Townships: Padiham

PADIHAM

Padiham, 1241; Padingham, 1296 (unusual). This township has an area of 1,953 acres (fn. 1) well situated on the southern slope of a ridge which attains over 800 ft. above sea level. The Calder and a tributary called the Lodge from the south-east form the southern boundary, and upon it stands the older part of the town of Padiham, which has now extended beyond the river into Hapton. In 1901 there was a population of 12,205 in Padiham (including 1,838 from Hapton) and 133 in North Town; so that the old township of Padiham had 10,500 inhabitants. High Whitaker lies 1½ miles north-east of the town.

The roads from Whalley and from Blackburn join at the western edge of the town, and then as Church Street and Burnley Road pass eastward through it to form the principal street. The old church stands near the centre of it; and from that point another road goes north by Slade over the hill to Sabden and Clitheroe. A street leads south over the Calder to the railway station, which is in Hapton, and the Burnley Road itself crosses the river at the southeast part of the town; and it has a branch into Hapton across the Lodge. The railway named is the Great Harwood loop of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's line from Blackburn to Burnley via Accrington.

With the progress of manufactures the population increased, and changes in local government became necessary. A local board was formed in 1873 from part of the townships of Padiham and Hapton, (fn. 2) and powers to supply water and gas were granted to it by Acts of 1874 (fn. 3) and 1876. (fn. 4) In 1894 the local board district was made a separate township or civil parish, the remainder of Padiham, the rural part, becoming a new township called North Town, (fn. 5) part of which was added to Padiham in 1896. (fn. 6) Padiham, i.e. the new township, is governed by an urban district council of fifteen members, chosen equally from five wards named Bank House, Clay Bank, Partridge Hill, Stockbridge and Green. There is a technical and art school erected in 1900. The public cemetery in Padiham Green was laid out in 1852. A fair for pedlary is held by custom on the second Thursday in August. (fn. 7)

The cotton manufacture is the great industry of the town; it was noteworthy in 1825, (fn. 8) and there are now a great number of mills. There are also foundries and other industries, including quarrying and coal-mining. A mine of sea coal at Padiham and Broadhead is recorded in a compotus of 1434. (fn. 9) The soil is a heavy clay, overlying shale; the agricultural land in Padiham itself and the neighbourhood is almost entirely devoted to pasturage, as the following table will show (fn. 10) :—

There is a company of the East Lancashire Regiment (Territorials).

The Ightenhill Court Rolls mention the cuckstool at Padiham in 1572, but there were no stocks in 1596. The Green bridge, a footbridge between Padiham and Hapton, is named in 1602.

The county lay of 1624, based on the ancient fifteenth, required Padiham and the adjacent townships to raise £4 17s. 5¾d. towards each £100 levied on the hundred. The separate townships gave thus: Padiham, £1 1s. 11¼d.; Simonstone, 19s. 1½d.; Read, 17s. 4¼d.; Hapton, £1 13s. 11¾d.; Heyhouses, 3s. 2d.; Dunnockshaw, 1s. 11d. Higham was in the forest, and its separate contribution is not given.

The chapelry included Padiham, Simonstone, Read and Hapton.

Manor

There was no separate manor of PADIHAM, the land being held almost entirely by copyholders of the manor of Ightenhill. In 1241 the annual value of Padiham was returned at £8 0s. 6d. (fn. 11) The survey after the death of Edmund de Lacy shows that in 1258 there were 24 oxgangs of land, each of 9 acres. The services due from each oxgang were a rent of 18d., ploughing once a year and reaping in autumn. The assarts amounted to 114 acres. There were eight cottagers paying 6d. each every year and one free tenant, Gilbert de Padiham, who had 20 acres and rendered 20s. a year. (fn. 12) The value here indicated is only about £5 a year, but the inquest of 1311 records £12 19s. 2d. as the income derived from Padiham by Henry de Lacy; the 24 oxgangs were held in bondage by twenty-five customary tenants at a rent of 6s. for each oxgang and 4d. more in lieu of works remitted; tenants at will occupied 99½ acres of land at a total rent of 33s. 2d.; and the water-mill was worth 40s. a year. There were then two free tenants, John de Whitaker, who held 44 acres at 25s. rent, and Richard Mawson (Matthewson), 25½ acres at 9s. (fn. 13) By 1323 the receipts had further increased, probably by improvements from the waste, for half an acre had been approved that year, and by the larger sum from the mill, viz. £5 2s. Repairing the mill had cost 3s. 8d. and a chest for holding the grist taken as toll 1s. 3d. (fn. 14)

