A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Homestead moats were rarely placed upon points of military vantage 

 like mount and court earthworks, but were often rather in hollows for the 

 sake of shelter, without any ' command ' over the adjacent ground ; in such 

 cases their water defences could only serve to ward off attacks from gangs of 

 robbers ; an important object also was to secure protection from wild beasts. 

 Not infrequently we find that the dweUing-place which once stood within 

 the defended area, and which was of wood, has disappeared, leaving the island 

 platform vacant ; this is so, for example, at The Peel in Heaton Norris, at 

 Horton Castle in Lathom, at Lovel's Hall in Halewood, at New Hall, Ince in 

 Makerfield, at Rixton with Glaze Brook and at Rufford. Sometimes an 

 ancient manor-house or mediaeval mansion still stands upon the spot, as seen 

 in the beautiful ' black and white ' timbered halls at Arley in Blackrod, at 

 Morley's in Astley, at Speke and at Wardley, or in the fine Tudor edifice 

 at Bewsey. But more often a much later farm-house occupies the site of 

 the original edifice, as, amongst others, in the cases of Bradley (where the 

 older fortified gatehouse remains) and at Low Hall-, Hindley. 



There are over seventy of these homestead moats still extant in 

 Lancashire south of the Sands, and many more have probably been filled up. 

 But they are not by any means universally distributed, as they are, for example, 

 in some of the eastern and southern counties of England. North of the 

 Ribble they are curiously rare. In the district south of that river they 

 are fairly widespread over the lower ground, except along the coast on the 

 west ; in the hilly districts of the east they are practically absent. The great 

 home of moats in this county is conspicuously the broad plain extending from 

 Preston to the middle reaches of the Mersey ; they cluster most thickly 

 perhaps around Wigan, but they are abundant over the whole of a triangle 

 formed between Preston, Manchester, and Widnes. On the other side of 

 the Mersey, on the plains of Cheshire, they are likewise very numerous. 

 The majority of the moats in Lancashire are square in shape, or approximat- 

 ing thereto, and their most frequent size is about 260 ft. by 260 ft., outside 

 measurement. 



The following is a list of those now or recently in existence in the 

 district : — 



Pariah 



Abram 



Altham .... 



Ash ton in Maker- 

 field 



Aspull .... 



Astley .... 



Barton upon Irwell 

 Bedford .... 

 Blackrod .... 

 Bold 



Broughton (near 

 Preston) 



Name 



Abram Hall 



Bam furlong Hall [vide 



plan and section) 

 Bickershaw Hall 

 Old Hall 

 Old Brynn {vide plan and 



section) 

 Gidlow Hall 

 Site of Morley's Hall 



Site of Barton Old Hall 

 Site of Hopecarr Hall 

 ■Arley Hall 

 Old Bold Hall 

 Moat House, Gorsey Lane 

 Cranshaw Hall 

 Moat by Broughton Tower 



Pari»h 



Burtonwood . 



Chorley .... 



Clayton le Woods . 

 Clifton with Salwick 

 CoppuU .... 

 Culcheth 



Droylsden 

 Eccleston 



Chorley) 

 Farington 



(near 



548 



Name 



Barrow Old Hall 

 Bewsey Old Hall {vide 



plan) 

 Bradley Hall {vide plan 



and section) 



Astley Old Hall 

 Gillibrand Old Hall 

 Clayton Hall 

 Salwick Hall 

 Blainscough Hall 

 Old Abbey Farm 

 Old Hall Farm 



Clayton Hall 

 Bradley Hall 



Tingrave Farm, New Lane 

 Lower Farington Hall 



