A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



house of Stanley, which had lost so much in their 

 cause. 



In the middle of the east wing rises a large modern 

 tower with a high roof, and an oriel on the east face, 

 overlooking the site of a building which formerly 

 projected from the front at this point, and contained 

 the chapel. From extant drawings this seems to 

 have been a poor eighteenth-century building whose 

 loss is not to be deplored on aesthetic grounds. To 

 the north of the tower is a two-story range, of early 

 eighteenth-century date, or perhaps a little earlier, 

 with tall sash windows of good proportion, and this 

 and the southern part of the east front are by far the 

 most pleasing pieces of architecture in the building. 

 At the north end of the range are modern buildings, 

 and the whole west face has been modernized, the 

 old sashes being replaced by plate glass with much 

 detriment to the general effect. The main entrance 

 to the house is now in the middle of the west front 

 of this range, and is covered by a large modern 

 carriage porch. The fall of the ground is from east 

 to west, and a terrace has been formed by levelling 

 the wide lawn which lies before the entrance. 



Thomas Pennant visited the hall in 1773. 'About 

 a mile and a half from Prescot,' he writes, ' lies 

 Knowsley, the residence of the earls of Derby, seated 

 in a park, high, and much exposed to the fury of the 

 west winds ; for distant as this place is from the sea 

 the effect is visible in the shorn form of the trees.' 

 Then, after describing the house, he enumerates the 

 pictures, collected chiefly by James, the tenth earl, 

 this being his preface : ' I surveyed with great 

 pleasure the numerous portraits of this illustrious 

 family, an ancient race, long uncontaminated by vice 

 or folly. The late venerable peer, Edward, earl of 

 Derby, supported the dignity of his family ; aged as 

 he was, there was not a person in his neighbourhood 

 but wished that his years could be doubled.' ' 

 The court rolls are preserved at Knowsley. 

 Apart from the Lathom and Stanley families there 

 is little record of the township. The Stockley 

 family, already mentioned several times, occurs as early 

 as 1302, when Richard son of Adam de Stockesley 

 brought some small action against Robert de La- 

 thom.' 



Edmund de Prescot occurs as a landowner here in 

 Richard II's reign.' 



In 1717 Sampson Erdeswick, of Healy in Audley, 

 and Thomas Howard, registered estates here as 

 ' papists.' ' 



From the mention of the ' place of St. Leonard ' at 

 Knowsley in the charter of Burscough, it may be in- 

 ferred that there was already a chapel of some kind 

 here.' 



In later times the English Presbyterians had a chapel 

 in the village, the doctrine in the ordinary course of 

 development becoming Unitarian ;* but at the expiry 

 of a lease in 1830, it was consecrated as a chapel of 

 ease to Huyton,' Knowsley becoming an independent 

 ecclesiastical district in 1844, and a vicarage in 1869. 

 The incumbents are presented by the earl of Derby. 

 Anew church, St. Mary's, was built in 1843-4 at 

 the expense of the thirteenth earl. In 1S71 a memo- 

 rial chapel was added at the expense of the personal 

 friends and admirers of the fourteenth earl ; a monu- 

 ment to him was placed therein, the recumbent figure 

 being by Matthew Noble ; stained-glass windows were 

 added.* 



HUYTON WITH ROBY 



Hitune, Dom. Bk.; Houton, 1258; Huton, 1278; 

 Hyton and Huyton, 1292. This last is the common 

 spelling from 1 300. 



The original township of Huyton has been united 

 with Roby to form the township of Huyton with Roby. 

 To them in 1877 was added Thingwall,' part of the 

 parish of Childwall. The area of the amalgamated 

 townships is 3,054 acres," and the population in 

 1 90 1 numbered 4,661. The country is somewhat 

 undulating in the north, but flat in most places. This 

 is quite a residential district with the dwellers in 

 the city of Liverpool, for pleasant country houses with 

 gardens and shrubberies are seen on all sides. Be- 

 yond the houses are open fields, some pastures, others 

 where corn, potatoes, and turnips are generally culti- 

 vated. The soil is sandy, with a solid base of red 

 sandstone. At Huyton Quarry the character of the 

 country varies ; coal mines begin to indicate their 

 presence by shafts and ventilators. The Huyton 

 Quarry mine is the nearest to Liverpool of the South 

 Lancashire mines. To the east of Huyton village the 

 geological formation consists of the gannister beds 

 towards the north-east and the coal measures to the 

 south-east ; in the western half of the township the 

 three beds of the bunter series of the new red sand- 

 stone are successively represented from north-west to 

 south-east. In Roby the same three beds occur re- 

 spectively in (a) the north, (i) the centre, and (f) the 

 western half and eastern corner. 



Huyton proper has an area of 1,819 acres. There 

 is no well-defined boundary between it and Roby to 

 the south-west. On the eastern side it is separated 

 from Whiston by a brook which runs through Tarbock 

 to join Ditton brook. 



The main road from Liverpool to Prescot passes 

 through the northern part of the township, the South 

 Lancashire system of electric tramways running 



^ Pennant, op, cit. 21—47. Gregson 

 supplements this by stating that the agent 

 employed in collecting the pictures vras 

 Hamlet Winstanley, a painter and etcher ; 

 * this lord, the patron of Winstanley, 

 threw open his gallery at Knowsley, and 

 many young men of those days studied 

 architecture and drawing under his 

 auspices ; a circumstance not very com- 

 mon at that period, when there was not 

 any academy of design in England.' 

 Fragmenti (ed. Harland), 229. 



^ Assize R. 418, m. 2. Some other 

 references to the plea rolls may be added. 

 Assize R. 1+25, m. 6 ; De Banco R. 

 348, m. 42-1/. ; Duchy of Lane, .■\ssize 

 R. I, m. iiii ^ 7, m. 7. 



' Add. MS. 32107, n. 354. 



■* Engl. Catb. Non-juron, 119, 120. 



* It is described later as standing near 

 the centre of the 'place' and is called 

 Ridding Chapel ; Burscough Reg. fol. [4] . 



^ Nothing seems to be known as to the 

 origin of the chapel, but it is perhaps the 

 Presbyterian meeting-house in the parish 

 recorded by Bishop Gastrell about 1718 ; 

 Nolitia Cestr. ii, 177. 



In the Manchester Socinian Controverxy, 

 141, it is stated that it was of 'orthodox 

 origin,' the trust deed prescribing that the 

 officiating minister should ' preach accord- 

 ing to the doctrinal articles of the Church 

 of England, and teach the Assembly's Cate- 

 chism.* It was endowed with an estate in 



168 



Chester. In 1825 the Rev. John Yates, ai 

 well-known tJnitarian minister of Liver- 

 pool, had charge of the place, which had no 

 settled minister. The Wesleyan Metho- 

 dists had recently used it for preaching, and 

 afterwards two laymen of the Established 

 Church went from Liverpool, one reading 

 the prayers and the other a sermon. See 

 also Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. iv, 196. 



' The old chapel is still in use as the 

 boys' school. It is half a mile west of 

 the new church. 



' Information given by the Rev. John 

 Richardson, M.A., vicar. 



' Loc. Gov. Bd. Order 7403. 

 "• Census of 1901 — 3,055, including - 

 acres of inland water. 



