The parish of Kirkham

KIRKHAM

Kirkham; Medlar-With-Wesham; Ribby-With-Wrea; Bryning-With-Kellamergh; Clifton-With-Salwick; Newton-With-Scales; Freckleton; Warton; Westby-With-Plumptons; Weeton-With-Preese; Treales, Roseacre And Wharles; Greenhalgh-With-Thistleton; Little Eccleston-With-Larbreck; Singleton; Hambleton; Goosnargh; Whittingham;

In addition to the township which affords a name to the whole, the parish of Kirkham contains thirteen others extending north from the Ribble to the Wyre, a distance of 8 miles, one on the further side of the latter river, and the two townships of Goosnargh and Whittingham, to the east, quite detached from the main part, Newsham again being a detached hamlet of Goosnargh. The area of Kirkham proper is 33,564½ acres, and of Goosnargh chapelry 11,864, making a total of 45,428½ acres, including 2,788 acres of tidal water. The population in 1901 was 15,465. (fn. 1)

There are indications in addition to the name to show that Kirkham was the ecclesiastical head of the district. Thus, after other parishes had been cut off, the detached fragments of Goosnargh remained subject to Kirkham; and in early times the rectors and vicars seem to have been also usually deans of Amounderness. Otherwise there is little to notice in the history. The great lords, temporal and spiritual, were non-resident. The chief local family was that of Clifton in the south; the others appear to have been little more than yeomen, though some acquired greater importance in course of time. The parish is comparatively seldom mentioned in the records. The 'fifteenth,' which became fixed about the 15th century, shows the relative importance of the various townships at that time, (fn. 2) and the county lay, established in 1624, gives a similar indication for the 17th century. (fn. 3)

Kirkham, like most of the Fylde country, was hostile to the Reformation, and between 1629 and 1633 the following squires and yeomen compounded for the two-thirds of their estates legally liable to sequestration (fn. 4) : John Barrow of Weeton, £4 a year; Sir Cuthbert Clifton of Westby, £160; Gervase Clifton of the same, £5; George Crook of Kirkham, £2; Ralph Eccleston of Singleton, £4.; John Gaunt, senior and junior, of the same, £4 and £5; George Grayson of Clifton, £2; Thomas Hesketh of Mains (described as of Poulton), £15; William Horskar of Clifton, £2; Thomas Kirkham of Warton, £2; Thomas Pattison of Great Singleton, £4; Thomas Threlfall of Clifton, £2; Thomas Westby of Mowbreck (described as of Burn), £100; and Edward Worthington of Weeton, £4. (fn. 5) It is not surprising, therefore, that on the outbreak of the Civil War the king's side found zealous supporters, (fn. 6) the Fylde proving a valuable recruiting ground. There was little fighting, if any, in the parish, (fn. 7) for the men were drawn away to other places, where they proved themselves good pillagers, according to the parliamentary historian, (fn. 8) who was, however, candid enough to record a plundering expedition by the troops of his own side. (fn. 9)

After the Restoration the district settled down to a quiet agricultural life again, the Revolution and the Jacobite insurrections producing little apparent effect in Kirkham (fn. 10); but one story of injustice has been told, that of Robert Blackburne of Thistleton. He was charged with having been implicated in a conspiracy to assassinate William III in 1695, and though he was never brought to trial, there being apparently no evidence against him, he was kept a close prisoner in Newgate for fifty years. (fn. 11) Although for a century there have been cotton and other manufactures at the town of Kirkham, the parish as a whole has remained agricultural, as the following figures will show (fn. 12) :—

These figures are for Kirkham proper.

Church

The church of ST. MICHAEL (fn. 13) stands at the north-east end of the town and consists of a chancel 35 ft. by 28 ft. with south aisle and north organ chamber, (fn. 14) nave 86 ft. by 59 ft., and west tower and spire 12 ft. 3 in. square, all these measurements being internal. The building is entirely modern, the nave dating only from 1822, the tower and spire from 1844, and the chancel from 1853. The former church (fn. 15) was practically a rebuilding of the early 16th century, and consisted of a chancel, nave with north and south aisles under one roof, and west tower about 60 ft. high with embattled parapet and angle pinnacles. (fn. 16) The chancel was the width of the nave and south aisle and was under two roofs, and the nave was lit by dormer windows. The east end of the north aisle was the private chapel of the Westbys, and before its demolition there were galleries at the east and west ends and on the north side. (fn. 17)

