A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



RAINHILL 



Reynhull, 1256 ; RaynhuU, 1285. 



This township has an area of 1,639^ acres.' It 

 occupies the southern slope of the hill from which 

 apparently it has taken a name ; roughly speaking 

 the ridge of the hill forms the boundary against 

 Eccleston on the north. The portion next to Sutton 

 is called Ritherope. The open country is occupied 

 by pastures and arable fields where crops of barley, 

 wheat, potatoes and turnips are cultivated. Plan- 

 tations dotted about give the landscape a park-like 

 appearance. 



The principal road, from Prescot to Warrington, 

 passes through the township south- eastwardly ; at the 

 north-western boundary is the Holt ; farther on, 

 where the road crosses the London and North- 

 western Company's line from Liverpool to Man- 

 chester, is the station, where in recent times a 

 considerable village has grown up. Formerly there 

 was only a house or two, and the place was called 

 the Cross, or Kendrick's Cross. Then the modern 

 hall is passed on the left, and the original village 

 reached, now reduced to a few houses ; close by are 

 the Stoops. At this point, near which is the old 

 ' manor house,' a more southerly road from Prescot 

 joins it, having passed the old ' hall ' at a point known 

 as Blundell's Hill, more than 250 feet above sea level. 

 The view from this point is very fine, embracing an 

 extensive panorama of the immediate country, right 

 away over the River Mersey to the hills and plains 

 of Cheshire, to which, farther still, the undulating line 

 of the Welsh mountains forms an imposing back- 

 ground. On the north this township is bounded by 

 a colliery district, and consequently the country 

 becomes less pleasing in character. The greater part 

 of the township lies upon the pebble beds of the 

 Bunter series (new red sandstone), but small areas 

 of the lower mottled sandstone of the same series 

 occur on the western side of Cronton Lane and half a 

 mile to the north-west of Rainhill Stoops. 



The population in 1 90 1 numbered 2,208. 



There is a parish council of eight members. 



A quarry is worked. The place has long been 

 celebrated for the manufacture of files ; other tools 

 and parts of watches are also made, and there is a 

 brass foundry. 



Kendrick's Cross, in the village, is a small stone 

 pillar fixed in an ancient pedest.1l ; Blundell's Hill 

 Cross also stands on an ancient pedestal.' 



From what has been recorded ot 

 MJNORS Sutton and Eccleston it will be known 

 that RAINHILL, assessed at two plough- 

 lands, was held by the lord of Eccleston of the lord 

 of Sutton, the latter holding of the Constable of 

 Chester as of his barony of Widnes.' The Eccleston 

 family, however, early created a subordinate manor of 

 Rainhill, of which the first undertenant appears to 

 have been Roger de Rainhill, father of Simon and 

 Waldeve, who were enfeoffed by John de Lacy, con- 

 stable of Chester, between 1220 and 1232, of four 

 oxgangs of land in Rainhill, which had been their 

 father's, to hold by knight's service, where ten plough- 

 lands made the service of a knight, and by rendering 

 the farm which belonged to Richard de Eccleston.* 

 Simon seems to have had issue by Emma his wife' 

 two daughters, to whom before 1 246 the manor had 

 descended, viz.. Amice who married Alan de Windle, 

 and Agnes who married Roger de Molyneux, a 

 younger son of Adam de Molyneux of Sefton.' 



The manor was divided between them, each family 

 having one plough-land. The Windle half, like the 

 other possessions of the family, descended through the 

 Burnhulls, to the Gerards of Brynn, who held it until 

 the sixteenth century.' In 1565 it was sold to the 

 immediately superior lord, Henry Eccleston,' but it 

 appears to have soon changed hands again, for in 1629 

 the heirs of Hugh Lee or Ley were lords of the 

 manor." John Chorley, son of Alexander Chorley of 

 Furnival's Inn, married Elizabeth Ley, a daughter 

 and coheir of Hugh Ley of Liverpool, and in August, 

 1630, a settlement was made of the manor ofRain- 



^ 1,658, including 5 acres inland water, 

 according to the census of 1901. 



^ Tram, Land, and Ches. Anri'^. Soc. xix, 

 206-7. The crosses are due to Bar- 

 tholomew Bretherton. 



* Ll2tics. Ini^, and Extenti (Rcc. Soc. 

 Lanc^. and Chcs.), 41, 148. 



