WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



CHILDWALL 



Liverpool salt works to this place. He willed this 

 estate to his only child Alice Anne, wife of Thomas 

 Hawkes of Himley, in Staffordshire, and about 1823 

 she disposed of them, the manor being sold to the 

 Garston Land Company. The duchy of Lancaster 

 afterwards made a claim to the manorial rights,' 

 which are now said to be divided among the Light- 

 body ' family and several companies.' 



The neighbouring families of Ireland of Hale and 

 Grelley of Allerton also had lands in Garston. In 

 1306 Thomas Grelley demanded against Adam de 

 Ireland and Avina his wife two messuages and an 

 oxgang of land in Garston.* One of the fields was 

 known as Gredley's Acre. 



The lands of Whalley Abbey were at the confisca- 

 tion found to be leased to Lawrence Ireland for a 

 rent of ^^4.* Some of the lands were by Queen 

 Mary appropriated to the endowment of the Savoy 

 Hospital in London ; ° and on this being dissolved 

 they were sold.' They were held by Topham Beau- 

 clerk, the heir of the Norris family, about 1775. 



Garston Hall was originally the grange house of 

 the monks of UphoUand, who, as appropriators of the 

 rectory of Childwall, held the -land of the church in 

 Garston and the tithes.* 



In 1350 John, prior of Holland, appeared against 

 Nicholas de Bold and others on various charges, in- 

 cluding one of carrying away his goods and chattels 

 (valued at 1 00/.) at Woolton and Garston, and breaking 

 into his fold at the latter place.' After the dissolution 

 the haU became the property of the new see of 

 Chester, as part of the rectory of Childwall, and was 

 farmed out with the tithes tothe AndertonsandGerards. 

 It was a half-timbered building, standing on a rock 

 overhanging the lower mill-dam. There is a tradi- 

 tion that a room in it was used for Roman Catholic 

 worship during the time of proscription, which is not 

 unlikely, considering who were the lessees.'" 



The hamlet of Brooks, in which the early Norris 

 holding seems to have chiefly lain, gave a name to 



one or more families dwelling there." The principal 

 of these had its origin in a certain Gilbert living 

 early in the thirteenth century. Richard, son ot 

 Gilbert de Brooks, gave to Roger his brother land 

 called Carran, stretching from the river dividing the 

 Carran of Speke from the Carran of Brooks, to the 

 chief ridge of Roger's heir, and from the river of 

 Garston to the boundary of Allerton ; Roger son of 

 Robert de Brooks gave to Hugh son of Lette of 

 Garston, land near the river of Slodekan, and near the 

 river of Quitefelf; and John son of Roger Punchard 

 granted to Alan le Norreys of land between the 

 Hollow brook and the highway, one head extending 

 to the house of Robert de Blackburn on the west and 

 the other towards Carran in the east." The Tran- 

 mole or Tranmore family had a small holding at 

 Brooks which ultimately passed to Norris of Speke, 

 the rental of 1454 stating that Wilkyn Plombe and 

 John Jenkynson paid gs. \d. rent ' for Tranmoor's 

 lands.' " 



Grassendale '* had risen to the dignity of a hamlet 

 by the time of Elizabeth. 



JIGBURTH^^ seems at first to have been the 

 descriptive name of a district at the north-west end 

 of Garston and the west of Allerton. It was very 

 largely in the hands of religious foundations — Stanlaw 

 (Whalley)," Cockersand, and to a small extent the 

 hospital of St. John at Chester. Under these houses 

 probably the local families held. Henry son of Hugh 

 de Aigburth is mentioned as holding land in the Brooks 

 about 1 270, in a charter to which Adam de Aigburth 

 was a witness ; and Alice daughter of Hugh de 

 Aigburth was in 1274 '^^ "''^'^ °f John de Garston, 

 son of Robert called the Mouner." Adam de Aig- 

 burth about this time made an exchange with the 

 monks of Stanlaw of land in the moor at Aigburth." 

 He is described as ' forester of Toxteth,' and may 

 therefore be the Adam de Toxteth who was the 

 ancestor of a family holding land in Aigburth down 

 to the sixteenth century." Adam de Toxteth in 



^ This statement of the recent descent 

 of the manor is abridged from a full 

 account by Joseph Boult in Trans. Hist, Soc. 

 xjc, 147, 190, with map. 



