WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WARRINGTON 



enter into a recognizance with him in j^ioo that he 

 would not, during his after life, play at dice or cards 

 except in his kinsman's presence, nor play at tables, 

 bowls, or other games above i zd. a game, nor bet at 

 such games above that sum, ' nor shoote, bett or lay 

 upon any one matche shooting above zo/.' nor make 

 nor fight any battle at any cockfight above ^s. at any 

 one battle, nor become surety with or for anyone by 

 bond without his kinsman's consent.' 



In 1 612 Hamlet Bruche and his brother Roger 

 had become lessees of part of the demesne of Bruche 

 under their kinsman Sir Peter Legh,' who had then 

 acquired their whole patrimony, out of which little 

 seems to have been left to them beyond a small sum 

 in cash.' The manor subsequently descended to 

 Piers Legh of Bruche, who died in 1686 unmarried, 

 when the estate devolved upon his half-sister Frances, 

 who married in 1687 her kinsman Peter Legh, son 

 of Richard Legh of Lyme. Their only son died un- 

 married in his mother's lifetime, and upon her death 

 in 1727 the estate passed to the representative of her 

 aunt Frances Legh,^ who in 1656 had married 

 William Bankes of Winstanley. 



The estate was sold early in the last century by 

 William Bankes of Winstanley, and was acquired by 

 Jonathan Jackson, sailcloth manufacturer of Warring- 

 ton. In 1820 soap works were erected upon a portion 

 of the Bruche estate, to which the name of Paddington 

 was given, by Robert Halton, 

 whose partner Mr. Jackson be- 

 came in 1 82 1. Three years 

 later the excise officers of the 

 crown recovered the sum of 

 j^6,340 against the partners for 

 double duty upon soap surrep- 

 titiously made in a secret boil- 

 ing-room of which no entry 

 had been made in the excise 

 books. The trade creditors of 

 the firm taking alarm caused it 

 to become involved in bank- 

 ruptcy, upon which the part- 

 ners' estates were sold. On 

 10 December, 1824, the Bruche 

 estate was put up for sale and 

 purchased for ^19,200 by Tho- 

 mas Parr of Warrington,' whose 

 son Thomas Philip died with- 

 out issue in 1 891, when the estate passed to his 

 brother John Charlton Parr of Grappenhall Heys, 

 the present owner.° 



FEARNHEJD was anciently an area mainly con- 

 sisting of wood, waste, and moss, which in process of 

 time was brought into cultivation by the tenants of 

 the manor of Poulton. In 1282 Hugh son of Gilbert 

 de Southworth demised to farm to Richard son of 

 Emma de Woolston for life lands in Fearnhead in 

 Poulton which he had by the grant of the said 

 Richard.' Richard de Fernyheued is mentioned as a 

 contemporary of Henry de Bruche,' and again in 1317.^ 



Parr of Grappen- 

 hall Heys. Argent, 

 two bars sable between 

 two roses paU'ways gules, 

 barbed and seeded proper, 

 ■within a bordure en- 

 grailed of the second 

 charged 'with ji'ue be- 

 zants and as many pear- 

 leaves alternately or. 



In I 382-3 Maud del Fernyhed gave a parcel of land 

 in Ferneheud to Matthew de Southworth,'" and in 

 141 4 Richard son of Adam de Fernyhede gave all his 

 lands in Fernyhede hamlet and Woolston to feoffees." 

 In the year 1400 John de Southworth and Jane his 

 wife were described as of Fearnhead.'* A lease of 

 Sir John South worth's lands here in 1509 names 

 Peys Croft, Heathey, Maben Ridding, and Romescry- 

 moll." In 1586 R.oger Bruche and Sir John South- 

 worth agreed to abide by the award of Randle Rixton 

 of Great Sankey touching the division and ' mearing 

 out ' or bounding of the waste grounds and common 

 called Bruche Heath in Poulton.'* In 1530 John 

 Fernehead possessed lands in Fearnhead, which he 

 held by a free rent of 8j. 9a'. of Richard Bruche.'* 

 The will of Richard Fearnhead of Fearnhead, yeoman, 

 was proved in 1604, and that of Thomas in 1642, 

 but the family did not continue to be landholders here 

 much later. 



Roger Bruche of Bruche and John Heapy of Fearn- 

 head were freeholders in 1600.'" 



Christ Church, Padgate, was built in 1838, and an 

 ecclesiastical district was formed for it." The vicarage 

 is in the gift of the rector of Warrington. 



There is a Wesleyan church at Padgate. 



Formerly there seems to have been a cross at 

 Fearnhead.'* 



WOOLSTON WITH MARTINSCROFT 



Ulfiton c. 1 147 ; Wlfiton, 1175-82. 



Woolston to the west and Martinscroft to the east 

 extend along the bank of the River Mersey, and 

 together form a joint township containing an area of 

 1, 5 66 J statute acres, of which Woolston proper has 

 1,225.'^ The township lies wholly upon the upper 

 mottled sandstone of the bunter series of the new 

 red sandstone. The high road from Warrington to 

 Manchester passes through it, and the Woolston New 

 Cut, a short canal belonging to the Manchester Ship 

 Canal, passes through Woolston and shortens the 

 waterway of the Mersey and Irwell Canal by avoiding 

 some of the numerous windings of the River Mersey. 

 In 1 90 1 there were in the joint township 484 persons. 

 There are a number of small landowners here, the 

 land being let in small tenements. 



There is a parish council. 



The flat country 's divided into fields with rather 

 meagre hedgerows and scanty trees. The alluvial and 

 sandy soil appears fertile, yielding good crops of 

 potatoes and turnips, oats, wheat, and clover, whilst 

 many a marshy corner is devoted to the cultivation of 

 osiers for the manufacture of potato-hampers and 

 ' skips.' In the north of the district there is a con- 

 siderable patch of mossland, and here too there is a 

 good deal of clay in the surface soil. By the river 

 there are moist pastures. The inhabitants are 

 entirely employed in agricultural labour and basket- 

 making. 



1 Raines, op. clt. 353. 



'^ Ibid. 351. 



' Beamont, Bruche Hall, 39-+0. 



^ In 1694 Peter Legh and Frances his 

 wife conveyed the manor of Bruche with 

 other lands to Thomas Leigh and Leigh 

 Bankes ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 

 232, m. 62. 5 Bruche Hall, 58-67. 



* Information of Mr. Parr. 



' Dods. MSS. liii, 25*. 



8 Raines MSS. xxxviii, 411, n. 3. 

 8 Ibid. 413, «. I. 



10 Dods. MSS. liii, i8i. 



11 Ibid. 24. 



1^ Pal. of Lane. Chanc. Misc. bdle. i, 

 file 9, m. 122. 



18 Towneley MS. HH. {fenes W. 

 Farrer), n. 1527. Perhaps the name 

 should be Rainestrymoll. 



" Ibid. B. 2099. 



1^ Raines MSS. xxxviii, 329, n. 3. 



" Mhc, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 

 239, 240. 



17 See Beamont's PFarr, C/i, Notes, 

 225 ; Land. Gaz, 16 June, 1843, &c,, 

 for endowments. 



^s Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc, xix, 219, 



^^ The census report of 1901 gives the 

 total area as 1,623 acres, of which 4.7 are 

 inland water. 



