A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



by 2 ft. 8 in. deep, with a flat four-centred head and 

 moulded and splayed jambs. The bay window is 

 modem. The drawing-room, separated from the hall 

 by an eighteenth-century panelled partition, on the 

 old line, retains its fireplace, which is liice that of the 

 hall, but smaller, 7 ft. 3 in. wide by 2 ft. 3 in. deep. 

 The ceiling beams are original, and very roughly cut ; 

 the windows are all modernized except the large five- 

 light square-headed window at the back. This end of 

 the room was once partitioned oiFfrom the rest, and is 

 by tradition the chapel. It opens by a modem doorwa)' 

 into a porch, which is of two stories, forming a small 

 bay to a bedroom on the first floor ; it had as first 

 built no entrance at the ground level and was probably 

 a garderobe. The stairs occupy the place of the 

 original staircase by the side of the hall chimney, but 

 are on a larger scale. They are of eighteenth-cen- 

 tury date, but the masonry of the walls is probably a 

 century older. Owing to the difficulties of fitting, a 

 good deal of the side space is boxed in with panelling, 

 giving rise to the customary ' priest's chamber ' story. 

 A plain four-centred doorway on the first floor is 

 pointed out as the door of this chamber, but is very 



The first floor rooms call for no remark, but the 

 attics have the original clay flooring between the 

 joists. The trusses are king-posts with struts ; nearly 

 all the king-posts have been cut away to make a cen- 

 tral passage in the roof space, but the tie-beams are 

 sufiiciently strong and do not seem to have sagged in 

 consequence. 



The MIDDLEWOOD estate, already mentioned, 

 belonged to another Bickerstath family.' Madoc 

 son of Madoc de Aughton granted to his daughter 

 Emma lands called the New Ridding and ' Steuensis 

 Field.' This was afterwards known as the Cock 

 Beck estate. She married Thomas Blundell and had a 

 son Robert, who married Maud, daughter of William 

 Blundell (of Ince), and had a daughter Joan. Maud 

 married as her second husband Henry de Ince.' 

 No doubt through her influence, if not her right, the 

 lands descended to her son Gilbert de Ince, whose 

 wife Emma Ward was an heiress, Wido son of Madoc 

 son of Bleddyn having granted lands known as Craw- 

 shaw ' to her ancestor William the Ward. Gilbert de 

 Ince acquired Bangardus Field, and was a prominent 

 man in the district in the latter part of the reign of 



>\ooR Hall, AvGHTON 



10 so 30 -k) 



10 o 



50 



probably the stairhead of the first staircase, which was 

 taken up, as at present, outside the main wall of the 

 house. The 'office' wing, which now contains the 

 dining-room and an inner hall with a second staircase, 

 has an original five-light window in the back wall, set 

 very much to one side to allow for some former sub- 

 division of the space. The stairs in the angle conceal 

 an original two-light window in the side wall. The 

 dining-room fireplace is modem, but the old chimney 

 stack, and probably the arched fireplace, remain. 



The kitchen offices are built with the usual 1 2 in. 

 stone outer \\alls, and cut up by wooden partitions ; 

 they contain no ancient features of interest. 



1 Its fortunes have been traced in A. 

 Patchett's Ancient Charters relating to 

 Aughton ; privately printed (Liverpool), 

 1899. It contains 81 charters, an intro- 

 duction and notes, and a pedigree of the 

 Bickerstath family. The author has not 

 been followed in identifying Madoc de 

 Aughton with Madoc son of Bleddyn. 



' This summary is from the work cited, 

 where the evidences are printed. Henry 

 de Ince of Aughton, and Gilbert Anian, 

 John and William, his brothers, are 



Edward III.* The two daughters of Gilbert and 

 Emma divided the inheritance in 1 399, but one sister, 

 Malma or Maud, who married Henry de Bickerstath, 

 seems ultimately to have inherited the other's share 

 also. 



The family prospered, and Thomas Bickerstath, the 

 representative at the beginning of the seventeenth 

 century, purchased another estate in Aughton, called 

 Middlewood, which had originated in grants made by 

 Madoc son of Bleddyn and his son Einion ' to Adam 

 son of Stephen de Aughton, and others, and had come 

 to the Beconsaw (or Beckinshaw) family of Becconsall 

 and Aughton,'' descending regularly till 1557, when 



mentioned in 1344; Assize R. 1435 

 m. 45 d. 



■'' 'Crotia' gives names to fields in the 

 Moor Hall estate. There was also a Craw - 

 shaw in Bickerstaffe. 



■* Probably he married again, as Banastre 

 of Bank held lands of Alice wife of Gil- 

 bert de Ince of Aughton ; De Banc. R. 

 364, m. 12. 



' One of these mentions ' Broad Oak ' as 

 a boundary. The land of William son of 

 William the Harper was adjacent. 



302 



' The Beconsaws had lands in Wallasey 

 also. 



In 1329 the prior of the Hospitallers 

 claimed land in Aughton from Gilbert 

 le Walsh and Henry de Beconsaw ; the 

 latter held half the manor of Becconaall, 

 which the prior also claimed ; De Banc. 

 R. 279, m. i%od. Gilbert Walsh about 

 1530 held Crossfield in Aughton of the 

 Hospiullers by the yearly rent of lid. and 

 Thomas Walton had two messuages, paying 

 2</. ; Kuerden MSS. v, fol. 84. 