A partition of lands in Padiham was made as follows in 1526: William Banastre and John Roe to have 2 oxgangs of land in Stockbridge at the west side of Padiham Hey, 40 acres; Simon Haydock, 2 oxgangs at Church Hill in Padiham Field and west part of Gadweyne, 32 acres; Thomas Marshall and Nicholas Whitaker, 2 oxgangs at Townwall Bank in Padiham Field and the east part of Gadweyne, 32 acres; Thomas Lister, 2 oxgangs at the east of Padiham Hey and a close called Bancroft, 40 acres; Roger Cockshott and Richard Webster, 2 oxgangs in Hargreave (Horgref) Hey and four parts of the Sands and Bondyard. Various roadways were provided for. (fn. 15)

A survey made in 1602 shows that there were 12 oxgangs of land on the east side of Padiham, of which Lawrence Shuttleworth held 6, Richard Webster 1½, the heirs of Edward Cockshott, Nicholas Hancock, William Anderton, Hugh Roe (Stockbridge) 1 each and the heirs of Ellen and Anne Ingram ½. On the west side were 12 oxgangs also, of which Edmund Starkie held 3½, George Hallstead 1½, Thomas Robinson, John and William Hoghton, Thomas Shuttleworth, John Robinson, James Hargreaves, John Whitaker and the heirs of Richard Webster each 1. (fn. 16) Twelve other oxgangs of land were then reckoned, of which Lawrence Shuttleworth held 2 at Scolebank, 8½ at High Whitacre and ½ at Copthurst; Edmund Starkie held 1 at Wallgreen. (fn. 17) Inclosures of the commons were made about that time, (fn. 18) and at the inclosure in 1618 Shuttleworth had allowance of common for 18½ oxgangs and 5 acres. (fn. 19) The copyhold rents about that time amounted to £11 2s. 11½d., including £1 10s. for Heyhouses. (fn. 20) On the settlement with the copyholders in the time of James I the mill was excepted, being claimed by the Towneleys. (fn. 21)

HIGH WHITACRE was an ancient free tenement and gave its surname to a family of long continuance there. (fn. 22) Lawrence son of Miles Whitaker died in 1515, leaving a daughter Elizabeth as heir, she being a few months old; his estate consisted of three messuages, &c., in Padiham and Simonstone, held of the king by socage and 14d. rent. By the entail Henry Whitaker, brother of Lawrence, should succeed after the death of Miles, the father. (fn. 23) He died in 1521, when, his son and heir Bernard having also died before him, the estate of six messuages, &c., in High Whitacre, Padiham, Northwood and Simonstone went to two daughters, Elizabeth and Isabel, aged six and three years respectively, at Miles Whitaker's death. Northwood was said to be held of the king by the tenth part of a knight's fee. (fn. 24) Afterwards a Lawrence Whitaker is found in possession (fn. 25); his son Henry died before him, leaving a young son John as heir in 1578. (fn. 26) Shortly afterwards, as appears by the surveys above cited, the estate was acquired by the Shuttleworths of Gawthorpe, (fn. 27) with whom it remains.

HARGREAVE, to the north of the town, was the possession of the Webster family from the 15th century to 1798, when it was sold to Le Gendre Piers Starkie and became part of the Huntroyde estate. (fn. 28)

Of the other local families there is little to be said; the names of the principal ones have been recorded above. (fn. 29) Whalley Abbey had some land in Padiham. (fn. 30) In 1617 there were twenty-eight copyhold tenements. (fn. 31)

There were as many as 118 hearths liable to the tax in 1666. The chief houses were those of Christopher Dickinson with eight hearths, Robert Thornley seven and Bernard Parker six; two houses had five hearths, two others four and eleven three. (fn. 32)

The land tax return of 1787 shows that the chief landowners were Robert Shuttleworth, Le Gendre Starkie and Strethill Harrison.

Church

There seems no doubt that the first place of worship here was the chantry chapel of ST. LEONARD, founded about 1455 by John Marshall, J.U.B., an official of Cardinal Langley's and said to have been a native of the township. (fn. 33) He obtained the king's licence in 1452 to purchase lands and alienate in mortmain to support a chantry priest at the church or chapel of Padiham. (fn. 34) Other gifts were added and a small stipendiary chaplaincy was also founded. (fn. 35) At the confiscation of these endowments in 1546–7 Ralph Thornburgh the incumbent of Marshall's chantry was found to be celebrating for the souls of his founder and others and distributing 33s. 4d. in alms to the poor on 1 March yearly. The people of the neighbourhood made use of it instead of going to the parish church at Whalley. The income, derived from lands in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, was £7 8s. 6d. (fn. 36) John Hey, the stipendiary priest, had only 26s. 6d. (fn. 37) The lands were sold, (fn. 38) but the chapel was allowed to continue, and, as in other cases, a sum representing the net value of the chantry was paid to the chaplain out of the duchy revenues. (fn. 39)

