NOOKS AND CORNERS
OF
LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE.
Of this work 600 copies have been printed, the whole of whichwere subscribed for before publication.
Nooks and Corners
OF
Lancashire and Cheshire.
A WAYFARER’S NOTES IN THE PALATINE COUNTIES,
HISTORICAL, LEGENDARY, GENEALOGICAL,
AND DESCRIPTIVE.
BY
JAMES CROSTON, F.S.A.
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain;
Member of the Architectural,
Archæological and Historic Society of Chester; Member of the
Council of the Record Society.
Author of “On Foot through the Peak,” “A History of Samlesbury,”
“Historical Memorials of the Church in Prestbury,”
“Old Manchester and its Worthies,”
etc., etc.
JOHN HEYWOOD,
Deansgate and Ridgefield, Manchester;
and 11, Paternoster Buildings,
LONDON.
1882.
JOHN HEYWOOD, PRINTER, HULME HALL ROAD,
MANCHESTER.
PREFACE.
This volume is not put forth as professedly a history of theplaces described, the Author’s aim having been rather toseize upon and group from such accredited sources of informationas were available, the leading facts and incidents relating to speciallocalities, and to present the scenes of human life and action in areadable and attractive form by divesting, in some degree, the tameand uninviting facts of archæology of their deadly dulness; tobring into prominent relief the remarkable occurrences andromantic incidents of former days, and, by combining with thegraver and more substantial matters of history an animateddescription of the physical features and scenic attractions of thelocalities in which those incidents occurred, to render them moreinteresting to the general reader.
A popular writer—the Authoress of “Our Village”—has saidthat she cared less for any reputation she might have gained as awriter of romance, than she did for the credit to be derived fromthe less ambitious but more useful office of faithfully uniting andpreserving those fragments of tradition, experience, and biography,which give to history its living interest. In the same spirit thefollowing pages have been written. There are within the PalatineCounties of Lancaster and Chester many objects and places, manyhalls and manor-houses that possess an abiding interest from theposition they occupy in “our rough island story,” and from theirbeing associated, if not with events of the highest historic import,yet at least with many of those subordinate scenes and occurrences—those[vi]romantic incidents and half-forgotten facts that illustrate theinner