WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WARRINGTON 



of Warrington. This place is supposed to have been 

 of British origin. Two Roman roads, from the south 

 and from Chester,' met at Latchford on the south 

 bank of the Mersey, near which point considerable 

 discoveries have been made ; crossing probably at this 

 ford, the north road was continued through War- 

 rington to Winwick and Wigan.* Sometime before 

 the Norman Conquest Warrington became the head 

 of a hundred. 



Afterwards the lordship was divided. Warrington 

 and Rixton seem to have been original parts of the 

 Warrington barony, created early in the twelfth cen- 

 tury, and long held by Pain de Vilers and his de- 

 scendants the Boteler family. Woolston, Poulton, 

 and Burtonwood were retained by the lords of the 

 district ' between Ribble and Mersey,' the two former 

 in time becoming part of the fee of Makerfield, and 

 Burtonwood being added to the fee of Warrington. 

 The lords of Warrington established their residence 

 or castle at the mote hill,' from which the town 

 spread westward along the road to Prescot.'' A bridge 

 was built,' perhaps early in the thirteenth century, 

 and this soon became one of the principal means of 

 communication between the north and south of 

 England. The street leading north from it was 

 called the Newgate as late as 1465. Near the bridge, 

 on the west side of Newgate, was a house of Austin 

 Friars, and at the point where this new street crossed 

 the old road to Prescot a market was established 

 about 1260.* The town gradually increased round 

 this point, and in time the parish church, at the 

 extreme east end, became somewhat isolated ; the 

 change was no doubt assisted by the removal of the 

 lord's residence from the mote hill to Bewsey in 

 Burtonwood.' 



A borough was created about 1230, but its growing 



strength appears to have alarmed the lord, who con- 

 trived to repress it before 1300, granting certain 

 privileges to the free tenants as compensation ; and 

 the town remained under the authority of the lords 

 of the manor until the beginning of last century. A 

 survey of the portion belonging to Sir Peter Legh in 

 1465 has been printed ;* this shows that the houses 

 had extended from the church westward as far as the 

 market, and a little way along San key Street ; also 

 south from the crossing down Newgate to ' the place 

 where the bridge formerly stood.' Other streets, 

 north and south of Church Street, are mentioned ; 

 on the north side of the market-place was a row of 

 houses called Pratt Row ; their long back gardens 

 touched the great heath,' on which stood a windmill. 

 Across the heath the main road led north by Long- 

 ford to Winwick, but there was a branch to Bewsey. 

 To the south of the town were the great meadows of 

 Howley and Arpley. The water-mills were on 

 Sankey Brook. The visit of Henry VII to Lathom 

 in 1495 induced the earl of Derby to rebuild the 

 bridge and provide for its maintenance.'" 



Leland about 1535 thus records his impressions : 

 ' Warrington, a paved town ; one church (and) a 

 Freres Augustine at the bridge end. The town is of a 

 pretty bigness. The parish church is at the tail of all 

 the town. It is a better market than Manchester.' " 

 The Reformation was here received as elsewhere in 

 the district. The chantries were suppressed and the 

 services of the parish church altered ; but the grammar 

 school, founded in 1526, was preserved. A lease of 

 the rectory made in 1 544 reduced the rector's stipend 

 to £^'i-0, at which sum it remained for 200 years. 

 The Butlers conformed to the Elizabethan order in 

 religion,'* but this did not stave off their ruin ; their 

 successors, the Irelands, were also Protestants. Most 



^ For the Roman remains at Wllders- 

 pool and Stockton Heath see Thompson 

 Watkin, Roman Ches. 260-73 i ""<' T. 

 May, WaTringtoWs Roman Remains (1904). 

 In Warrington proper only slight evidence 

 has come to light of the Roman occupa- 

 tion ; Watkin, Roman Lanes. 224-5. 



2 The road across Howley meadow, 

 which the ford at Latchford would require, 

 has disappeared. 



' The mote hill was in recent times 

 counted as part of Burtonwood for rating 

 purposes ; probably when Bewsey became 

 the residence of the lord of Warrington 

 his old residence, or its site, was supposed 

 to be attached to it. The 'castle' of 

 William le Boteler is mentioned in the 

 Perambulation of the Forest in 1228 ; 

 Whalley Coucher (Chet. Soc), ii, 372 ; 

 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R, 422. 



