A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



stated as to the result, beyond a hint that the king 

 was about to intervene to prevent further proceedings.' 



The modem celebrity of Altcar is due to the 

 Waterloo coursing meeting which takes place here 

 about February. There are also one or two minor 

 meetings. 



The township is governed by a parish council. 



In recent years improvements in the drainage of 

 the district have been made, and a pumping engine is 

 employed to keep the water under control.' 



In former times the villagers of Altcar used occa- 

 sionally to challenge those of Formby, then chiefly a 

 fishing village, to fight, the combats taking place at 

 Fleam Bridge, on the boundary.^ 



' Mid Lent Sunday was known as Braggot Sunday, 

 from a specially-made non-intoxicating drink called 

 Braggot ; its place was afterwards taken by mulled 

 ale. A labourer expected four eggs from his em- 

 ployer, which he took to the ale-house, where the 

 cggs> vvith spices, were drunk in hot ale. This 

 custom died when the public-houses were closed.' 

 All Souls' Day was observed by children begging a 

 ' soul loaf The rush-bearing customs died out sixty 

 years ago. A little fair was held ; a mock mayor was 

 elected — the first man who succumbed to the effects 

 of the drinking that took place — and he and fantas- 

 tically-dressed neighbours went in procession, calling 

 at various houses for money or drink.' The rush- 

 bearing took place between 12 and 19 July.* 



' There are many trees and roots buried in the 

 moss lands and carr lands of Altcar. Every now and 

 then a plough comes in contact with one of these 

 long-buried trees. . . . They are chiefly oak trees ; 

 the trunk of one of them must have been 2 ft. 6 in. 

 in diameter. . . . There are also some trees of 

 softer wood, which seems to be black poplar. Man)' 

 of the trees have been cut down ; but in some cases it 

 would appear that the trees had been torn up by the 

 roots by some storm in the higher grounds and then 



floated down the flooded waters of the 

 cutting the drain -sluices, the horns 



Alt. ... In 

 and bones of 

 wild animals have been found buried with the trees. 

 Much of the timber is sound and undecayed, while 

 some is so soft that it can be cut out with a spade.' * 



The field names include Priest Carrs and Monk's 

 Carrs, Hemp Yard, God's Croft, and Salt Fields. In 

 1779 there were also Showrick Side, Hainshoot 

 Meadow, Cuddock Meadow, and Nearer Mossocks. 



In 1066 the manor of ALTCAR was 

 MANOR held by Uctred ; it was assessed at half a 

 plough-land, and was ' waste ' — the only 

 manor in the hundred so described — and no value is 

 recorded. It was a portion of the privileged three 

 hides in the parishes of North Meols, Halsall, and 

 Ormskirk.' 



After the Conquest it seems to have been taken 

 into the demesne of the honour, like the adjacent 

 Formby. It is next mentioned in the perambulation 

 of the forest made in 1228. The jurors found that 

 Altcar had been placed within the forest since the 

 coronation of Henry II, and should be disafforested ; 

 within its bounds had been included portions of the 

 neighbouring townships — Ince 

 Blundell, Raven Meols, Down- 

 holland, and Lydiate. It was 

 disafforested accordingly.' 



After the death of Ranulf 

 Blundeville, earl of Chester, in 

 1232, his sister Agnes, wife of 

 William de Ferrers, earl of 

 Derby, succeeded to this part 

 of his possessions. Within a 





Merivalc Abbey. 

 Vairy or and gulet. 



\ery short time (before 1238) 

 she and her husband had be- 

 stowed Altcar upon the Cis- 

 tercian Abbey of Merivale ((/? Mira Valle) in War- 

 wickshire, a Ferrers foundation. There are several 

 charters relating to it." 



absentoFB from church upon the laws of 

 I2f/. a Sunday, have told me they durst 

 not do it for fear of the Tickles, whose 

 house I have also been informed was four 

 or five years since a great receptacle of 

 the Roman priests and usual place of 

 resort to mass.* 



^ See Kenyan A/S5. (Hist, MSS. Com.), 

 pp. 1 34-9. There is a long list of recusants 

 and non-communicants at Altcar in the 

 roll of 1 64 1 i Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), 

 xiv, 235. Bishop Gastrell in 1717 re- 

 cords 17 * Papist' families, and is silent 

 as to any others ^ Notitia Cesrr. (Chet. 

