A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Richard White, and later Thomas Johnson. There 

 was no plate.' 



There appears to have been a resident curate main- 

 tained at Farnworth after the Reformation, but he 

 was onl)- 'a reading minister.' The Parliamentary 

 Committee in 1645 assigned ^50 a year out of the 

 sequestered tithes of the earl of Newcastle, who 

 farmed them from King's College, to augment the 

 stipend of the curate. They estimated that there 

 were 2,000 communicants within the chapelr)'. 



The school was founded in 1509 by William 

 Smith, bishop of Lincoln.' 



More recently in connexion with the Establishment 

 there have been erected three churches in Widnes. 

 St. Mary's was built in 1856 ;* the patronage has re- 

 cently been transferred to the bishop of Liverpool. 

 St. Ambrose, in the gift of trustees, was built in 

 1883 ; St. Paul's, to which the bishop of Liverpool 

 collates, in the following year. 



A Wesleyan Methodist church was built at Widnes 

 in 1863, and two others more recently; one at 

 Farnworth, built in 184.9, "'^^ replaced by a new one 

 in 1 89 1 ; there is an iron chapel at Appleton. The 

 Welsh Wcsleyans also have a church. There are two 

 Primitive Methodist chapels, and one of the United 

 Free Methodists, called Zion. 



The Congregationalists have a church at Simm's 

 Cross ; ' and the Welsh Congregationalists have a 

 place of worship." The Welsh Presbyterians, or Calvinis- 

 tic Methodists, also have one. The Baptist chapel at Ap- 

 pleton dates from l 890, but a congregation is said to 

 have been formed in 1872. The Salvation Army has a 

 barracks. The Unitarians also have a meeting-place. 



Roman Catholic worship was maintained during 

 the period of persecution ' in one of the houses of the 

 Hawarden family in Appleton and Widnes, and some 

 of its members were among the officiating priests. 

 In 1750 a public chapel was opened in Appleton, re- 

 placed by the present church of St. Bede in 1 847.* In 

 1865 the church of St. Mary was opened in Widnes, 

 followed in 1888 by St. Patrick's. 



CRONTON 

 Croynton, 1292 ; Croenton, 1348 ; both common. 

 Variants are Grewinton (? 1200), and Crouwenton, 

 '333- 



Cronton, measuring 1,1 5 3i acres,' is situated on 

 ground undulating in the north, and gradually sloping 

 to quite a flat surface in the south. The village is 

 situated about the centre of the township, and is a 

 favourite resort for cyclists and picnic parties, both 

 from Liverpool and Widnes, on account of a public 

 recreation ground on Pexhill. This hill, rising to 

 only 200 ft. above sea level, is covered with heather 

 and gorse, and on the top are the Widnes Corpora- 

 tion reservoirs, formed in 1 868. There are but few 

 plantations, but the most part of the country is occu- 

 pied by arable fields, where good crops of turnip*, 

 wheat, oats, and barley are grown in a loamy soil. 

 There are decidedly fine views of the surrounding 

 country to be had from Pexhill. The township lies 

 upon the two lower beds of the bunter series of the 

 new red sandstone, the lower mottled sandstone in 

 the western and southern portions, the pebble beds in 

 the north-eastern. The principal roads cross at the 

 village, one going north and south to Rainhill and 

 Ditton, and the other east and west to Farnworth and 

 Huyton. 



In 1901 the population was 583. 



Watchmakers' tools are made here. 



The remains of a cross — pedestal and part of the 

 shaft — may be seen near the hall ; the stocks remain, 

 being in the village. Formerly there was a well close 

 by dedicated to St. Anne, but known as the Stocks 

 Well ; it is now filled up. Pexhill Cross was de- 

 stroyed in I 868.'° 



There is a parish council. 



CRONTON appears to have been one 

 MANOR of the original members of the Widnes 

 barony, being associated with Appleton 

 in an assessment of I hide of 6 plough-lands." In 

 1 2 1 2 it was still part of the demesne of the barony, 

 and is not mentioned in the survey of that year." 

