WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



CHILDWALL 



The Hospitallers had a rent of i zd. from lands in 

 Hale.' 



An Enclosure Act for Hale and Halewood was passed 

 in 1800. 



In 1 343 there were serious disputes between Sir 

 John de Molyneux and some of his tenants and neigh- 

 bours at Hale. Richard del Doustes and others were 

 found guilty of assaulting Sir John, and damages were 

 assessed at loo/. Richard was afterwards assaulted 

 himself, but he was charged with being a ' common 

 evil doer,' it being among the accusations against him 

 that he made various poor persons work for him against 

 their will. He brought a certain Toya Robin to his 

 house at Hale, bound his head with a rope, and per- 

 petrated other enormities upon him to make him 

 acknowledge that he was one of those who took evil 

 reports to Sir John de Molyneux and so kept alive the 

 latter's animosity.' 



The recusant roll of 1 641 shows that a large num- 

 ber of the inhabitants adhered to the Roman Catholic 

 faith.' 



The chapel of St. Mary is of ancient 

 CHURCH origin. It is mentioned in a suit of 

 1260, and in the feoffment of Robert de 

 Ireland in 1322, already quoted. Master John de 

 Layot's foundation, about 1 381, was for a chantry 

 with two chaplains, but there is no record of it at the 

 time of the confiscation of such endowments.* 



Roger was chaplain of Hale about 1270,' William 

 Kendal in 1420, and John Cundliff in 1434 ; no 

 doubt many of the ' chaplains ' mentioned in the 

 local charters also served there. The fourteenth- 

 century tower is standing ; but the church, said to 

 have been a ' black and white' timbered building, 

 was replaced in 1754 by the present one, which was 

 in 1874 renovated and refitted by Colonel Ireland 

 Blackburne. The peal of six bells was given by the 

 agent to the estates ; the inscription is ' Church and 

 King — ^John Watkins, Ditton, 1 8 14.' There were in 

 the old building the tombs of John Layot (1428), 

 John Ireland (1462), Sir Gilbert Ireland (1626), and 

 Sir Gilbert Ireland (1675) ; only the latter, of black 

 marble, has been preserved.* 



The chapel continued in use after the Reformation. 

 In 1592 the wardens were enjoined to provide a 

 sufficient register book, &c. In the time of the 

 Commonwealth the commissioners recommended 

 that Hale should be made a parish church, because of 

 the distance from Childwall, and ' because there is not 

 any person hath any seat or burial place within 

 Childwall church.' The tithes and Easter roll were 



the only revenues that could be assigned to it, for it 

 had no endowment ; Mr. Gilbert Ireland of the 

 Hutt claimed to be patron.' Out of the rectory of 

 Childwall, sequestered from James Anderton of 

 Lostock, recusant and delinquent, £^6 was allowed 

 yearly to this chapel, afterwards increased to ^^40.* 

 Bishop Gastrell about 1 7 1 7 found the income of the 

 chaplain to be ^^17 lys., including recent endow- 

 ments.' 



Hale was made a separate chapelry in 1828 '" as a 

 perpetual curacy. Mr. Ireland Blackburne is the 

 patron. Among the later incumbents have been : — 

 1592-1598 William Sherlock " 

 oc. 1 609 Thomas Lydgate '* 

 1635 — Thompson " 

 1646 Henry Bolton" 

 1 65 1 Samuel Crosby 

 1659 Samuel Ellison " 

 oc. 1 67 1 John Nickson 

 oc. 1 7 2 6 — Langford 

 1750 Francis Ellison 

 1773 Joseph Airey 

 1805 Samuel Norman 

 1 8 1 3 Joseph Hodgkinson, B.D. (fellow of 



Brasenose Coll. Oxon.)'* 

 1818 William Stewart, M.A. (Brasenose Coll. 



Oxon.) " 

 1856 Richard Benson Stewart, M.A. (Caius 

 Coll. Camb.)" 



HALEWOOD 



This township lies between the old course of the 

 Ditton Brook on the north and Rams Brook on the 

 south, both running into the Mersey. Halewood 

 Green, with a hamlet called North End, is near the 

 northern boundary. To the south-east of this is the 

 village. The part of the township bordering on the 

 Mersey is called Halebank, in which is the site of a 

 large moated house called Lovel's Hall. 



The area is 3,823 J acres." In 1901 there was 

 a population of 2,095. The country is bare and 

 flat, with wide, open fields, principally cultivated, 

 yielding crops of barley, oats, wheat, and root crops 

 such as turnips and mangel-wurzels. Several wide 

 main roads traverse the country in every direction, 

 much appreciated by the cyclist and motorist. There 

 are very few trees, but good substantial hawthorn 

 hedges, especially about the farmsteads. On the 

 Mersey bank is a fringe of flat marshy fields and mud 

 banks. Houses and farms are very much scattered. 



and paying as John de Holland j the 

 remainder paid money rents. There is 

 a note recording that *John le Norreys 

 held a plot of land there and used to pay 

 yearly 51., and now pays nothing, because 

 he gave the same to Robert de Holand 

 in exchange for a tenement in [West] 

 Derby.' The sum of the rental was 

 ^8 <)s. S^d. and three pairs of spurs (or 

 6d.) whereof 5J. *was in decay.' Then 

 follows a list of burgesses: William Hauk 

 holds a messuage and a burgage and pays 

 12^. yearly, and 50 on j the total being 

 17J burgages, paying i8j. The mention 

 of burgesses may be supplemented by the 

 name of one of the tenants at will — 

 Richard le Mayre. 



1 Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84. Thomas 

 Ireland was the tenant about 1540. 



2 Assize R. 430, m. 5 J., 24, 27, 

 31 rf. 



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



243- 



* Lanes. Chant. (Chet. Soc), 273, 276 ; 

 see also Inv. Ch. Gds. (Chet. Soc), 91. 



5 Norris D. (B.M.), 130. 



" The inscriptions have been preserved ; 

 see Trans. Hist. Sac. (New Ser.), xiv, 2 1 5- 

 16. That on Layot's tomb ended — 'Qui- 

 cunque dixerit devote pro ejus anima Pattr 

 noster et Ave habebit ccc dies indulgencie 

 pro sua anima.' The present church 

 contains monuments of the Irelands and 

 their successors. 



^ Commoniuealth Ch. Surv. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), 66, 195. The ' ad- 

 vowson of the free chapel of Hale ' is 

 named in the Ireland inquisitions. 



8 Plundered Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 50, 100. 



9 Notitia Cest. ii, 170-1. 



" Land. Gaz. 4 July, 1828 ; endowed 



149 



with tithe rent-charges, Ibid, 1 5 Aug. 1 879, 

 and 24 Feb. 1882. 



1^ Also curate of Farnworth. 



12 Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxii, 298. 



18 'An able and conformable minister.* 



^■* Signed the * Harmonious Consent.' 



1* Afterwards rector of Warrington. 



" See Manch, School Reg. (Chet. Soc), 

 ii, 1045 he became rector of Didcot in 

 1817. 



'^^ He was curate from 18 10. In a 

 leaflet, Memorials of Hale, he mentions that 

 a vine on the west side of Parsonage Green, 

 supposed to be 300 years old, was yielding 

 a yearly vintage of grapes. 



18 Mr. Stewart has assisted in the 

 compilation of this list. 



19 The Census Report of 1901 gives 

 3,873 acres, including 12 of inland water, 

 there must be added 89 of tidal water, and 

 about 175 of foreshore. 



