Townships: Trawden

TRAWDEN

Trochdene, 1296; Troudene, 1305. Berdeshaw, 1323; Berdeshagh, 1324. Wynwell, 1323; this shows the pronunciation. Wycolure, 1323; Wyculure, 1324.

The township of Trawden occupies part of the hill country on the border of the county, but as the highest points are within Lancashire the slope on the east and south-east boundary is in most places down into Yorkshire. Combe Hill is part of the boundary on the north-east; its highest point attains 1,555 ft. above sea level, and about a mile to the east, where the county boundary is reached, the height is 1,430 ft. Southwards the surface descends, till at 1,093 ft. the road from Colne to Keighley crosses the border; then it rises again, reaching 1,400 ft. at the end of Crow Hill, the point where the boundary turns west-southwest. The height along the boundary rises to 1,575 ft., as at Warcock or Peacock Hill, and then falls again to 1,400 ft. on passing into Extwistle; but within the boundary the hills parallel with it, Boulsworth Hill and Jackson's Ridge, attain in one place 1,700 ft. above the sea. From these hills the land descends in general to the north-west, with two main depressions through which run Trawden Brook and Wycoller Brook to join Colne Water or Laneshaw Brook, which forms part of the northern boundary; here 550 ft. is the height above the sea. Another part of this boundary is formed by Ratten Clough, down which, from Combe Hill, a brook flows west to join Wycoller Brook.

The township has three divisions—Trawden in the west, Winewall in the centre and Wycoller in the north-east, each of them extending from the Colne boundary south or south-east to Yorkshire. In Trawden the village so named lies on the west of Trawden Brook, and has Beardshaw to the west, preserving the ancient name of this portion, and Hollin Hall, Alderhurst, Hoyle, Antley Gate and Willy Moor higher up towards Boulsworth Hill. Winewall lies chiefly between the two main streams, the village being at the north end of the township, near the junction of Trawden Brook with Colne Water; higher up are Slack, Stunstead, Wanless and Alderbarrow. Wycoller village stands on the east side of its brook; higher up on the hill to the east is Combe Hill Cross, and on the county boundary is a large reservoir belonging to the Corporation of Keighley Waterworks. The total area is 6,808 acres, (fn. 1) composed of Trawden, 2,699½; Winewall, 2,095½; and Wycoller, 2,013. The population in 1901 numbered 2,641.

The principal road is that already mentioned, leading from Colne through Wycoller into Yorkshire. Other roads from Colne go to Trawden and to Winewall and Wycoller. From Trawden there is a road to Burnley and another to Winewall.

The base and part of the shaft of Combe Hill Cross remain. (fn. 2)

A local board was formed in 1863. (fn. 3) This became an urban district council in 1894; it has twelve members.

At Trawden and Winewall are several cotton-mills and a dye-works. The soil is clay, overlying clay and rock, and the land is mostly in pasture, there being 3,214½ acres in permanent grass, 20 acres of arable land and 5 acres of woods and plantations. Coal was mined in 1296. (fn. 4) There are quarries at Winewall, and some old lime-kilns stand on the hills. As in other townships of East Lancashire, the farmers or yeomen were weavers also in former times. (fn. 5)

Forest

In the forest of TRAWDEN the lord of Clitheroe had in 1296 five vaccaries held by Adam son of John, Maud wife of Jordan del Booth, Emma del Monkroyd, Henry de Emmott (in place of Adam son of Maulke) and Peter del Fernyside. The accounts rendered were of the same character as in the other forests; some of the cattle had died of plague and one or two had been killed by wolves. The lord's officers were Simon the Geldherd and Geoffrey the Parker. (fn. 6) Ir 1305 the tenants were John del Booth, Adam son of Jordan, Robert son of John, Juliana del Booth and Randle de Fernyside (in place of Godfrey de Lothresdene); and the officers were Simon the Geldherd and Henry Hare. The total stock was 189 cows, 3 bulls, 28 steers, 29 heifers, 64 yearlings and 74 calves, fairly evenly distributed over the five vaccaries. (fn. 7) The herbage and agistment of each of these five were in 1311 said to be worth 10s. a year. (fn. 8) From the accounts of 1323 it appears that the vaccaries were two in Wycoller, farmed for 14s. and 16s.; one in Winewall, 28s.; and two in Beardshaw, now Trawden, 56s. Old brushwood and iron ore sold for £7 16s. 8d., and other receipts came to 12s. 6d. (fn. 9) The tenants were John del Ewode and Adam son of Henry in Wycoller, John the Parker in Winewall, Adam del Shaw and Oliver del Booth in Beardshaw. (fn. 10)