The Ecclestons from time to time ac- 

 quired lands in Rainhiil ; see, for example, 

 Dcf). Keeper's Rtf). xjcxii, App. 334, 352. 



* .inct.D. P.R.O. V, A. 1 1171. 



* CharruL ofCock^rsand [Chet. Soc), 599. 



* In 1246 Alan de Windle and Amice 

 his wife, and Roger de Molyneux and 

 Agnes his wife, called upon Richard de 

 Eccleston to acquit them of the service 

 for two plough-lands in Rainhill — to wit, 

 the whole town of Rainhill — held by 

 them of Richard by knight's service ; the 

 king, as guardian of the heir of John de 

 Lacy, earl of Lincoln, had claimed a 

 three weeks to three weeks suit, which 

 they asserted that Richard, as mesne lord, 

 should perform. The defence put for- 

 ward was that the charter under which 

 they held did not require him to do this ; 

 Assize R. 404, m. 11. Ten years later 

 Alan de Windle (his wife being dead) and 

 Roger and Agnes de Molyneux came to 

 an agreement with Robert de Eccleston, 

 Richard's son, by which he acquitted 

 them of the service required by Edmund 

 de Lacy, in particular the finding of a 

 judge or doomsman at the court of Wid- 



nes ; Fina/ Cone. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), i, 125, For this Molyneux family 

 see the accounts of Little Crosby and 

 Speke. 



In 12-6 John de Northale of Sutton 

 recovered from Peter de Windle and Alice 

 hij wife, Roger de Molyneux and Agnes 

 his wife, Richard their son, and others, 

 1 2 acres of wood, &c., of which they had 

 taken possession, pretending that the 

 lands were within Rainhill ; the damages 

 were assessed at 21.; Assize R. 405, 

 m. I. 



^ Sir Peter de BurnhuU (Brindle) 

 granted to Ralph Banastre land in the 

 western part of Rainhill, at a rent of izd.; 

 and this gift was confirmed by his son 

 Alan in 1315 ; Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 228. 

 Nicholas Banastre called on the Bumhull 

 heirs to warrant him in 1330 ; De Banc. 

 R. 284, m. 119 ; 286, m. 170 ; 287, m. 

 185 i/. (on which occasion the charter of 

 Peter de Bumhull was produced), &c. 

 In 1524 this land was held by John 

 Mosley of Rainhill ; Dods. loc. cit. 



In 1354 half their moiety of the manor 

 was granted by William Gerard and Joan 

 his wife to Peter Gerard and Katherine 

 his wife ; Final Cone, ii, 142. In 1416 it 

 was found that Sir T. Gerard had held a 

 moiety of the manor of Rainhill of the 

 heirs of Henry de Eccleston by knight's 

 service and a rent of i Sd. ; but in 1447, 

 in the inquest after the death of Sir 



368 



Peter Gerard, nothing is said of any 

 manor here, though he had held of John 

 Eccleston * certain messuages, with all the 

 lands and tenements, rents, and services' 

 belonging to them ; Lanes. Inij. p.m. (Chet. 

 Soc), i, 123 5 Towneley MS. DD. n. 

 1465, The manor of Rainhill wis 

 included, with other lands there, in a 

 settlement of the Gerard estates made in 

 1 5 1 1 ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 1 1, 

 m, 246. 



It is noticeable that as late as IS98 

 land in Rainhill was said to be held of the 

 ' heirs of Peter Burnell ' ; see the inq. 

 p.m. of Henry Coney of Ditton. 



8 Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 27, m. 

 1 26 ; the manor of Rainhill, twenty 

 messuages, a windmill, and various lands 

 there, were claimed by Henry Eccleston 

 from Sir Thomas Gerard and Elizabeth 

 his wife, and others. 



^ See the Inq. p.m. of Thomas Lancaster 

 below. The residence was called the 

 Manor House. The Ley family occur also 

 in connexion with MaghuU. In 152; 

 Christopher, ion and heir of Hugh Ley, 

 was called upon to pay £io to Ralph 

 Ley, brother of Hugh ; Pal. of Lane 

 Plea R. 140, m. 16. The will of Hugh 

 Ley of Rainhill, dated in June and proved 

 at Chester in Aug. 1592, expresses a 

 desire to be biiried in Prescot church, 

 near where his father was buried. It 

 mentions his son John, and hit children^ 



