River 

 Alt. The soil varies ; the subsoil is sand and clay. 

 Wheat, barley, oats, and rye are grown, as weL as 

 potatoes ; but cabbages are now the chief crop. 



The principal road is that from Liverpool to 

 Ormskirk ; at Sefton Town the road to Thornton 

 and Great Crosby branches off. The Leeds and 

 Liverpool Canal crosses the southern part of the 

 township. 



Thomas Pennant, who visited the place in 1773, 

 appears to have been pleased with its aspect, ' placed 

 on a vast range of fine meadows, that reach almost to 

 the sea and in a great measure supply Liverpool with 

 hay. It is watered by the Alt, a small trout stream ; 

 but after the first winter flood is covered with water 

 the whole season, by reason of want of fall to carry it 

 away.' '* 



' Op. cit. 2, 10. Nothing is known as 

 to the other ^20 existing in 1828. 



' Op. cit. 10. 



' Op. cit. +, 24.. The benefaction of 

 Lurting and Rice is mentioned by Bishop 

 Gastrell (Notilia, ii, 221) ; it was for the 

 poor generally, and was increased by /■15 

 left by George Williamson in 1750. In 

 1828 ^38 in the hands of the curate was 

 supposed to represent this sum, which 

 was in some way confused or inter- 

 changed with Fowler's benefaction. 



* Report, 24, 25. John Bradshaw of 

 Great Crosby in 1867 bequeathed ^100, 

 »nd Samuel Bradshaw in 18-9 gave /550 

 and an eighth of the residue of his 

 personal estate, ^368 91. 4^. A portion 

 of the interest, according to the will of 

 the donors, is devoted to the poor, in 

 conjunction with the last named charity ; 

 the remainder is given to several Ch. of 

 Engl, schools. 



* Op. cit. 3, 2+. The money was 

 given before 1733, and in 1787, when it 

 amounted to ^30, it was paid, with £q 

 held by the town for the poor, towards 

 making a stone drain at Thomback Pool • 

 £\ 191. as interest was in 1828 paid to 

 the curate of Great Crosby for the benefit 

 of the poor, but all trace of it is now lost, 

 no payment having been made out of the 

 rates 'within living memory,' 



' Op. cit. 4, 23. The testatrix desired 

 the interest to be 'laid out yearly in 

 Church Cattchiims and other good books 

 amongst the poor children coming to 

 Crosby School.' 



^ Op. cit. 24. The charity did not 

 become operative until 1846, when John 

 Blinkhorn, the testator's father, died. 

 The property, consisting of a field in 

 Thorpe Lane, &c., was sold before 

 1862. 



* Op. cit. 4, 5, 27. Thomas Cross of 

 Little Crosby left £^o to the lay-layers 

 and other officers, the capital to be spent 

 on the highways or other public work, 

 while of the interest half should be paid 

 to the officiating priest of Little Crosby 

 chapel, and the other half among poor 

 housekeepers. In addition £1 21. 6d. 

 had from 1762 been paid to the poor as 

 interest on the poor's stock of the town, 

 and 51. for bread had been paid by the 

 overseers since 1783, the donors being 

 unknown. The report of 1898 states 

 that the payments from the rates cannot 

 now be enforced, the 'constable' having 

 ceased to be a parish officer since 1872. 

 The payment to the priest had been made 

 down to 1893 i 2n<l the payment to the 

 poor has been reduced from £z loi. to 

 £1. No bread is given. 



9 Op. cit. 5, 27. In 1828 there was 



66 



a school at Ince, supposed to belong to 

 the inhabitants of the township and 

 repaired by them. The township authori- 

 ties make no claim to the site ; but it is 

 stated that the present school, built in 

 1843, has an endowment of ^1,693, of un- 

 known origin. This capital stock was in 

 1887 in the hands of the Roman Catholic 

 bishop of Liverpool ; interest at the rate 

 of 4 per cent, is paid to the manager of 

 the school. 



" Op. cit. 5, 28. In 1784 as much at 

 ^13 4J. 6</.was paid by the township to the 

 poor; this included the interest of ^100 left 

 by Mrs. Elizabeth Prevarius in 1759, and 

 of £c, left by Richard Tristram in 1727. 

 Mrs. Prevarius was probably the house- 

 keeper at Ince Blundell Hall of that 

 name ; the capital had by 1 828 been 

 doubled. In this year ^14 141. 6d. in 

 all was distributed. The /5 io». now 

 paid is the interest on the Prevarius 

 fund. 



'1 Op. cit. 6, 29. There is no record 

 of the conversion of the ^100 — which 

 had been increased to ^f 1 10 by 1774 — 

 into the present property. 



1^ The census of 1901 gives 1,231 acres, 

 including 9 of inland water. 



" In 1666 it had thirty-three hearth* ; 

 Lay Subs. Lanes. 250—9. 



n Do-wning to Alston Moor, 27. 