The church stands on high ground at the north end of the town on the ancient site. The 15th-century chapel appears to have been rebuilt about the time of Henry VIII, but the nave having become ruinous was pulled down, and a new one built in 1766, 'with an attention to economy not very laudable among so opulent a body of parishioners.' (fn. 40) The old tower, however, was left standing, and was described in 1866 by Sir Stephen Glynne as 'of the local Perpendicular type, of ordinary character with battlement and pinnacles.' The original early 16th-century east window had also been retained, but everything else was 'modern and bad.' (fn. 41) This building, however, had already been condemned and was pulled down the same year, when the foundation-stone of the present church was laid. The building, which was not finished till 1869, is of stone and consists of a chancel with north and south aisles, north and south transepts, clearstoried nave of five bays with north and south aisles, south porch, and tower at the west end of the south aisle. It is a good example of modern Gothic 15th-century style, with high-pitched slated roofs and embattled tower with lofty pinnacles. There are galleries in the transepts.

The old octagonal stone font presented by John Paslew, last Abbot of Whalley, in 1525 has been preserved. Its sides are panelled and carved with the emblems of the Passion and the sacred monograms in shields, and a shield charged with three molets. At the east end of the floor of the nave is a brass to Thomas Yate, 'servante to the right worshipfull Richard Shuttleworth 34 yeares,' who died at Gawthorpe 30 May 1643, with a rhyming inscription. (fn. 42) Close by is a stone with the name of Sir Richard Shuttleworth 27 July 1687. In the south aisle is a modern brass to Sir J. P. Kay-Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe, who died in 1877, and in the Starkie chapel on the south side of the chancel are mural monuments to many members of the Starkie family.

Some fragments of heraldic and other old glass are inserted in the window of the vestry. (fn. 43)

There is a ring of eight bells. Six were cast in 1842, and in 1901 a seventh and a tenor bell were added in memory of Colonel Le Gendre Starkie (d. 1899), and the whole recast by Mears & Stainbank. (fn. 44)

The plate consists of a chalice, paten and flagon inscribed 'Padiham Church 1803,' and with the Starkie arms; a chalice given by Mr. L. G. N. Starkie and Mrs. Starkie in 1863; and a paten 'Presented to Padiham Church by F. Rounthwaite 1865.'

The registers begin in June 1573. (fn. 45)

The visitation lists show that in 1548 there were three priests in addition to the cantarist, but one of them died about that time, and another disappeared before 1554; then the third went, and in 1562–3 only the old chantry priest remained. (fn. 46) In 1565 another name is given, but from that time there appears to have been no more than the one minister, until modern changes demanded new arrangements. It does not appear who nominated these curates—probably it was the vicar of Whalley—but in 1730 the advowson was acquired by Piers Starkie of Huntroyde, who had given £200 to the endowment, (fn. 47) and it has since descended in his family, Mr. E. A. Le Gendre Starkie being now the patron.

In the Commonwealth time an allowance of £50 was made to the curate out of Royalist sequestrations, (fn. 48) but in 1717 the certified income was not quite £16, the addition to the duchy pension being derived from benefactions by members of the Starkie family and others and from fees. (fn. 49) More recent augmentations have raised the present net value to £286 a year. (fn. 50)

The following have been incumbents:—

Chantry Priests

Services are also held at St. Matthew's iron church, Partridge Hill, built 1871, by the clergy of St. Leonard's.

At Slade there was a Nonconformist meeting to which Thomas Jollie ministered, but it seems to have died out about 1688. (fn. 86)

The Wesleyan Methodists had a chapel at Padiham in 1779; they afterwards built one at Cross Hill in 1847. There is also a Primitive Methodist chapel.

The Baptists have two churches. That in Burnley Road was built in 1846; Mount Zion dates from 1866. There is a Congregational chapel.

The large Unitarian chapel was built in 1822.

A schoolhouse was built about 1680, (fn. 87) but no endowment was provided until about 1756, when a fund was raised by the efforts of Richard Webster of Hargreave.

The charities of this chapelry were reported upon in connexion with those of Whalley, as above. More recently the National school has received a gift of £500 under the will of W. R. Chew, who died in 1906, for prizes for good conduct and efficiency in work and play.