Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2

Part 1

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Helene de Mink and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

"Time has spared the epitaph on Adrian's horse,--confounded that of himself."

SIR THOMAS BROWNE.

TRADITIONS

LANCASHIRE.

JOHN ROBY, M.R.S.L.

ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS ON STEEL AND WOOD.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

Fifth Edition.

LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS. MANCHESTER: L. C. GENT. 1872.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON

Transcriber's note: Minors spelling inconsistencies - mainly hyphenated words - have been harmonised.

Obvious printer errors have been corrected, but the original regional spelling of "properpty" (in "Clegg Hall") has been retained.

Letters after the sign ^ should be read as superscript. Example Edw^d, where the "d" is superscript.

Some chapters start with illustrations. In the original book those illustrations are not named. Here they are named after their chapters.

The Latin numbers (i, ii, etc.) behind some words or expressions refer to the transcriber's notes at the end of this e-book.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

PAGE THE FAIRIES' CHAPEL, 1

THE LUCK OF MUNCASTER, 24

THE PEEL OF FOULDREY, 35

A LEGEND OF BEWSEY, 69

THE BLESSING, 78

THE DULE UPO' DUN, 82

WINDLESHAW ABBEY, 96

CLEGG HALL, 137

THE MERMAID OF MARTIN MEER, 172

GEORGE FOX, 189

Part 2

THE DEMON OF THE WELL, 206

THE SANDS, 225

THE RING AND THE CLIFF, 236

THE DEAD MAN'S HAND, 247

THE LOST FARM, 262

THE MAID'S STRATAGEM, 294

THE SKULL-HOUSE, 311

RIVINGTON PIKE, 322

MOTHER RED-CAP, 345

THE DEATH-PAINTER, 389

THE CRYSTAL GOBLET, 416

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE PEEL OF FOULDREY To face page 35

BEWSEY, NEAR WARRINGTON 69

WINDLESHAW ABBEY 96

CLEGG HALL, NEAR ROCHDALE 137

PEG O'NELLY'S WELL, NEAR CLITHEROE 206

ULVERSTONE SANDS 225

THE LOST FARM, NEAR SOUTHPORT 262

RIVINGTON PIKE 322

"THE THRUTCH," NEAR ROCHDALE 349

THE FAIRIES' CHAPEL.

"Farewell, rewards and fairies! Good housewives now may say; For now foule sluts in dairies, Doe fare as well as they: And though they sweepe their hearths no less Than mayds were wont to doe, Yet who of late, for cleaneliness, Finds sixe-pence in her shoe?"

--Percy's Reliques.

The ancient mansion of Healey Hall was a cumbrous inconvenient dwelling of timber; but the spirit of improvement having gone forth in the reign of Elizabeth, an ordinary hall-house of stone was erected, about the year 1620, by Oliver Chadwick. On the south front was a projecting wing and three gables, with a large hall-window. The north front had two gables only, with a projecting barn. The north entrance, covered by a porch, was a thorough passage, answering to the screens of a college, having on one side the hall and parlour beyond; on the other were the kitchen, buttery, &c. On the river below was a corn-mill; this and a huge barn being necessary appendages to the hospitable mansions and plentiful boards of our forefathers. Over the front door was this inscription--

C. C. DOC. T: R. C: I. C. A. C: R. B. ANO. DOM'I. 1168.

About the year 1756 the east wall gave way, and a considerable fishure appeared on the outside. This event was considered by many as the usual foretokening that its owner, Charles Chadwick, of Healey and Ridware, would speedily be removed by death from the seat of his ancestors; and so it proved, for in the course of a few months he died at Lichfield, aged eighty-two. His great age, though, will be thought the more probable token, the surer presage of approaching dissolution.

On a stone near the top of the building, on the north side, a human head was rudely carved in relief, which tradition affirms to have been a memorial of one of the workmen, accidentally killed while the house was building.

Part 3

In 1773, the existing edifice was built, on the ancient site, by John Chadwick, grandfather to the present owner.