The present wide, aisleless nave, which is in the Gothic style of the second decade of the last century, with tall single-light windows, is built on the old foundations. Its north-east corner is still known as the Westby chapel and retains the old square 18thcentury pews, and there are galleries on the north, south and west sides. The chancel is in 14thcentury style with a good five-light east window with reticulated tracery, and the tower is a rather florid example of modern 15th-century work built of Longridge stone, with a crocketed spire 150 ft. in height. The church was repaired and reseated in 1877, and the interior underwent a partial restoration in 1909. A few relics of the former building remain. Built on the inside of the west wall of the tower is a stone with the arms of Clifton, which was formerly in one of the tower buttresses, and a stone coffin and the plain octagonal bowl of a font, probably of 16thcentury date, are preserved under the tower. There is a very good 18th-century brass chandelier suspended by an elaborate wrought-iron rod; and on the south wall of the nave is a monument of good Renaissance design to Thomas Clifton, son of Sir Thomas Clifton of Lytham Hall, who died in 1688. In the floor of the chancel are stones in memory of two former vicars, Richard Clegg (d. 1720) and Charles Buck (d. 1771).

There is a ring of eight bells (fn. 18) cast by C. & G. Mears in 1846.

The plate (fn. 19) is all modern, and consists of a set of two chalices, two patens and a flagon of 1845, presented by Charles and Elizabeth Birley in 1853.

The registers of baptisms and burials begin in 1540 and those of marriages in 1539, but the first volume, 1540 to 1628, is a copy made in the latter year. (fn. 20)

The earliest dated gravestone in the churchyard is of 1653. On the south side is a sundial on a fluted stone shaft, the name 'Noblett' alone being decipherable on the plate.

Advowson

The church of Kirkham was no doubt one of the three in Amounderness mentioned in Domesday Book. Together with its priests it was in 1093 given by Geoffrey the sheriff of Count Roger of Poitou to Shrewsbury Abbey, (fn. 21) but in the following year by Count Roger himself to St. Martin (fn. 22) of Sées. It was about 1140 restored to Shrewsbury, (fn. 23) but in 1196 obtained by Theobald Walter, he agreeing to pay the abbey 12 marks a year. (fn. 24) The Crown usually presented to the benefice, (fn. 25) and in 1279 the advowson was acquired by the king from Theobald Boteler, (fn. 26) and was soon afterwards given to the Cistercian Abbey of Vale Royal, near Northwich. (fn. 27) After the Suppression in 1538 it was given to Christ Church, Oxford, (fn. 28) which continues to hold the rectory, presenting the vicars.

The vicarage seems to have been ordained when the church was given to Vale Royal (fn. 29); by a further ordination in 1357 the abbot and convent were allowed to present one of their own monastery to the benefice, they paying him 40 marks a year, and he being responsible for the maintenance of the parsonage-house ani the care of souls. (fn. 30)

As early as 1220 khe church, or perhaps twothirds of it, was valued at 80 marks a year. (fn. 31) In 1291 the rectory was taxed at £160 and the vicarage at £23 6s. 8d. (fn. 32) but on account of the destructive raid of the Scots in 1322 these amounts were reduced to £53 6s. 8d. and £6 13s. 4d. respectively. (fn. 33) The Priors of Penwortham and Lancaster had shares of the tithes. (fn. 34) The same benefices were returned at the reduced rates in 1341. (fn. 35) In 1535 the value of the rectory was estimated at £100 a year, (fn. 36) and that of the vicarage at £21 1s. (fn. 37) The rectorial tithes were usually let on lease. (fn. 38) In 1650 the vicar received £80 a year from tithes and other dues as well as £50 augmentaton from the Committee of Plundered Ministers. (fn. 39) About 1717 the income was given as only £60, arising from the small tithes, Easter dues, and surplice fees; there was an old house with a customary acre of glebe belonging to it. (fn. 40) The value of the small tithes advanced rapidly in the latter part of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, being £1,600 in 1835. (fn. 41) The vicar's income is now returned as £400. (fn. 42) The Dean and Chapter of Christ Church have recently given the rectorial tithes of the present reduced ecclesiastical parish of Kirkham to the vicar. (fn. 43)

The following have been incumbents:—

It will be observed that the early rectors, presented by the kings, were as usual busy public officials who discharged their duties by deputy, and that the donation to Vale Royal was probably of advantage to the parish, as giving it a permanent and properly paid vicar instead of a stipendiary curate. These vicars, however, do not seem to have been of more than local importance, and even since the Reformation, while the advowson has been held by Christ Church, Oxford, none of them calls for special mention. Before the Reformation the due service of the parish church, chantry and chapels at Lund, Singleton and Hambleton would require five priests. (fn. 84) This was the staff recorded at the bishop's visitations (fn. 85) in 1548 and 1554; but in 1562 only the vicar and two others are named, and the vicar alone seems to have conformed fully to the Elizabethan requirements. (fn. 86) He had apparently been brought up under the Reform of Henry VIII and accepted all the changes made by the civil power, holding the benefice till his death. No zeal can be looked for in such cases, (fn. 87) and the three chapels appear to have been left to decay, but it may be noted that the organ in the church was allowed to remain. (fn. 88) The vicars appear usually to have had a curate. (fn. 89) In the Commonwealth time additional places of worship seem to have been provided, but it was not till the 18th century that chapels at Hambleton, Lund, Singleton and Warton are found to be regularly used for service. (fn. 90)

