SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



only worth 5J. a year, so if we allow about 6j. Sd. for the Colne fulling- 

 mill, the balance, ^5, would be the annual worth of the corn-mills there. 



At Burnley the corn water-mill was worth ^5, at Padiham 40^.,°' at 

 Cliviger 20^.,'* and at Haslingden loj. per annum. °° In every case the pro- 

 portion of mill rent (or income) to the total land and other rents is very 

 considerable, being as follows : — 



From which it will readily be seen that although in some instances it was 

 only an eleventh of the whole income, in other cases it was also, roughly 

 estimated, a seventh, a sixth, three-eighths (Clitheroe), nearly a third 

 (Burnley), and in one place (at Colne) nearly three-quarters of the whole 

 of the manor. 



On the lands of the honour of Lancaster the mills were equally profit- 

 able. From the inquisition held of the late earl's lands in 1322 we learn 

 that the mill of Lune and the ' Brokemilne ' were farmed for £,i/\., though 

 the rent of the borough was only ^6 Sj. 4^. The water-mill at Salford 

 brought in a rent of ^^3 — more, that is, than the tolls of the fairs and market 

 stallages added together. At Liverpool, again, £/\. 6s. 8d. was paid for the 

 farm of two mills there, one worked by horse power and one by water. At 

 Tottington the rent of two water-mills was £^ 4J. The Lacy lands having 

 come into the king's hands we get another glimpse at the value of the mills 

 there, about ten years after the inquisition of 1 3 1 1 above quoted. Thus in 

 1 322 the Accrington mill is entered as worth 48J. ; the Cliviger mill is farmed 

 for 54J., an increase of 24J. on the previous value; while the Clitheroe mill 

 is now farmed for ;^I2 in place of the £6 13J. ^d. received in 13 1 1. 



At Lancaster the combined farm of the one water-mill and one fulling- 

 mill there is _(^I2 6j. 8tJ., which shows a slight depreciation from the previous 

 rent of £14-. 



In a rental of the Lacy fee for 1324, only two years later,'" we find 

 that in this short time some of the mills have increased in value, the water- 

 mill at Colne renting for £12 (and the fulling-mill for 13J. 6J.) ; the Burn- 

 ley water-mill bringing in £y i6s., in place of the previous ^^5. 



The mill of Manchester" was worth ^10 in 1322. In the Rentale de 

 Furness, while the income from twenty-five farms was only >r66 6j-. %d., that 

 of mills in the abbey's possession was jr20. 



The wages paid for labour on these Lancashire estates varied of course 

 with the kind of work performed. Of all day labourers the reapers of corn 

 appear to have received the highest wages, close upon zd. a day."^ A keeper 



" De Lacy Inq. (Chet. See. Ixxiv), lo. '* Ibid. 12. '' Ibid. 16. 



" Mins. Accts. bdle. 1198, No. 6. 

 " Af««i?c«/r^, ii, 393-420. 



^ De Lacy Com/ioius {Chet. Soc. cxii), 141. Expenses of the vaccaries : 'Wages of 109 men reaping 

 corn as if for one day, I Js. l\d^ 



275 