Trespassers and deer-killing were reported in Trawden as in other forests, and in 1345 William Fauvell and a number of others were charged with having the previous year entered Queen Isabella's free chase at Trawden, hunted there and carried deer away, and assaulted her servant Adam the Proctor. (fn. 11)

The five vaccaries were in 1422 occupied thus: Edmund and John Parker had Over and Nether Beardshaw, paying £8 13s. 4d. a year; Ellis Parker had Winewall, at £7 6s. 8d. (late £4 10s.); and Geoffrey and Robert Hartley had Over and Nether Wycoller, at £5 13s. 4d. (late £4 10s.). In addition £1 7s. 1d. was received from various other tenants; 6s. 4d. from Lawrence brother and heir of William son of John Parker, for 19 acres improved from the waste; 6s. 8d. for the fishery of Colne Water held by Sir Richard Radcliffe and Richard Shireburne; and 13s. 4d. (late 2s.) for a mine of sea coal demised to Edmund Parker. Nothing was received for winter agistment, summer herbage, or sales of grass, because all was reserved for the king's deer. (fn. 12) Later accounts show that the Beardshaw vaccary was let for £10 13s. 4d., Winewall for £6 and Wycoller for no more than £3 6s. 8d.; the fishery in Colne Water for 1s. 8d. only. (fn. 13)

In 1507 the Royal Commissioners found that the vaccary of Beardshaw Booth had lately been let at £10 13s. 4d., and they demised it to Geoffrey Hartley, John Hartley and other old tenants for £13 6s. 8d. Winewall, lately let at £6, they demised to James Shuttleworth, Lawrence Smith, Hugh Hartley and the old occupiers for £8 13s. 4d. a year. Wycoller, lately £4 13s. 4d., was demised to Piers Folds, Piers Hartley the elder and other former tenants at £6. (fn. 14) Carr Heys or Carry Heys and Emmott Moor, now in Colne township, appear then to have been considered part of the forest. In 1527 the tenants of Beardshaw were ten Hartleys, (fn. 15) Richard and James Shackleden and Geoffrey Folds; the same surnames appear again in 1609 (with Shaw added), and in 1662, with Crombock and Bancroft added. (fn. 16) The tenants of Winewall in 1527 were Roger Hartley, £2 3s. 4d.; Hugh Shuttleworth, Thomas Hartley and James Driver the younger, each £1 8s. 10d.; John Hartley the elder and Roger Roberts each £1 1s. 8d. The same surnames occur in 1609. In 1662 the tenants were John Cunliffe of Hollins, James Hartley and Lawrence Shuttleworth of Wanless, John Driver of Stunstead, William Hanson and Robert Midgeley of Winewall, John Hargreaves of Heyroyd and John Kippax of Wycoller. The Wycoller tenants in 1527 were Peter Hartley and three others of that surname, (fn. 17) Robert Emmott and the wife of James Folds. These surnames again appear in 1609, while in 1662 Elizabeth Cunliffe, Bernard Hartley, Richard Shackleton, John Kippax, Robert and George Emmott and James Folds were the chief tenants. (fn. 18) Edmund Townley of Greenfield in 1598 (fn. 19) and Lawrence Townley of Barnside in 1623 had land in Trawden. (fn. 20)

The Cunliffes of Hollins in Accrington and of Wycoller have been mentioned in the account of the former township. In Wycoller they succeeded to a Hartley share. (fn. 21) Nicholas Cunliffe married Elizabeth Hartley at Colne in 1611, (fn. 22) and was described as of Wycoller in 1646, when he was a member of the newly-formed Presbyterian Classis (fn. 23); and in 1652 he was appointed on the Royalist Sequestration Committee in Lancashire. (fn. 24) His widow is mentioned above, as also is his son John, who married another Hartley heiress and so obtained an estate in Winewall. (fn. 25) Younger branches of the family acquired wealth in commerce in Liverpool and elsewhere. (fn. 26) The Trawden estate descended to Henry Owen, who in 1773 assumed the surname of Cunliffe. He died in 1819, and the estate was under a decree of Chancery purchased by the mortgagee, the Rev. John Oldham, who afterwards sold it to John Wilkinson Warney. (fn. 27)