'Adam Lightbody about 1775 bought 

 Island Farm and other lands, and his 

 descendant Robert Lightbody sold Island 

 Farm to the Liverpool Land Company ; 

 part of it is now a public recreation- 

 ground. 



^ Information of Rev. Dr. Oliver. 



■" De Banc. R. 161, m. 481. 



* Whalley Coucher^ iv, 1235. 



* Pat. 4 and 5 Phil, and Mary, pt. xv. 

 7 Norris D. (B. M.). 



^ There is extant a decree made in 

 1334 by Roger bishop of Lichfield, which 

 states that brother William of Doncaster, 

 formerly prior, resided alone in the manor 

 house at Garston, contrary to the rule and 

 to good order, and commands the monks 

 to recall him to UphoUand at once under 

 the threat of the greater excommunication. 

 It would appear that ex-Prior William had 

 quarrelled with his monastic brethren, and 

 they had sent him away to Garston for the 

 sake of peace ; Lich. Reg. iii, fol. 60 b. 

 The ex-prior on his return was to rank 

 next after the prior in church, refectory, 

 chapter, dormitory and elsewhere. 



s De Banc. R. 363, m. 921/.; 364, 

 m. 78 d. 



i» E. W. Cox in Trans. Hist. Sac. (New 

 Sen), iv, 136. A view of the building is 

 given. 



^' A large number of charters referring 

 to Brooks are among the Norris D. 

 (B.M.). 



A charter of John son of Adam de 

 Ireland of Hale to his son David (1349) 

 may be quoted on account of the descrip- 

 tion of bounds ; * All my lands and tene- 

 ments ... in the viU and territory of 

 Garston lying in a certain place called 

 le Brokes, within the boundaries hereafter 

 written, namely : Beginning at the Stan- 

 bergh where the two brooks join in one 

 towards Garston on the west, and 50 

 following the rivulet as far as the land of 

 the Abbot of Cockersand, and so as far as 

 the boundary of Allerton in the eastern 

 side, and so following the boundary of 

 Allerton to the boundary of Speke, and so 

 following the boundary of Speke to the 

 aforesaid brook, and so following that 

 brook to the aforesaid Stanbergh.' 

 Hale D. 



12 Norris D. (B. M.), 709, 716, 727. 



" This family appear in Hale, where in 

 1292 Richard son of Richard de Tranmoor 

 had 12 acres, and William son of Richard 

 1 1 acres ; Plac. de quo IVarr. (Rec. Com.), 

 228. About 1280 Roger son of Robert 

 de Brooks gave part of his land here to 

 Richard de Tranmole and his heirs, for his 

 homage and service, at a rent of \d. of 

 silver and the ancient farm of \od. to the 

 chief lord ; Norris D. (B. M.), 714, 715. 

 In 1298 William de Tranmole was witness 

 to a charter ; and in 1 349 John son of 



125 



William de Tranmole of Hale granted to 

 his son Richard land in Brookfield in 

 Garston ; ibid. 805. This Richard, about 

 1 367-8, acquired further lands in the same 

 place from John son of Alan de Brooks, 

 and in 1382-3 a selion in Egyndale Moor 

 from John son of Simon le Mercer of 

 Aigburth ; and another in Brooks from 

 William Goodall ; ibid. 842, 84.3, 859, 

 860. Then in 1429 Roger de Tranmore 

 of Garston sold to William le Norreys of 

 Speke all his lands in Garston and Aller- 

 ton ; ibid. 893, 638. 



^'* Contracted from the old Gresselond 

 Dale. 



^^ Aykeberyt, Aykeberk, Aykeberg, 

 early; Haykebergh, 1327 ; Aykebergh, 

 1361 ; Egberigh, 1600 ; Ackeberth, 1537 j 

 Aykeberthe, 1544. 



1^ The old hall of Aigburth is believed 

 to have been the grange of the abbot of 

 Whalley. In 1291 the grange at Ayke- 

 berwe, with half ploughland, was valued 

 at 5i. ; assized rents brought in 1 2J. and 

 the profit of the stock was 91. 7^/. ; Vope 

 Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 259. 



17 Norris D. (B. M.),7i2, 743. ARobert 

 de Aigburth had land near Hechindalc 

 Moor ; ibid. 694. 



18 Whalley Coucher, ii, 562. 



" Norris D. (B. M.), 667. 'Adam de 

 Aigburth' and *Adam de Toxteth' are 

 witnesses to charters in the latter half of 

 the thirteenth century, but never to the 

 same charter. 