In Corry's Lancashire is the following document, furnished by the recent possessor, Charles Chadwick, Esq. It relates to the foregoing John Chadwick, his father--

"In 1745, at the rebellion, when the Pretender's son and his Highlanders reached Manchester, having obtained a list of the loyal subscribers, they began (of course) to enforce the payment of the money for their own use. An officer of the belted plaid, of the second division, came to the house of Mr C., in King Street, whilst the master of it was with his father at Ridware, and, on being told that he was from home, and his lady ill in bed, he went up-stairs, and opening the chamber-door, where she was then lying-in, beckoned her sister to come to him on the stairs, where he told her (in a mild but decided tone) that the money before mentioned must be paid quickly for the use of 'the prince (who lodged at the house in Market Street, now called the Palace Inn), or the house would be burnt down.' In this dilemma, the man-midwife calling first, and afterwards the physician, were both consulted by the ladies; when the former (a Tory) advised to send the money after them, whilst the latter (a Whig) thought it better to keep it till called for; consequently, never being called for in their hasty retreat, the money was not paid. It may be proper to add, Captain Lachlan MacLachlan, of the first division (afterwards one of the proscribed), being quartered in the same house, behaved with the greatest civility and politeness. On a party of horse coming to the door for quarters, he called for a lanthorn, and, though he had a cold (for which white wine whey was offered him, which he called 'varra good stuff'), walked as far as Salford, and there quartered them; two of his Highlanders, in the meantime, were dancing reels in the kitchen, and in the morning gave each of the maids sixpence at parting."

The name Healey Dene denotes a valley or dale, convallis, enclosed on both sides with steep hills; dene being a Saxon word, signifying a narrow valley, with woods and streams of water convenient for the feeding of cattle. Here the river Spodden, which now keeps many fulling-mills and engines at work, formerly turned one solitary corn-mill only. It was built in the narrow dingle below the hall, for the supply of the hamlet. The feudal owners of most mansions usually erected corn-mills (where practicable) within their own demesnes. After the family had removed to the more mild and temperate climate of Mavesyn-Ridware, in Staffordshire, about the year 1636, Healey Mill was converted into a fulling-mill, so that one of the principal features in our story no longer exists.

About two miles north from Rochdale lies the hamlet of Healey, a high tract of land, as its Saxon derivation seems to imply, hea{~LATIN SMALL LETTER EZH WITH CURL~}e, high, and lea{~LATIN SMALL LETTER EZH WITH CURL~} a pasture, signifying the "high pasture."

Our Saxon ancestors chiefly occupied their lands for grazing purposes; hence the many terminations in ley, or lea{~LATIN SMALL LETTER EZH WITH CURL~}. Pasturage is still called a "ley" for cattle in these parts.

In this remote hamlet dwelt a family, probably of Saxon origin, whose name, De Heley, from their place of residence, had, in all likelihood, been assumed soon after the Norman conquest. Their descendants, of the same name, continued to reside here until the reign of Edward III., holding their lands as abbey lands, under the abbot of Stanlaw, soon after the year 1172, in the reign of Henry II., and subsequently under the abbot of Whalley, from the year 1296. In 1483, John Chadwyke, or (Ceddevyc, from the common appellation Cedde, and vyc, a mansion or vill, signifying Cedde's fort, peel, or fortified mansion) married Alice, eldest daughter and co-heir of Adam Okeden of Heley; and in her right settled at the mansion of Heley (or Healey) Hall, then a huge unsightly structure of wood and plaster, built according to the fashion of those days. An ancestor of Adam Okeden having married "Hawise, heir of Thomas de Heley," in the reign of Edward III., became possessed of this inheritance.

The origin of surnames would be an interesting inquiry. In the present instance it seems clear that the name and hamlet of Chadwick are derived from Cedde's vyc, or Chad's vyc. This mansion, situated on the southern extremity of Spotland, or Spoddenland, bounded on the east by that stream, and southward by the Roche, was built on a bold eminence above the river, where Cedde and his descendants dwelt, like the Jewish patriarchs, occupied in the breeding of sheep and other cattle.

"But though this hamlet had been named Ceddevic, from its subordinate Saxon chief, he himself could not have adopted it for his own surname; because surnames were then scarcely, if at all, known here. He must have continued, therefore, to use his simple Saxon name of Cedde only, and his successors likewise, with the addition of Saxon patronymics even down to the Norman conquest, when the Norman fashion of local names or surnames was first introduced into England."

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