WYCOLLER HALL, now a ruin, stands in a picturesque and sheltered situation in the Wycoller Valley, close to the stream, facing south-west, and is a stone-built 16th-century house of somewhat unusual plan, though the state of dilapidation it is now in makes an exact understanding of the original disposition of its parts difficult. It follows, however, to some extent the usual type of a central hall and end wings, but the kitchen and offices seem to have been on the north-east side of the hall instead of at the end, and the arrangement of the hall itself varies in other particulars from the ordinary type. The south-east wing is three stories in height, but the roof having gone from the whole of the building, and the walls being broken and imperfect, it is impossible to say whether other parts have ever been of more than two stories. That there was a room over the hall is shown by the window remaining in the front elevation and by other evidence in the hall itself, and the building would probably be of two stories throughout, with attics in the end wings. The south-east wing, however, seems to have been almost wholly rebuilt at a much later period, the windows having the appearance of 18th-century work, and was probably then raised to its present height. Alterations at the back appear also to have been made at the same time. The north-west wing has no projection in front of the main wall of the central block, but beyond it set back 9 in. is a presumably later wing 44 ft. in length and originally 25 ft. wide, but at some still later date an addition 10 ft. wide has been built in the back. The house, which as it now stands is overgrown with grass and weeds, was abandoned as a residence after the death of the last of the Cunliffes in 1819, but the later north-west block, the walls of which still stand their full height of two stories, had its roof intact till about the year 1880. (fn. 28) The great hall and south-east wing are now the property of Mrs. Susannah Benson, and the rest of the building belongs to the Corporation of Colne. The northeast wing, which includes the old kitchen, has been repaired and is now used as a cottage.

The great hall is 23 ft. long by 23 ft. 6 in. wide, with a large open fireplace at the north-west end, and a bay in the east corner 9 ft. 6 in. wide and 10 ft. 9 in. deep. The south-east end is now open to the wing, but the wall was apparently formerly carried across, making the hall of the dimensions just stated. The fireplace is 12 ft. 6 in. wide and 7 ft. 6 in. deep, the back curved on plan, with a stone seat carried all round. The stone arch, which has the appearance of having been rebuilt, is struck from three centres, and is 7 ft. 9 in. high to the crown and 5 ft. to the springing under a square hood mould with blank shields in the spandrels. A passage-way 5 ft. wide runs behind the fireplace with a door from the hall at the south end, and a stone staircase at the north leading to the floor above. The outer door at the end of the passage-way is now built up and a later door made in the lobby between it and the hall formed by the deep recess of the fireplace. (fn. 29) The hall is lit by a long low mullioned window of twelve lights on the south-west side and by the bay window opposite, the latter apparently having been rebuilt in the 18th century. On the north-east side between the bay and the fireplace are two four-centred arched doorways, now built up, leading to the kitchen and offices, the spandrels of which are ornamented with shields, blank in one case, but in the other bearing the date 1596, the '96,' however, in the second shield appearing to have been newly cut. On the north-east side of the fireplace, (fn. 30) under the stairs, is a small recess in the wall with a curiously shaped opening narrowing at the bottom. Immediately above the windows and fireplace, at the height of 9 ft., a moulded string course runs round the hall, marking presumably the ceiling height, but a large projecting stone corbel at the angle of the bay makes it difficult definitely to reconstitute the hall in its original condition.

Of the south-east wing only the walls, or some parts of them, remain, and many alterations seem to have been made. In the south corner is a large fireplace opening 12 ft. wide, partly built up and made into a closet, and there are two outer doors on the southeast wall. The kitchen is 19 ft. square and now forms the living room of a farm-house.

An unusually large number of superstitious and other stories are associated with the house. (fn. 31)

As all the land in Trawden was copyhold, the descents can be traced by the Court Rolls. In 1528 a complaint was made that Nicholas Hartley, priest, and others had occupied land called Witley House, &c., in Beardshaw Booth to the injury of the other tenants, and an award was made by a special jury, who arranged for compensation for land used for roads. (fn. 32) A little later Henry Emmott was presented for breaking soil on the waste in Beardshaw at Cathole Clough, and there mining coals without licence. (fn. 33) In 1532 the king forbade the subdivision of estates in the forest into small 'quillets'; each tenement granted was to be of the clear annual value of 26s. 8d. above all charges. (fn. 34)

In 1565 the queen ordered a water-mill to be built on a piece of land called Blackscarr Croft — Black Carr on the east of Trawden village; the waterraise for the dam was to be taken up at a place called Graneforth Hole. Henry Farrer, of the Ewood family, the promoter of the scheme, was placed in possession, paying 5s. rent to the Crown and rendering services like the other copyholders. (fn. 35) In 1567 he gave it to James Hargreaves and Lawrence Robinson of Barrowford, and four supervisors were to be appointed to see that the mill was kept in good order. (fn. 36) In 1596 Henry Farrer gave his part of the water-mill in Trawden to James Folds and others; the queen's rent was 5s. 1d. (fn. 37) In 1686 there was enrolled at the Colne manor court an agreement made in 1629 for 'every man's particular part of and for bringing and carrying the water to and from the said mill.' In 1693 it was recorded that Elizabeth Hartley died seised of the mill; William Hartley of Chatburn, the next of kin, was admitted to succeed. (fn. 38) The tenants of Trawden were in 1509 charged with obstructing the highway between Emmott Bridge and Shelfield (in Marsden). (fn. 39) An undated paper records subscriptions to a bridge at the mill called Yallam Bridge. (fn. 40)