 Before 1 190, however, part at least must have been 

 granted out, for one Matthew son of William had given 

 land there to the Hospitallers, which they in that 

 year granted, with other lands in the district, to 

 Richard de la More." 



The township was about 1250" given in alms, 

 with his body, by Edmund de Lacy to Stanlaw 

 Abbey, with all his land and rights there, including 

 the farm of the mill." The mill had been erected on 



' rdor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), v, 220 ; 

 Raines, Chantriis (Chet. Soc), 76. Thomas 

 Johnson was buried 20 July, 1 548 ; Ci. 

 G.;Jj, 1552, p. 84. 



■J PlundireA Mini. Accis. i, 67. It ap- 

 pears that ^10 had been bequeathed by 

 Thomas Vaus of Garston, the interest to 

 be given to a * preaching minister ' 

 here. 



^ A history of it was published in 1905 

 by the head master, C. R. Lewis, M.A. 



^ Chapelry formed in 1859 ; Lond, Gaz. 

 17 May. 



^ Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. iv, 266 ; 

 the chapel was built in 1875, after ten 

 years' work. 



^ Ibid, iv, 270 ; the chapel was built in 

 1878. 



'* The recusant roll of 1628 shows 

 eighteen names in this township ; Lay 

 Subs. 131/318. 



Richard Rivers, 'vere Burscough, son 

 of John Burscough and .Anne Hitchmough 

 his wife, was admitted to the English Col- 

 lege, Rome, in 1673. He stated that he 

 wa3 born at Widnes in 1657, and baptized 

 by Mr. Bar'.ow, a secular priest ; in 1672 



he was * sent to St. Omer's for his humani- 

 ties, having studied rudiments at Widnes. 

 His parents and relatives were of the 

 upper class j his father was not rich, being 

 a younger son, and had suffered much for 

 the Catholic faith, which his parents 

 had embraced ; he had three brothers and 

 two sisters, all Catholics ' ; Foley, Rec. 

 S.J. vi, 421. 



Lawrence Hill, falsely accused of the 

 murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey and 

 executed 21 February, 1678— 9, is supposed 

 to have been a native of Widnes ; Gillow, 

 Bibliog. Did. of Engl. Catb. iii, 307. 



8 Ibid, iii, 168. 



' 1,126, including 5 of inland water, 

 according to the census of 1901. Cronton 

 Heys, a small detached part of the town- 

 ship, was transferred to Tarbock in 1877 

 by L.G.B. order 7401. 



^0 Land, and Cbes. Antiq, Soc. xix, 204-6 ; 

 where may be read the local story of Pex- 

 hill, the name being traced to a Peg Pusey, 

 whose ghost haunted the place. 



1^ See the note on Appleton above. 



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

 Lanes, and Che?.), 43. 



i» Birch Chapel (Chet. Soc), 189. The 

 place is called * Grewinton Halfsnede ' ; 

 so that Halsnead, now in Whiston, was 

 perhaps the other half of a manor originally 

 spreading into both Cronton and Whiston. 

 A grant of the lands by Richard de la 

 More is printed in Ormerod's Ches. 

 (ed. Helsby), i, 675. It appears to be the 

 Hospitallers' Shacht or Shaw of the Plac. 

 de Quo fVarr. (Rec. Com.), 375, 

 and the * Crompton Shaw ' of their six- 

 teenth-century rental, held by the heir of 

 Robert Awty for a rent of i id. ; Kuerden 

 MSS. v, fol. 84. Henry Awty In 1469 

 demised a moiety of Shaw Field in the 

 lordship of Widnes to Ellen widow of 

 Richard Bold, he having received it of 

 Sir Henry Bold ; Bold D. (Hoghton), 

 n. 14. 



'^ It was still in demesne in 1242 ; Inq. 

 and Extents, 148. Its value was 22i. %d. ; 

 ibid. i;7. 



15 tVhallty Coucher (Chet. Soc), iii, 811. 

 The conjunction of Cronton with Apple- 

 ton is shown by the mention of the 

 liberties and easements being ' within the 

 vill of Cronton and outside it.' 



