WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WARRINGTON 



recently increased at a rapid rate, and in 190 1 num- 

 bered 2,187 persons. The country is extremely flat, 

 with much reclaimed marsh or mossland, drained by 

 'cuts' into the Sanicey Brook, which, winding from 

 north to south-east and south, forms the boundary of 

 the township on those sides. It yields crops of wheat, 

 clover, and hay, and some potatoes and turnips on .i 

 clay soil ; but on the north it becomes a coal-mining 

 district, and at Collins Green shafts of coal-mines are 

 prominent features in the landscape. The geological 

 formation illustrates the complete bunter series of the 

 new red sandstone. Bewsey and Dallam are upon 

 the upper mottled sandstone ; Burtonwood, Bradley 

 Hall, and Collins Green upon the pebble beds, the 

 remainder of the township being upon the lower 

 mottled sandstone, except a very small area of permian 

 rocks and coal measures occurring to the west of 

 Collins Green. The St. Helens and Sankey Canal, 

 after crossing Sankey Brook, passes through the south- 

 eastern end of the township near Dallam and Bewsey. 

 There is a station at Collins Green on the Manchester 

 and Liverpool section of the London and North 

 Western Railway, which enters the township on the 

 east over the celebrated Sankey Viaduct of nine arches, 

 each of 50 ft. span and varying from 60 ft. to 70 ft. 

 in height, one arch spanning Sankey Brook and 

 another the Sankey Canal.' 



A school board was formed in 1876.' 



There is a parish council. 



Probably known before the Conquest 

 MANORS as 'Burtun' and held by one of the 

 thirty-four drengs of Warrington hundred 

 as a dependent manor or berewick of Warrington, this 

 manor was subsequently included in the demesne of 

 the lords of the honour of Lancaster, and by Henry I 

 put into his forest between Ribble and Mersey, when 

 it doubtless acquired its name oi BURTONWOOD. In 

 1228 it was perambulated in accordance with the 

 charter of the forest of 1224-5, and was retained in 

 the king's forest within boundaries extending from 

 Hardsty on the west to Sankey Brook on the east, and 

 from Bradley Brook on the north to Ravens Lache on 

 the south, reserving therein to William le Boteler and 

 his heirs common of pasture and stock {instauri), mast- 

 fall for their swine, timber for their castle of Warring- 



ton and other buildings and for fuel.' The right ot 

 taking estovers defines the extent of the interest in 

 this township held by the lords of Warrington. 



It passed about 1229 to the earl of Chester with 

 the rest of the comital demesne between Ribble and 

 Mersey, and subsequently to Ferrers, earl of Derby, 

 and we find William de Ferrers on 2 October, 1 25 1, 

 granting to the abbey of Tiltey in Essex — a house of the 

 foundation of his ancestor Robert de Ferrers in 1 152 

 — a messuage in ' Harderesley ' in the Hey of Burton, 

 with 1 20 acres of land and wood around it (with liberty 

 to enclose the same), ample pasture for their stock and 

 plough beasts, and licence to make two water-mills 

 with weirs on the water of Sankey.* In December, 

 1 2 5 I , William de Ferrers had a charter of free warren 

 in this manor.' Two years later he was plaintiff in 

 a suit with William le Boteler concerning common of 

 pasture in the Hey of Burton." About the year 

 1264 Robert de Ferrers sold the manor to William 

 le Boteler for 900 marks, which the latter undertook 

 to pay by half-yearly instalments of ^10.' In 1280 

 Edmund earl of Lancaster released to William le 

 Boteler a plot of land called Hardersley, in the wood 

 of Burton, which the abbot and monks of Tiltey had 

 sometime held of the earl of Ferrers.' At the death 

 of the earl of Lancaster in 1296, William le Boteler 

 held the manor of him for one penny yearly service.' 

 At what time the abbey of Tiltey sold or resigned 

 the estate of Hardersley is uncertain, but it was 

 probably purchased by William le Boteler before 

 1280. During the time of the monks' ownership 

 they seem to have established a grange here, within 

 an enclosure of wood or park, to which they gave the 

 name ' beau site,' afterwards softened to Beausee or 

 Bewsey.'" Asearlyas the commencement of Edward II's 

 reign the lords of Warrington had made this their 

 country seat." 



