A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



of a line drawn southward from Halsall village to 

 pass a quarter of a mile or so to the eastward of the 

 villages of Lydiate and Maghull, following the line of 

 a fault, the upper mottled sandstones of the same 

 series occur, whilst to the west of the same line the 

 formation consists of the lower keuper sandstones. 

 To the north-west of a line dravsm from Barton and 

 Halsall station to Scarisbrick bridge, spanning the 

 Leeds and Liverpool Canal, the keuper marls occur, 

 whilst the waterstones, which elsewhere intervene 

 between these two members of the keuper series, are 

 entirely wanting. 



There are stone quarries at Melling and Maghull, 

 producing good grindstones. About 1840 some of 

 the inhabitants were employed in hand - loom 

 weaving.' The agricultural land is occupied as 

 follows: Arable, 13,337 acres; permanent grass, 

 1,515 ; woods and plantations, 10. 



The church of St. Cuthbert consists 



CHURCH of a chancel with north vestry and organ 



chamber, nave with north and south 



aisles and south porch, west tower and spire, and to 



TiALSALL CHVKCH 



have gone on continuously, but there were several 

 alterations of the first design, which will be noticed 

 in their place. When the new chancel was complete — 

 it was no doubt built round the old chancel after the 

 usual mediaeval fashion, beginning at the east — it is 

 quite clear that the intention of the builders was to 

 go on and re-model the nave, if not to rebuild it, 

 although it was barely thirty years old at the time. 

 But the work came to a sudden stop when the east 

 wall of the south aisle was being built, and nothing 

 more was done to the fabric for some fifty or sixty 

 years, when the west tower and spire were added, and 

 the church assumed substantially its present appear- 

 ance. About 1520 a large three-light rood window 

 was inserted high up in the south wall of the nave, 

 and in 1593 Edward Halsall's grammar school was 

 built at the west end of the south aisle. The north 

 and south aisles were nearly rebuilt in 1751 and 

 1824, and in 1886 the north wall of the north aisle 

 and vestry was rebuilt throughout its length, as was 

 the greater part of the south aisle wall, with the south 

 porch and doorway, though both this doorway and 





? P—^^^sr-^ 



the south of the tower a late sixteenth-century build- 

 ing, formerly a grammar school. It stands finely on 

 rising ground on the edge of the broad stretch of 

 level land which once was Halsall Moss, and is, as 

 it must have been designed to be, a conspicuous land- 

 mark for miles round. Two roads join at the west 

 end of the churchyard, from which point a raised 

 causeway runs across a depression in the ground in 

 which is a little stream flowing northward, and joins 

 the outcrop of sandstone rock, facing the church, on 

 which the hall and part of the village stand. 



No part of the church as it exists to-day is older 

 than the fourteenth century, and its architectural 

 history seems to be as follows. The nave with north 

 and south aisles and south porch were begun about 

 I 320, doubtless replacing the nave of an older build- 

 ing, whose eastern portions \vere left standing till 

 '345-5°> when they were destroyed and the present 

 fine and stately chancel built. The work seems to 



^ Lewis, Gazerreer. 



14* cent. BEB l5'^cent. 

 I4*cent. ^ 1595 , 

 CD modem 



the outer arch of the porch have been reconstructed 

 with the old stones as far as they would serve. 



Remains of mediaeval arrangements are plentiful. 

 In the chancel are triple sedilia and a piscina, a large 

 piscina and a locker in the vestry, and there are piscinae 

 at the eastern ends of both nave aisles. Traces of 

 the roodloft are to be seen, and the roodstair remains 

 perfect, but the nave altars below the loft have left no 

 trace. The patron saint's canopied niche exists on the 

 north of the altar, and in the north wall of the chancel 

 is a fine sepulchral recess which was doubtless made 

 use of in Holy Week for the purposes of the Easter 

 Sepulchre. A wood screen on a low stone wall stood in 

 the chancel arch, and against it the stalls were returned. 

 Some of these stalls, of the fifteenth century, still re- 

 main, but the return stalls, for which evidence was 

 found some years ago, have disappeared. A turret for 

 the sanctus bell stands on the east gable of the nave. 



The architectural details of the chancel are exceed- 

 ingly good, and in common with the ret of the church 

 It is faced with wrought stone both inside and out. 



184 