"* The * burgages ' named in fVarr. in 

 1465 (Chet. Soc.) are chiefly in Church 

 Street, Bridge Street, and the east side of 

 the town, but one or two seem to have 

 been in Sankey Street. 



* The history of this bridge is given in 

 the work just cited, 86-91. The Boydells 

 of Dodleston had the grant of the tolls 

 for the passage of the Mersey at Latch- 

 ford ; foot passengers were free, but horse- 

 men and carts had to pay toll ; Ormerod, 

 Ches. (ed. Helsby), i, 603-4. The privi- 

 lege was asserted as late as the sixteenth 

 century ; Duchy Pleadings (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 39-41. The 'bridge 

 of the Mersey at Warrington' is named 

 in a charter of 1305; Beamont, Lords 

 of Warr. (Chet. Soc), i, 133 ; at p. 136 

 are given the tolls chargeable in 1310. 



In 1364 it was at least intended to recon- 

 struct it ; but possibly the work was not 

 carried out, for although John Boteler in 

 1420 left 20 marks for the repair of the 

 bridge, in 1465 it is spoken of as a thing 

 of the past — * ubi pons quondam stetit ' ; 

 Warr. in 1465, pp. 88, 91 (quoting Rymer, 

 Foed. iii, 740-1) ; Lords of Warr. ii, 277 

 (quoting Sir John Boteler's will). A pas- 

 sage was then maintained by boats ; Duchy 

 Plead, loc. cit. 



^ The charters for the markets are 

 dated 1255, 1277, and 1285. From the 

 position of the Austin Friars' house and 

 of the market (at least in the fifteenth 

 century), it seems clear that the road 

 northward across the bridge had already 

 become a popular highway. 



^ Before 1280 the manor of Burtonwood 

 had been purchased by William le Boteler. 



* Chet. Soc. vol. xvii (ed.W. Beamont), 

 quoted above. 



* Ibid. 41-59 ; one of the seven hold- 

 ings in this position is described as follows : 

 'A fair messuage newly built, with two 

 fair high chambers, with a kitchen, large 

 garden containing a new oven at the 

 north end ; . . . worth to Sir Peter Legh 

 1 ij. a year in addition to the service of 

 two days in autumn, worth \d^ 



Among the local words are Wroe and 

 Warth (in Arpley), Crimble, and Pighull. 

 It is noteworthy that the Mersey is called 

 the 'sea.' Burgages in -Church Street 

 had an oxgang of land in Arpley appurte- 

 nant in two cases ; pp. 67, 71. 



A large number of place and field names 

 have been collected in the Introduction, 

 pp. Ixviii-lxx. 



^o In 1453 the archbishops of Canter- 

 bury and York granted indulgences to all 

 who should contribute to the building and 

 re-erection of the bridge over * the great 

 and rapid water commonly called the 

 Mersey' ; Lords of Warr. ii, 278. Again, 

 in 1479, a forty-days' indulgence was 

 granted by the archbishop of York for 

 the same object ; ibid, ii, 336. The con- 

 tributions elicited, with j^20 granted about 

 the same time from the duchy revenues 

 {hancs. and Ches. Rec. ii, 300), were prob- 

 ably too small for the purpose, so that 

 the first earl of Derby is justly credited 

 with the work ; his interest in it is shown 

 by the 300 marks he bequeathed for the- 

 redemption of the rents and tolls of the 

 bridge ; Lords of Warr. 353, 363. The 

 bridge was shortly afterwards declared' 

 free ; ibid. 365-70. Later earls of Derby- 

 charged themselves with its mainten- 

 ance, but the Civil War so impoverished 

 them that they refused to do it any longer,, 

 and the expense was then charged on 

 the counties of Chester and Lancaster ;, 

 Ormerod, i, 604 (quoting Seacome, House 

 of Stanley). Henry VII arrived at Warring- 

 ton 28 July, 1495. 



11 Itin. vii, 47. 



^^ Gibson, Lydiate Hallj 195, quoting. 

 S. P. Dom. Eliz. xlviii, n. 35. This is a 

 report dated 1568 fromW, Glaseor to the- 

 queen's commissioners j it states that 

 * from Warrington all along the sea-coast, 

 of Lancashire, except Mr. Butler, begin- 

 ning with Mr. Ireland, then Sir Williami 

 Norris, and so forward, other gentlemen, 

 here be of the faction and withdraw them- 

 selves from religion,' 



39 