In 1328, by deed dated at Bewsey, William le 

 Boteler demised to Matthew de Southworth, John 

 and Margaret, his children, a plat of land, meadow, 

 and waste in Burtonwood and in the old park of 

 ' Beausi,' and i-J acre in the field of Harderslegh, for 

 their lives and the life of the longest liver.'* The 

 Botelers wisely refrained from granting estates in this 

 manor in fee, but demised tenements for lives or 



1 Liverpool and Manch, Railway (ed. ii, 

 1830), 34. 



' Lond. Gaz. lo Mar. 1876. 



' Ca/.o/C/oje, 1227-31, p. loi. In the 

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

 Ravnesneslake is given as Raveneschagh. 



* The boundary ran in length from 

 Merlake by Sankey Brook 60 perches of 

 20 ft. to Ballermoss, thence in width the 

 same distance to Fernhal, thence in length 

 to Burton Brook and beyond it to Cress- 

 doke and Shotbriggate, and past Har- 

 deresleye to an oak-tree in the Fule lake 

 (lache), thence to the hedge of the wood, 

 and following the hedge to Brend-oak 

 towards the gate of the messuage (of 

 Harderesley), thence through the wood 

 and across the earl's meadow to the water 

 of Sankey and along the same to Merlake ; 

 Cal. Charter R. i, 359, 373. 



* Ibid. 373. 



5 Cur. Reg. R. 149, m. 17. 



' Bold D. in Warr. Mus. (D. 14) ; 

 see Gents' Mag, Dec. 1863. There re- 

 mained 460 marks of the principal sum 

 due to Edmund earl of Lancaster in Feb. 

 1270 ; Raines MSS. (Chet. Lib.), xxxviii, 

 309. About 1280 Henry de Lostock and 

 Joan hit wife, assignees of Robert de 



Ferrers, released to William their claim 

 in the arrears of the purchase-money for 

 Burtonwood ; Dods, MSS. cxlii, 23 6i j 

 Annals of Warr. (Chet. Soc), 73. 



» Bold D. (Warr. Mus.), E. 27. 



' Lanes. Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), 288. 



i" Beause, 1313 ; Beusee, 1368. 



" Towneley MS. HH. n. 1692 l^fenes 

 W. Farrer). 



A Boteler charter dated at Bewsey as 

 early as 1307 has been preservedj Bold D. 

 (Warr.), E. 2. By one of 1325 William 

 le Boteler, lord of Warrington, granted to 

 Roger son of Hawise 9 acres of arable 

 land in Burtonwood for the lives of 

 Roger and his wife Emma, with common 

 of pasture in Burtonwood for one horse 

 and two oxen all the year round except 

 mast time, also in Burtonwood and the 

 ancient park of Bewsey for twelve sheep ; 

 the rent was 1 31. bd. Roger and Emma 

 were to grind their corn, &c. at the 

 Boteler mills of Burtonwood, Sankey, 

 and Warrington ; they had leave to cut 

 wood for their own use, but not for sale or 

 giving away ; ibid. D. 11. 



1' The boundary began at Dallum Yate 

 and followed a ditch near the moss of 



Dallum Park which Matthew de South- 

 worth had made, to the * aide paleis ' in 

 the said park., and along the old pales to 

 the house late of Robert Curtays, thence 

 by an ancient ditch eastward to the out- 

 lane which leads from Winwick to the 

 wood of Burtonwood, and along that lane 

 by hedges and ditches against the land of 

 Robert son of Adam of the Granges into 

 the midstream of the water of Sankey, 

 and following the midstream on the 

 eastern side to the aforesaid Dallum 

 Yate, excepting only 13 acres of meadow 

 within that boundary lying in the Frer- 

 eghes, which Gilbert de Haydock, Henry 

 his brother, and Henry the Parker held of 

 the grantor for a term. The demise 

 included estovers in Burtonwood, turbary 

 in Dallum Moss, the right to rid the 

 land of all trees and to cultivate and till 

 it with marl, to make a bridge over the 

 water of Sankey in the tenement to con- 

 nect it with Matthew's land in Winwick, 

 to common eighteen beasts, three stallions, 

 twelve sheep, in the old park of Beausee 

 at all times of the year and in the wood 

 except at the time of mast-fall. The 

 rent was 2^ marks j Towneley MS. HH, 

 ff. 169Z. 