A report made to the Bishop of Chester in 1669, probably by the vicar of Kirkham, gives a lively account of the conditions ecclesiastical:—

There are three sorts of conventicles, viz. Papists, Quakers, and Fanatical or Mixed Multitude. Of the Papists there are two conventicles very visible at Westby Hall, rented by one Mr. Butler, the supposed priest, whither resort some hundreds. Another at Mowbreck where Mr. Hughson (alias Whaley) sojourneth with Mrs. Westby and, as is more than said, officiates as priest there. At Mr. Gervase Clifton's of Plumpton, aa is said, is set apart a place or chapel for Romanists, but since Mr. Hughson's abode at Mowbreck it's not so much used. At Salwick Hall, it's said, the Romanists out of Preston have their meetings. In Great Singleton they be generally papists, but have not their conventicles so fixed, but have two or three supposed priests. There hath usually been a conventicle of Quakers at one Brewer's house in or near Little Eccleston. Of the Fanatical party there was a conventicle at Lund chapel on Sunday in last Lent assizes by Mr. John Parr; and either for that or the like offence the next Sunday at Heapa chapel, it's said, he is to answer at the next assizes. There was another conventicle held by one Hartley, a Yorkshireman and lately a weaver and now an Antinomian speaker. He usurped the pulpit at Kirkham in the absence of the minister. He hath also held many conventicles at Goosnargh, the vacancy of which chapel gives the Nonconformists encouragement to meet there since the expiration of the Act against conventicles. The factions plead indulgence because of the indulgence of the papists and their experience that churchwardens' presentments are but laughed at. (fn. 91)

Dr. William Grimbaldson in 1725 left £500 for the maintenance of daily morning and evening prayers in the parish church, and these have accordingly been maintained ever since, for the donor ordained that should the prayers be neglected the income of his fund was to be given to poor housekeepers of Treales. (fn. 92) The visitation returns of the 18th century afford various interesting particulars. In 1706 a return of the church furniture was made; it included two decent surplices, two communion cups and several flagons. In 1722 the vicar administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper on Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter Day, Whit Sunday, St. Jamestide, Michaelmas, Martinmas, Christmas and Shrovetide. The 1,177 families in 1755 were thus classified: Of the communion of the Church of England, 868; Popish families, 269; Protestant Dissenters, 40. There were church rate contests in 1849 and later, the Nonconformists refusing to pay. (fn. 93)

At St. Mary's altar a chantry was founded by one of the Clifton family. (fn. 94) Its endowment consisted of burgages and lands in Kirkham, Warton, Freckleton, Newton and Bilsborrow, and in 1547 amounted to £5 13s. 1d. clear per annum. (fn. 95) Thomas Primett was the incumbent in 1535 (fn. 96) and until the Suppression. He was sixty years old in 1548, and noted as 'decrepit' in the visitation of that year. He lived on until 1564; his will has been printed by the Surtees Society. (fn. 97)

Charities

Detailed official inquiries into the charities of the parish were made in 1824 and 1902–3; the report of the latter, issued in 1904, contains a reprint of the former. (fn. 98) The principal Kirkham charity is the grammar school, with an income of £1,260, and there are small educational endowments in many of the townships. There are also some special endowments for the parish church and the chapel at Lund. For the poor generally there exist funds producing £31 4s. 8d. a year distributed in money, in coal, &c. (fn. 99)

The township of Kirkham has a United Charities' Fund of £27 14s. a year, distributed in medical relief, in money and in kind (fn. 100); also other sums amounting to £8 0s. 3d. a year given in money. (fn. 101) Bryningwith-Kellamergh has a special fund of £2 12s. 6d. a year (fn. 102); Freckleton, £1 3s. (fn. 103); Medlar-with-Wesham, £2 10s. (fn. 104); Ribby-with-Wrea, £2 12s. 6d. (fn. 105) — all given in money; Treales, Roseacre and Wharles, £13 10s., which may be distributed in several ways (fn. 106); Warton, £3 15s. 8d. (fn. 107); Westby-with-Plumpton, 10s. 8d. (fn. 108) —both distributed in goods; Hambleton, £2 (fn. 109); Greenhalgh-with-Thistleton, £6 6s. (fn. 110); and Little Eccleston-with-Larbreck, £1 10s. (fn. 111) —all in money doles. Two or three charities have been lost. (fn. 112)