THE ANCIENT CROSSES OF

LANCASHIRE.

T

BY HENRY TAYLOR, F.S.A.

THE HUNDRED OF SALFORD.

HE geographical position of this hundred, like that of Blackburn, has affected its history in many material respects. So much of the area being moorland, and so little of it consequently good for agricultural purposes, we do not find such numerous traces here of the Scandinavian invaders as in the case of the four remaining hundreds-Lonsdale, Amounderness, Leyland, and West Derby-all of which, having a coast line, afforded excellent harbourage for these Norsemen, who were tempted to stop by the rich alluvial soil which they found for some miles inland from the sea-shore. The desolate nature of this part of the county in early times is furthermore indicated by the fact that in the Domesday Survey only four names in this hundred occur-Salford (Salford), Mamcestre (Manchester), Radeclive (Radcliffe), Recedham (Rochdale).

The Salford hundred measures about twenty-five miles from east to west and twenty-three from north to south. On the south the river Mersey divides it from the county of Chester; the hundred of Blackburn joins it on the north, and on the west a tortuous line-following the course of various streams and brooks-cuts it off from the hundreds of Leyland and West Derby. On the east is the county of York and a corner of Cheshire. The whole of this eastern portion consists of wild moorland country, part of it, as at Blackstone Edge, rising to a height of one thousand five hundred feet above the sealevel, and forming some of the westerly spurs of the great Pennine range, which in many respects creates a thorough barrier between Lancashire and Yorkshire.

One of the effects of this separation is to be seen in the fact that whilst South Lancashire and North Cheshire frequently unite in enterprises-as in the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire and in the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society-no such alliance between Lancashire and Yorkshire is in existence, for the great plain of York can only be reached from that of Lancashire by a tortuous course through long valleys and tunnels.

The whole of the hundred is drained into the Mersey, a river which takes that name at Stockport, where the Tame and the Goyt* unite. The Irwell, flowing into the Mersey near the south-west corner of the hundred, has numerous tributaries-the Croal, the Tonge, the Roch, the Irk, the Medlock, and others. These streams, in fact, cover nearly the whole area of this division of the county, converging from the north, the east, and the west upon Manchester, from which point the Irwell flows in a widened stream till its junction with the more important river at Irlam. In dealing with the geographical features of the county, we should bear in mind that the numerous canals which traverse it have altered the course of some of the rivers and absorbed many tributaries. The ancient parks, of which there are about eighteen in number, are mainly in the southern half of the hundred.

PRE-REFORMATION CHURCHES AND CHAPELS.

PRE-REFORMATION CHURCHES.-S. Michael, Ashtonunder-Lyne; S. Mary, Prestwich-cum-Oldham; S. Leonard, Middleton; S. Chad, Rochdale; S. Mary, Bury; S. Bartholomew, Radcliffe; S. Mary, Deane; S. Peter, Bolton-le-Moors; S. Mary, Eccles; and S. Michael, Flixton. The old parish church of Manchester was collegiated in 1422. In 1547 the college was dissolved with other religious houses. In 1578 Queen Elizabeth granted a new charter of foundation, consisting of warden, fellows, chaplains, and choristers, the dedication being then changed from the College of the Blessed Virgin to Christ's College. This arrangement continued-with modifications-until the year 1847, when the old parish church became the cathedral of the new Manchester diocese. A pre-Norman church preceded the postNorman parish church.

PRE-REFORMATION CHAPELS. In the parish of Manchester: S. Peter, Blackley; S. Clement, Chorlton-cumHardy; S. James, Birch-in-Rusholme; S. James (now S. Lawrence), Denton; S. James, Didsbury; S. James, Gorton; S. Matthew, Stretford; All Saints, Newton. Elsewhere in the Salford hundred, chapels had been built before or shortly after the year 1550, as follows: S. Mary, Oldham; Holy Trinity, Shaw [in Crompton]; S. Bartholomew, Whitworth; Holy Trinity, Horwich; S. Bartholomew; Westhoughton; S. Bartholomew, Turton; S. Catherine, Blackrod; Holy Trinity, Littleborough; Bradshaw; Little Lever; Rivington; Milnrow; and Ellenbrook. Some ambiguity exists as to the actual date of foundation of several of the chapels in the preceding list.

On this subject, in connection with the large parish of Manchester, Mr. H. T. Crofton* writes: "Inasmuch as the aged and infirm parishioners would have been unable to traverse such great distances to and from the parish church, it is highly probable that that church or the chief lords of the manors within the parish provided at very early dates oratories for the convenience of themselves and their tenantry, and thus in course of time chapelries with undefined districts became established."

"By 1573+ these chapelries were seven: (1) Blackley (including Crumpsall, Harpurhey, part of Cheetham, and part of Moston); (2) Newton (including part of Moston, Failsworth, Bradford, and Droylsden); (3) Gorton (including Openshaw and Kirkmanshulme); (4) Denton (including Haughton and Reddish); (5) Didsbury (including Moss Side, Rusholme, Burnage, Withington, Levenshulme, and Heaton Norris); (6) Chorlton; (7) Stretford. An eighth chapel, that of Birch-in-Rusholme, was erected after 1579, and in 1598 was described as 'latelie erected.' In 1352 Didsbury chapelyard was dedicated for burial purposes. There was a clericus of Stretford in 1326, and a chapel of Stretford in 1413, both probably provided by the Traffords. In 1400 a licence was granted to Sir John Byron to have an oratory for one year in his manors of Clayton and Butterworth. In 1411 the same licence was renewed and extended to all

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his manors in Lancashire. The private chapel at Clayton Hall would be probably resorted to by the inhabitants of Newton, Droylsden, Failsworth, &c. There was a chapel in Blackley in 1548; it, too, was a private oratory of the Byron family, who held the village from the Lord de la Warre, and it was probably erected under the 1411 licence."

MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS. - The geographical conditions of this hundred were not such as would please any of the great monastic orders, who shortly after the Norman Conquest crossed the silver streak in search of sites on which to found abbeys and priories. As we have already seen, these institutions in Lancashire were almost all on the western side of the county, the monks avoiding the wild inhospitable moors of the Pennine range. We thus have only two monastic institutions in this hundred-Kersal Cell and the Manchester Collegiate Church-the latter of so late a foundation as the year 1422.

HOLY WELLS.-The records of the existence of holy wells in this hundred are scanty in the extreme. The most celebrated was undoubtedly the Lady Pirle or Pearle Well in Salford. The ordnance maps show the position of one at Halliwell, near Bolton-le-Moors; of Lady's Well, Eccles; and I have notes of another at Cadishead. Owing, however; to the sparse population and to the absence of monasteries, it is probable that a sacred character was scarcely ever attributed to wells in this part of the county. We may, moreover, with some reason conclude that the few which possibly existed in mediæval times were swept away during the Reformation epoch, for, as Dr. Halley points out, the Salford hundred