A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



In the extreme western corner of the township, 

 serving as mere stones, are the ancient Calderstones, 

 with ' ring and cup ' marics.' In the map of Elizabeth's 

 time, made to illustrate the dispute as to Wavertree 

 and Allerton boundary', these stones are called Caldway 

 stones, Roger stones, or dojer stones ; a Roger stone 

 is marked separately to the south-west of the Calder 

 stones.' 



The ancient water-mill of the Hospitallers has dis- 

 appeared, but a house called Peck Mill House, supposed 

 to have been connected with it, survived till the 

 beginning of last century.' Dam meadows and 

 Damcroft are names of fields near Naylor's Bridge, 

 where also are the Beanbridge meadows. Other 

 notable field names are Monk's meadow (west of Lee 

 Park), Causeway field. Hemp meadow, Tanhouse 

 meadow. Shadows, Winamoor, and Creacre. Coxhead 

 farm is of ancient date ; an old form of the spelling is 

 Cocksshed. 



The history of LITTLE H^OOLTOS 

 Mj4N0RS is bound up with that of its neighbour, 

 Much Woolton, except for the time, about 

 a century, during which it was in the possession of 

 the monks of Stanlaw, Roger de Lacy, constable of 

 Chester and lord of the fee of Widnes, after granting 

 Little Woolton to his uncle (Brother Robert) and the 

 Hospitallers in the time of Richard I,' changed his 

 mind, took it from them and gave it to the abbey of 

 Stanlaw, founded by his father in 1178. The 

 charter, granted about the year 1 204, states that 

 Roger gives the monks Little Woolton in alms as 

 freely as possible, quit from all earthly service and 

 secular exaction, for the souls of himself, his parents, 

 wife, and others. As a consequence, he ordered his 

 seneschal and bailiffs to make no claim on the men of 

 the place for any service or aid.' King John con- 

 firmed this arrangement, and in 1205 issued his 

 precept to the sheriff of Lancashire not to trouble the 

 monks of Stanlaw with respect to this manor, but to 

 levy all dues and services to which it had been liable 

 from other lands of Roger de Lac}'.° 



There were some earlier tenants within the town- 

 ship holding by charter of the lords of Widnes. One 

 of them, Gerald de Sutton, sold his land (four oxgangs) 

 to the monks for 1 1 marks, one mark to be paid to his 

 son Robert. John, constable of Chester, granted the 

 ' vill ' of Brettargh to William Suonls, with all ease- 

 ments of the vill of Little Woolton, and pannage, 

 rendering yearly i SJ. to the Hospitallers.' John de 

 Sutton afterwards held it, and disputes which after- 

 wards arose were settled by an agreement that Bret- 

 targh within its known bounds should be relinquished 

 by the monks, but that a strip of land between that 



place and Woolton should be a common pasture, rights 

 of pannage and other easements to remain as before. 

 Robert son of John de Sutton gave all his land in 

 Hasaliswallehurst to the monks as well as n/. rent, 

 which he had received for a ridge in the croft by 

 Woolton mill, and Hugh [de Haydock] and Christiana 

 his wife released all their right in the same land." 

 Henry son of Cutus de Denton and Maud his wife, 

 daughter of Richard the Mason, relinquished all their 

 claim to the latter's land called Whitefield, held of the 

 abbot; and John son of Roger de Denton concurred.' 

 In 1278 Edmund son of Richard de Woolton and 

 John de Denton sued the abbot and Alan son of 

 Robert for a messuage and 1 5 acres of land in Little 

 Woolton.'" 



About 1275 the Hospitallers revived their claim to 

 Little Woolton, and after some negotiation the prior 

 promised the abbot j^ioo for the surrender of it. 

 Subsequently at Lancaster, in 1292, Peter de Haugham, 

 prior of the Hospitallers, sued Henry de Lacy, earl of 

 Lincoln, whom Gregory, abbot of Stanlaw, had called 

 to warrant, for a messuage, a mill, two plough-lands, 

 and 100 acres of pasture there, and the earl acknow- 

 ledged the prior's right. Thus, ' by the consent, or it 

 may more truly be said by the compulsion,' of the 

 earl, the manor passed from the monks to the 

 Hospitallers, and remained with the latter till 1540." 