 Soc), ii, 163. In 1767 the number re- 

 turned was 92 persons ; Account at 

 Chester Reg. Several marriages solem- 

 nized by * the Popish priest' appear in the 

 registers of 1 708 and thereabouts. 



* Formerly the inhabitants suffered 

 many inconveniences from the situation 

 of the place, especially in winter, when 

 stepping-stones were needed for passing 

 from one cottage to another. At hay 

 time the grass had often to be carried 

 from the town to the higher levels to be 

 dried. * At one farmhouse a small boat 

 was attached to the door latch, and when 

 milking time arrived the milker paddled 

 in this boat across the inundated iield to 

 the shippon to milk the cows. It is also 

 stated that occasionally people proceeded 

 to church in boats, and that on one occa- 

 sion the boat was actually floated over the 

 churchyard wall.' See Tram. Hist. Soc. 

 (New Ser.), xl, 185. 



» Ibid. 187. * Ibid. 193-6. 



^ Harland and Wilkinson, Legends ana 

 Traditicniy xio. 



* Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), xi, 201. 

 *To such an extent have these roots been 

 extracted from the soil that on visiting a 

 farmhouse in this locality a large oaken 

 balk may generally be seen upon the fire. 

 The writer has been informed by Mr, 

 Thomas Haskeync, of Gore Houses, Alt- 

 car, a farm under Lord Sefton, which has 

 been held by the family for many genera- 

 tions, that from his earliest remembrance 

 scarcely a day has passed in which two 

 large balks have not been consumed in 

 this manner. The custom has always 

 been to place one upon the kitchen fire 

 after the first meal, and another after 

 dinner' ; Gibson, Lydiate Ha/If 3. 



7 KC.H. Lanes, i, p. 285a. 



^ See the document in Baines' Lanes. 

 (ed. Croston), i, 379. 



Two facts in connexion with Altcar 

 must be observed ; first, the assessment 

 was increased to I plough-land ; and 

 second, a strip of land on the north bank 

 of the Alt, extending west as far as the 

 sea, now belongs to Altcar, though it 

 did not do so in 1207. In this year 

 Henry son of Warin de Lancaster as lord of 

 Raven Meols, gave permission to William 

 Blundell of Ince to make a mill pool on 

 Henry's side of the Alt ; IVhalley Coucher 

 (Chet. Soc), ii, 497. Thus the northern 

 bank of the Alt was then in Raven 

 Meols. 



222 



" Some originals and some copies, pre- 

 served at Croxteth ; bdle. Ai and A6. 

 In one William de Ferrers, with the 

 assent and good will of Agnes the countess 

 his wife, for the health of the souls of 

 themselves and their ancestors and pos- 

 terity, granted the whole hey of Alt 

 Marsh, the boundaries proceeding from 

 the thread of the Alt to Mere Pool, then 

 to Fers Pool, Reedy Pool, and Barton 

 Pool — this pool continued to be on the 

 boundary between Downholland and Alt- 

 car — and thence along the division of the 

 hey to Landlache and Muster Pool, de- 

 scending this last through the Withins to 

 the Alt ; then along the Alt to Merc 

 Pool. This seems to be the main portion 

 of Altcar, between Formby and Lydiate 

 Brook, here called Muster Pool. The 

 western corner between this brook and the 

 Alt is now called the Withins, The rent 

 of 40i. was excused in a later charter, but 

 hunting rights were reserved to the carl. 



By a second charter he granted all that 

 part of the word and pasture in Altcar 

 within these bounds : Where Muster 

 Pool descends in a straight line from the 

 moss through the Withins as far as the 

 Alt, then following the Alt as far as Ale 

 Pool, along this as far as Wildmare Pool> 

 and then by the divisions of the hey to 

 the said Muster Pool. This seems to be 

 the eastern part of Altcar, between Lydiate 

 Brook and Maghull. 



Agnes de Ferrers afterwards confirmed 

 her husband's grants. 