In 1686 a survey of the forest was made, recording its exact boundaries, and various particulars as to the holdings, wastes and other conditions then existing. Three of the jurors were styled 'gentlemen,' viz. Nicholas Cunliffe, James Folds of Trawden and William Emmott of Emmott. (fn. 41) The following is an account of the boundaries:—

The bounds, beginning in the north-west at the point where Trawden Water joined Winewall Water, went up the brook to Winewall Bridge, eastward by the ring fence of Winewall grounds, till the junction with Laneshaw Brook and Wycoller Water, except a close called 'Ewewood Holme' (fn. 42) on the north-east side of Winewall Water, being Robert Hargreaves' land. Thence the bounds went by the ring fence by Wycoller Water to a mere or floodgate across it called Emmott Floodgate, where Ratton Clough Brook came in; then up this clough to the south corner of a close called Madman Hole; thence by the old fence to Fowl Leach in the lower end of Booth Lane, this being the king's highway between Colne and East Bradford. By this lane and Newfield Head and Bracken Hill the bounds went to a building called Robert Lathe, and thence by Wormstall Bottom to the Laneshaw, which divides Trawden from Colne; ascending the river east to the fence dividing the freehold land in Monkroyd and the township of Foulridge from Trawden; then crossing the river to the tongue of Laneshaw, 'which divides the forest or chase of Trawden from the commons and wastes of Colne, lately improved or to be improved.'

Thence up the stream of Laneshaw to the rushbed in the head of Laneshaw and thence to the east end of the Wolf Stones, gives the bounds between Trawden and Icornshaw. Thence descending the moors south to the Watershackles (sheddles) Cross and the standing stone, and down to the crossing of a rivulet called Cockhill Clough or Oldsnopp Clough, gives the boundary between Trawden and Oakworth. Thence ascending the hill to the shrink of Crow Hill or Crowhill Well, turning west to a mere called the Lad on the top of Crow Hill or Skarth on Crow Hill, then down to a spot opposite the end of the old ditch dividing Stanbury and Walshaw, pointing north to the Blackgroove on the back of Crow Hill, divides Trawden from Stanbury. Thence west to the crossing of a groove or slack called Wallshaw Dean Head, ascending the moor to Floites Syke, crossing a ditch at the lower end of White Walls to a place called Holesyke Head, divides Trawden from Wallshaw. Thence west to Round Hill (or Hart Hill or Peacock Hill), south-west to the Dove Stones, west to the Blackgroove, and along a brook which falls thence into Black Clough Head at the bottom of the Hoylacks (Heyslacks), gives the bounds between Trawden and Widdop.

Thence ascending the moor north-west to the Bounder Stone (lying west of the Joiner Stones on Boulsworth), descending north to Mereslack dyke head and down the ditch to Willy Moor Clough, gives the bounds between Trawden and Briercliffe. Thence north to Willy Moor Hill Nook, and to the Deer Stones, along the ring fence after the head of Birkshaw Moor to its west corner, then north to Slitterforth Gate, along the ring fence after the bottom of Doughty pasture, down to Foxclough, where the brook of Weetehead Clough falls into it, divides Trawden from Great Marsden. Up Weetehead Clough, and mainly along the ring fence east by the parish style, to the bottom of Midgrum Holme which joins upon Trawden Water near the starting point, gives the division between Trawden and Colne.

Various other old place-names can be gathered from local deeds. (fn. 43)

In the three parts of the township there were in 1666 149 hearths liable to the tax. In Trawden proper the largest houses were those of James Folds, with six hearths, Roger Folds and James Shackleden, five each. In Winewall Elizabeth Hanson had five hearths liable. In Wycoller Elizabeth Cunliffe, Robert Emmott and Bernard Hartley had six each and John Whitaker five. (fn. 44)

There was a chapel in Trawden before the Reformation, but nothing is known of its history or site. (fn. 45)

For the Church of England St. Mary's was built in 1845, a district being then assigned to it. (fn. 46) The patronage is exercised alternately by the Crown and the Bishop of Manchester.

A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in 1811; there are now also others belonging to the Primitive Methodists and Free Gospel Church.

An Inghamite chapel is said to have been built at Winewall in 1752; it still exists.

The Society of Friends acquired a piece of land for a burial-ground in 1687, and a meeting-house was afterwards built there; this ceased to be used and was sold in 1850. The burial-ground has since 1858 been used by the Nonconformists generally. (fn. 47)