A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



CHILDWALL 



CHILDWALL 

 WAVERTREE 

 THLNGWALL 

 MUCH WOOLTON 



LITTLE WOOLTON 



GARSTOX 



ALLERTON 



SPEKE 

 HALE 

 HALEWOOD 



The ancient parish of ChildwaU has an area of 

 16,043 acres, to which 3,252 acres tidal water must 

 be added and about 4,500 acres of foreshore. The 

 principal physical feature is the central ridge, which 

 rises at one point to nearly 300 ft. Thus there is a 

 general slope to ChildwaU Vale to the north-east, and 

 to the Mersey on the south-west and to the south- 

 east. ChildwaU Heath formerly extended along the 

 boundary between Wavertree and ChUdwall into 

 Little Woolton. 



The parish comprises ten townships, anciently 

 arranged in four 'quarters' thus : (l) ChUdwall ; (2) 

 Wavertree, ThingwaU,' Much Woolton, Little Wool- 

 ton ; (3) Garston, AUerton, Speke ; (4) Hale, Hale- 

 wood. To the ' fifteenth ' the parish paid j^8 i is. ()\ii. 

 out of an assessment of ^^ 106 9;. 6ti. for the hundred,* 

 while to the county lay it contributed a sixteenth part 

 of the hundred levy, so distributed that when this 

 amounted to ;(^loo the ' quarters ' of ChildwaU paid 

 as follows : — ChildwaU, 5/. ; Hale, I 3/. 4a'., Hale- 

 wood, 26/. id. — £2; Much Woolton, Little 

 Woolton, Wavertree, i 3^. 412'. each — £z ; Speke, 20/., 

 Garston, 1 5/., AUerton, 5/. — £2 ; the total being 



Henr}' earl of Derby in 1591 gave his decision in 

 the dispute between the parishioners of ChildwaU in 

 general and those who lived in the chapelry of Hale, 

 touching the repairs of the parish church. On the 

 Hale side it was urged that they were practically 

 separate for worship and the sacraments, and had 

 never paid to the repair of ChildwaU church or 

 churchyard. The other side said it was notorious 

 that Hale was part of the parish, and the tithes were 

 collected thence as from other parts of it ; further, the 

 vicar of ChildwaU allowed £\ a year towards the 

 stipend of the curate of Hale ; it was proved also that 

 within the previous twenty years a lay had been im- 

 posed on the parish for church repairs and that Hale 

 had contributed its share, a third. Accordingly the 

 earl decided that Hale must pay its due proportion.' 



Though the market and fair at Hale and the ford 

 across the Mersev at that place must have brought 

 some traffic into the district, the record of the parish 

 has few striking events. The freeholders in 1600 

 were John Ireland of the Hutt, Edward Norris of 

 Speke, Evan Haughton of Wavertree, WiUiam Wood- 

 ward and Thomas Orme of Woolton, William Brettargh 

 of Aigburth, Hugh Leike of ChUdwaU, Edward 

 Mohneux, David Ford, and WiUiam Whitefield of 

 Speke.' 



The ecclesiastical changes made by Elizabeth were 

 received with as little favour here as elsewhere in 

 Lancashire. The chapel at Garston had ceased to be 

 used for service and fell into ruin. In 1590 Edward 

 Norris of Speke and George Ireland of the Hutt, both 

 esquires 'of fair and ancient living,' were classed among 

 those ' of some degree of conformity, yet in general note 

 of evil affection in religion, non-communicants ' ; and 

 the wife of the former was ' a recusant and indicted 

 thereof Thomas Molyneux of Speke, one ' of the 

 gentlemen of the better sort,' was a ' comer to church 

 but no communicant.'* One of the Brcttarghs of the 

 Holt became a Puritan, and suffered some persecution 

 from his neighbours in consequence. The quarrel 

 between Sir William Norris and Edward Moore indi- 

 cates the bitterness engendered by the attempts to en- 

 force conformity to the new order. The parish 

 afforded a victim to the laws in the person of John 

 Almond of Speke, executed for his priesthood in 161 2. 



Other indications of the condition of the parish are 

 afforded by the records of the bishop's visitations. In 

 I 592 two men were excommunicated for piping upon 

 the Sabbath day in the churchyard ; others suffered 

 for standing in the churchyard and talking at service 

 and sermon time ; William Lathom of AUerton and 

 Thomas Greaves of Wavertree for talking in the church 

 itself at sermon time, but the latter on appearing was 

 excused on making a public confession of his fault ; 

 another was sentenced because his children did not 

 come to be catechized.' In 1635 the churchwardens 

 prosecuted certain persons as absenting themselves from 

 church and others as recusants, others for ' usually 

 sleeping ' in church during the service. Thomas 

 Mackey of Speke was charged with having ' an ale ' 

 and tippling, revelling, and dancing at his house upon 

 the Sunday ; and Mary Norris, a widow, for a similar 

 offence.' Next year the churchwardens had to describe 

 the ' uncivil and barbarous manner ' in which one 

 Sunday the vicar (Mr. Lewis) had been attached and 

 apprehended ; and this at the instigation of one of the 

 chapelwardens of Hale.' 



In 1628 the landowners in the parish paying the 

 subsidy were John Pearson in Much Woolton, Nehe- 

 miah Brettargh in Little Woolton and Aigburth, Sir 

 WiUiam Norris and Edward Tarleton in Speke and 

 Garston, and John Ireland in Hale.'" 



In the Civil War the two chief families took opposite 

 sides, but whUe GUbert Ireland was a vigorous sup- 

 porter of the Parliamentary cause, the Norrises, except 

 Edward Norris, who died in the midst of the struggle, 



1 ThingwaU, in recent times considered 

 Mtra-parochial, was formerly part of 

 ChildwaU, as appears by the Inquhitio 

 Nc'.a'uT.. 



2 The details are : ChildwaU, 6j. 8</. ; 

 Wavertree, ioj. ; Much Woolton, 151. 8</.; 

 Little Woolton, 14J. SJ.; Speke,,^! lyi.+i/.; 

 Garston, {^\ u. 4j/. ; AUerton, 61. !)\d. ; 

 Hale, fi 1 91. \d. ; Gregson's Fragments 

 (ed. Harland), 18. 



» Ibid. 22. 



4 Norris D. (B.M.). 



' Misc. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 

 2;S, etc. 



* Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 227, 244, 24.6, 

 247, quoting S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccxxxv, n. 4, 

 clxxv, n. 2 1 . 



■ Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), x, 1 84-5. 



* Local Gleanings, Lanes, and Ches. ii, 

 21. 



^ Ches. Consistory Papers. The vicar 

 also made his complaint, and further 



102 



accused this chapelwarden of not present- 

 ing that the wife of George Ireland, of 

 Hale, and Henry Wainwright, of the Hale 

 Bank, were reputed to live together in 

 adultery. It appeared that the man had 

 confessed his fault before the bishop's 

 chancellor ; but the woman denied the fact, 

 and purged herself by insufficient com- 

 purgators, there having been no publication 

 beforehand in the parish church. 

 »" Norris D. (B.M.). 



