A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



chapel, or more particularly in the south porch. In 

 1605 the 'right worshipful' Edward Korris, in his 

 old age, made an endeavour to keep it in repair, and 

 desired his son to find a suitable chaplain for it.' 

 The work seems to have been completed in 1609,' 

 The Norrises, as lessees of the tithe-barn at Garston, 

 received the tithes of that ' quarter ' of the parish, 

 and may have been responsible for the repair of the 

 chapel. 



The Commonwealth church surveyors found the 

 ' very ancient ' chapel in ruin and decay, and without 

 an incumbent. They considered it fit to be made a 

 parish church. Garston Hall paid 1 3/. ^d. to the 

 farmer of the tithes, ' as land belonging to the parish 

 of Childwall.' ' The Norrises of Speke became 

 Protestants about this time, but it was nearly fifty 

 years before they did anything for the chapel. Then 

 Katherine, widow of Thomas Norris, by her will in 

 1707 left ;£30o for a new building, and in 1715 and 

 1 7 1 6 her son Edward, lord of the manor, carried out 

 her wishes at a cost of about X360, and gave ;C300 

 as an endowment for a minister, by this means secur- 

 ing ;^zoo from Queen Anne's Bounty. 



The old building was entirely demolished, a font 

 being found in the rubbish. The new chapel of St. 

 Michael, a plain but substantial stone building, was 

 erected on the site. Several gravestones were found 

 in the chapel-yard, and there Edward Norris himself 

 was buried in 1726.' There is a tablet to his 

 memory on the church. A district was formed for 

 it in 1828,' and the existing church was built in 

 1876-7. The registers date from 1777. The lord 

 of the manor of Speke is the patron, and the follow- 

 ing is a list of the curates and vicars : * — 



1 7 1 6 James Holme ' 



1730 John Norris ' 



1738 Thomas Barlow * 



1 744 Abraham Ashcroft 



1786 Jonathan Casson 



1805 James Ashton 



1810 Marcus Aurelius Parker 



l8n John Vause, M.A. (Fellow of King's 

 College, Cambridge) 



1836 John Gibson (first vicar, 1867) 



I 869 John Fitzgerald Hewson, B.A. 



1884 Thomas Oliver, D.D. (T.C.D.) 



Aigburth was formed Into an ecclesiastical parish in 

 1844;° St. Anne's church had been built in 1837. 

 Mossley Hill became an ecclesiastical parish in 1875 ; 

 the cruciform church of St. Matthew and St. James 



on the crest of the hill has a conspicuous central 

 tower. A mission church of St. Barnabas has lately 

 been opened. Grassendale vv.is made into an ecclesi- 

 astical parish in 1855 '° for the church of St. Mary, 

 built in 1853. The patronage of the three benefices 

 is in the hands of different bodies of trustees. 



At Garston the Wesleyan Methodists have two 

 churches ; the Welsh Methodists and the Methodist 

 Free Church each one. 



There are a Congregational church " and a Baptist 

 church. The Presbyterians have a church, built in 

 1894, with a mission hall. The Welsh Calvinistic 

 Methodists have a place of worship. At Aigburth 

 also there is a Wesleyan Methodist chapel. 



At Grassendale is the Roman Catholic church of 

 St. Austin, served by the English Benedictines ; it was 

 opened in 1838, but represents the mission formerly 

 maintained by several of the older families in the dis- 

 trict, as the Harringtons of Aigburth." There is a 

 small cemetery adjoining. At Garston a temporary 

 chapel of St. Francis of Assisi was opened in 1883, 

 the building having formerly been used by the Congre- 

 gationalists ; the present church, on an adjacent site, 

 was opened in 1905. 



ALLERTON 



Alretune, Dom. Bk. ; Allerton, 1306. The local 

 pronunciation is Ollerton. 



Allerton is a suburban township containing 1,586 

 acres," pleasantly situated on the gentle slopes of a 

 ridge which rises on the eastern side to 230 feet above 

 sea level, overlooking the River Mersey across the 

 adjacent township of Garston. There are several 

 large residences with their private grounds set in the 

 midst of pastures and a few arable fields. There are 

 plantations of trees, some of a fair size for a suburban 

 district. An air of tidiness reigns over what remains 

 of the natural features, with neatly-kept hedges and 

 railed-in paddocks, and shrubs grown to rule and 

 measure. The roads are good, and the soil, ap- 

 parently clay and sand, appears fertile, and is of 

 course much cultivated ; good cereals are successfully 

 grown. The pebble beds of the bunter series of 

 the new red sandstone or trias underlie the entire 

 township. 



The London and North- Western company's railway 

 from Liverpool to London skirts the south-western 

 boundary, having stations called Mossley Hill and 

 Allerton. The population in 1901 was 1,101. 



^ An account has been preserved of the 

 expenditure of ,^140 which he set aside 

 for rebuilding the steeple on a foundation 

 already prepared (perhaps the old one) 

 and for some repairs. The new tower 

 was to be six yards higher than the top of 

 the cross on the west end of the chapel ; 

 the builders were James Haworth of 

 Aughton and his brother Henry Haworth 

 of Bradshaw. One of the items is *To 

 Gryse for a stone cross — 31. 4^^.* The 

 will of James Haworth, 'Freemason' 

 (1607), directs that first of all provision 

 shall be made for the completion of ' my 

 work begun at the chapel of Garston.' 

 He died at Garston. 



A new bell, * tunable to the third bell 

 now hanging in the steeple,' was provided 

 and cast at Congleton by George Lee, the 

 Nottingham bell-founder, the cost being 

 /ji 5j. 6d. : it is mentioned that the 

 * old saints bell ' weighed 90 lb. ; Norris 



D. (B. M.) There were three wardens 

 of the chapel. 



^ A stone found in rebuilding had upon 

 it the initials and date, in three compart- 

 ments : 



EN W N 



: : 1607 



E S K 



E. W. Cox, op. cit. (n. 27 on plate). 



^ Commonivealth Church Surv. (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 69, 70. 



•* E. W. Cox, op. cit., where description 

 and view may be seen. Also Gastrell, 

 Notitia Cestr. (Chet. Soc), ii, 169, 170. 



* Lond. Ga:^^ 4 July, i8z8. 



* Ex Inform. Rev. Dr. Oliver and 

 others. 



' Schoolmaster at Woolton ; buried at 

 the chapel, 5 Feb. 1729—30. 

 ^ Schoolmaster at Woolton. 

 ^ Lond. Gaz. 27 August, 1844. 

 i«Ibid. 6 March, 1855. 



128 



" Founded 1875; school chapel opened 

 1883 j Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf, vi, 

 210. 



^2 Tram. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xiii, 1 54.. 

 In 1 717 Richard Hitchmough the in- 

 former deposed that ' at Mrs. Harrington's 

 of Aigburth was one silver chalice and 

 paten, which he had seen and used when 

 ofRciating at the altar there.' 



Henry Challoner, who entered the 

 English College at Rome in 1659, gave 

 the following account of himself : 'iJnly 

 son of William and Anne Challoner, born 

 at Garston . . . made his rudiments at 

 Crosby and his humanity studies at 

 St. Omer's College. His father was of 

 humble rank, and his friends had suffered 

 severely for the Catholic faith ; he had 

 two sisters ;' Foley, Rec. S. J, vi, 399. • 



^ The Census Report of 1901 gives 

 1,589 acres, including 14 of Inland 

 water. 



