SOME HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE CHAPEL OF OUR BLESSED LADY, PARBOLD, LANCASHIRE.

By William Frederick Price.

Read 5th December, 1895.

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THIS ancient and interesting ecclesiastical edifice, better known as Douglas Chapel," was demolished in 1878. It was situated at the foot of Parbold Hill, in the township of Parbold, and lay hidden in a picturesque and sequestered valley.

Parbold Hill, with its extensive stone quarries, is a familiar object to travellers on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway between Southport and Wigan. It is the most prominent feature of a range consisting of Parbold, Hunters, and Harrock Hills; and on the opposite side of the valley is another range, comprising Ashurst, Upholland, and Billinge. Parbold and Ashurst Hills stand like sentinels at the neck of a beautiful and welltimbered valley, which is watered by the River Douglas, a sluggish stream, with high banks, veiled with alder, willows, and poplar. This river

A Celtic river-name. The word "dhu," black, appears in five rivers.in Wales, three in Scotland, and one in Dorset, which are called Dulas. There are also two in Scotland and one in Lancashire called the Douglas; and we have the Doulas in Radnor, the Dowles in Shropshire, and the Diggles in Lancashire.-Rev. I. Taylor, Words and Places, p. 143.

takes its source among the hills of Rivington, flows through the town of Wigan, past Gathurst, Appley Bridge, Parbold, Rufford, and Tarleton, and joins the Ribble estuary at Hesketh Bank.

"Swart Dulas coming in from Wigan, with her aids

Short Tawd and Dartow small two little country maids,
In these low watery lands and moory mosses bred.” 3

The now fertile plain through which the Douglas meanders from Parbold to its estuary, appears to have been, even to a late date, a vast swamp, intersected with forests, where the Celt and his Saxon successors hunted for big game, plied their canoes among the broad lagoons, and built their pile dwellings on the margin of the Meer. The remains of forests at Hoscar and Bescar, the discovery of ancient canoes in Merton-also called "Marton" and "Martin "-Meer, and the local nomenclature, all supply us with these facts. We can now hardly realize that in this little-known corner of Lancashire there existed until late in the seventeenth century a lake twenty miles in circuit called Merton Meer, within which were three small islands, and this "Meer emptieth itself one way "into the River Douglas and by another Rivulet "falleth into the sea at North Meols." 4

The following extract from Lancashire Church Surveys in 16505 is useful in giving an idea of the state of the country at that time :

"And also for that there is a great river called Astlan over which the inhabitants of the said towns of Tarleton, Holmes, Sollom, Hesketh and Becconsall cannot pass unto Croston Church without a boat, neither can they pass with a boat in some

2 Leland, the antiquary, 1536-1542, writing of Wigan, says :-" Dugles "Ryver cumming by Wigan market goith into the se by hitself toward 66 'Latham."

3 Drayton's Poiyolbion.

4 Blome's Britannia.

5 Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. i, p. 110.

seasons of the year by reason of the great inundation of the said waters there, and also by reason of the great river of Duglas, the fenny pool, and the river of Yarrow overflowing the way for all the most part of the winter time."

It is hardly necessary to repeat here the wellknown tradition which associates the river Douglas with some of King Arthur's most sanguinary engagements; but there is also a tradition that Douglas Chapel was originally built to commemorate a victory or victories, of the Saxons over the Danes.

The river would afford easy and natural ingress into this valley for the bold and adventurous Danes, and having once entered it, the configuration of the surrounding country would give the Saxons an admirable strategic position to attack the invaders and cut off their retreat seawards.

It seems to me most probable that at the period of the Danish incursions the Douglas was navigable from its estuary to a point beyond Douglas Chapel, and that it bore upon its dark waters many a roving Viking.

As the place names in the Douglas valley indicate an extensive Saxon colonization, the traditional Saxon origin of Douglas Chapel has its probabilities; and whatever claims the Douglas valley may have to be the scene of King Arthur's battles, local tradition is quite clear and distinct as to the fact that the Danes and Saxons met in conflict on the banks of this river."

Having taken a cursory glance at the character of the surrounding country, it will be necessary to refer briefly to the Lathoms of Lathom and Par

6 About the middle of the last century a large number of human bones and an amazing quantity of horse shoes of small size were found near the banks of the Douglas, between Douglas Chapel and Wigan, indicating sanguinary military operations.- Vide Baines' Hist. Lancashire, vol. ii, p. 604.

7 Sometimes spelt "Lathum" and "Latham."

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