 The manor has since descended in the same way as 

 Much Woolton to the marquis of Salisbury. 



The priors of St. John were involved in several 

 suits. In 1306 William son of Henry de Huyton 

 was charged with cutting trees within Woolton, and 

 the prior charged Henry de Huyton with entering 

 his wood by force of arms and cutting and carrying 

 off trees." A curious case arose out of the forfeiture 

 of Sir Robert de Holand in 1322. It appeared 

 on inquiry that the Hospitallers held the manor of 

 Alice de Lacy, daughter and heir of the earl of 

 Lincoln, in pure and perpetual alms without render- 

 ing any other service ; its yearly value was 23 marks. 

 William de Tothale, formerly prior, with the consent 

 of the chapter, had demised the manor to one Roger 

 de Fulshaw for life, at a rent of 20 marks. The 

 tenant transferred his right to Robert de Holand, and 

 gave his charter back to the prior, who, without con- 

 sulting the chapter or troubling to make out a new 

 charter, passed it to Robert de Holand in the name 

 of seisin. Roger died in I 3 17, when, of course, the 

 charter ceased to have effect, but Robert continued to 

 hold the manor during the lifetime of William de 

 Tothale, who died in 1318, his successor, Richard 

 Paveley, and the then prior (Thomas L' Archer), 

 without any fiirther grant or sanction of the chapter." 



1 Baines's Dir. of 1825 (ii, 698) 

 thus describes them : * Close by the farm 

 on which the famous Allerton oak stands, 

 and just at the point where four ways 

 meet, are a quantity of remains called 

 Calder stones. . . . From the circum- 

 stance that in digging about them urns 

 made of the coarsest clay [and] containing 

 human dust and bones have been dis- 

 covered, there is reason to believe that 

 they indicate an ancient burying place 

 .... Some of the urns were dug up 

 about sixty years ago, and were in the 

 possession of Mr. Mercer of Allerton.' 



' For the Calder stones see V.C.H. 

 Lanes, i, 240, also a pamphlet by Professor 

 Herdman,and Duchy of Lane. Maps, n. 73. 



' Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xii, 



71-4. The house so marked in the 

 Ordnance Map is some distance from the 

 brook?. 



'.Assize R. 408, m. 64. 



'' Whallcy Cauchtr (Chet. Soc), iii, 

 801-3. 



' Letters Pat. (Rec. Com.), 52. 



^ Norris D. (B.M.), 983. The charter 

 indicates that Brettargh Holt was separate 

 from Little Woolton. 



8 Whalley Coiuher, iii, 804-6. Robert de 

 Sutton in 1284 brought against the abbot 

 an action of novel disseisin ; Assize R. 

 1265, m. 5. 



^ Whalley Coucher, iii, 807-9. 



1" De Banc. R. 24, m. 4^. 84 d. 



" Ibid. 19, m. 22 ; 27,m. 84^.; Assize 

 R. 408, m. 64 ; Final Cone. (Rec. Soc. 



118 



Lanes, and Ches.), i, 166; fVhallty Coucher, 

 iii, 809-1 1. 



" De Banc. R. 161, m. 473 rf.; 163, m. 

 219. 



'' Inq. a.q.d. 1 7 Edw. II, n. 121. 



The accounts of the royal receiver for 

 the forfeited estate of Robert de Holand 

 show this manor of Woolton to have been 

 farmed out to the prior of UphoUand for 

 ,^23 a year. The prior requested a 

 written document ; Ancient Petitions, 

 52/2587. In 1323-4 there was further 

 received from sales ^14 is. bd.^ made up 

 °f ^'3 f<"' th' "op of wheat (6 acres), 

 beans and peas (ij acre), and oats (3 

 acres) ; 101. for oxen, (id. for skins of two 

 rams and a sheep dead of the plague, and 

 i8j. for the timber of an old shcepcotc 



