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HISTORY OF THE FYLDE OF LANCASHIRE,
by
JOHN PORTER, M.R.C.S., L.S.A.
[Illustration]
Fleetwood and Blackpool:
W. Porter and Sons, Publishers.
1876.
[All rights reserved.]
Fleetwood and Blackpool:
Printed by W. Porter and Sons.
TO BENJAMIN WHITWORTH, ESQUIRE, M.P., IN ADMIRATION OF HIS ENTERPRISE,
GENEROSITY, AND PHILANTHROPY, DISPLAYED IN THE FYLDE, AND ELSEWHERE, AND
AS A TRIBUTE OF PERSONAL REGARD AND ESTEEM, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY
INSCRIBED, BY THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
A few, and only a few, words are needed to introduce the History of the
Fylde to the public. In its preparation my aim has been to make the work
as comprehensive in description and detail as the prescribed limits would
allow, and I have endeavoured to write in a style free from any tendency
to pedantry, and I hope, also, from dulness. How far these conditions
have been fulfilled I must now leave to the judgment of the reader, doing
so with some degree of confidence that at any rate the attempt will be
generally appreciated, if the success be not universally acknowledged. In
the course of my labours I have availed myself of the works of various
authors, and desire to acknowledge my indebtedness, especially to
Baines’s Lancashire, Fishwick’s Kirkham, Thornber’s Blackpool, and many
volumes of the Cheetham and other historical societies. My thanks for
valuable aid are also due to the following gentlemen, amongst others, the
Ven. Archdeacon Hornby, of St. Michael’s-on-Wyre; the Rev. W. Richardson,
of Poulton-le-Fylde; Col. Bourne, M.P., of Hackensall and Heathfield;
John Furness, esq., of Fulwood; W. H. Poole, esq., of Fleetwood; and the
Bailiffs of Kirkham.
_JOHN PORTER._
_Fleetwood, August, 1876._
ERRATA.
Page 7, line 15, after the word _crossing_, insert _the Main Dyke from_.
This Dyke is crossed after leaving, and not before reaching, Staining, as
stated.
Page 147, line 9 from the bottom, for _Gulph_, read _Gulf_.
Page 183, line 2, for 1857, read 1657.
Page 256, dele the heading _Coasting_.
Page 286, line 2 from the bottom, for _fortified_, read _forfeited_.
Page 289, line 13 from the bottom, for the first _funds_, read
_expenses_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
CHAPTER I.
THE ANCIENT BRITONS, ROMANS, ANGLO-SAXONS AND DANES 1-29
CHAPTER II.
THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO JAMES THE FIRST 30-54
CHAPTER III.
JAMES THE FIRST TO QUEEN VICTORIA 55-86
CHAPTER IV.
CONDITIONS, CUSTOMS, AND SUPERSTITIONS OF THE PEOPLE 87-114
CHAPTER V.
COSTUMES, COUNTRY, RIVERS AND SEA 115-150
CHAPTER VI.
THE PEDIGREES OF ANCIENT FAMILIES 151-185
CHAPTER VII.
PARISH OF POULTON-LE-FYLDE. POULTON 186-217
CHAPTER VIII.
FLEETWOOD-ON-WYRE 218-267
CHAPTER IX.
THORNTON, CARLETON, MARTON, AND HARDHORN-WITH-NEWTON 268-296
CHAPTER X.
THE PARISH OF BISPHAM. BISPHAM-WITH-NORBRECK.
LAYTON-WITH-WARBRECK 297-310
CHAPTER XI.
BLACKPOOL 311-362
CHAPTER XII.
PARISH OF KIRKHAM. KIRKHAM 363-401
CHAPTER XIII.
FRECKLETON. WARTON. RIBBY-WITH-WREA. WEETON-WITH-PREESE.
GREENHALGH-WITH-THISTLETON. GREAT AND LITTLE SINGLETON.
CLIFTON-WITH-SALWICK. NEWTON-WITH-SCALES. HAMBLETON, &C. 402-428
CHAPTER XIV.
PARISH OF LYTHAM. LYTHAM. ST. ANNES-ON-THE-SEA 429-453
CHAPTER XV.
PARISH OF ST. MICHAEL’S-ON-WYRE. UPPER RAWCLIFFE-WITH-TARNACRE.
GREAT ECCLESTON. OUT RAWCLIFFE. ELSWICK. WOOD PLUMPTON.
INSKIP-WITH-SOWERBY 454-474
PAUPERISM AND THE FYLDE UNION 475-480
[Illustration]
HISTORY OF THE FYLDE.
CHAPTER I.
THE ANCIENT BRITONS, ROMANS, ANGLO-SAXONS, AND DANES.
“See! in what crowds the uncouth forms advance:
Each would outstrip the other, each prevent
Our careful search, and offer to your gaze,
Unask’d, his motley features. Wait awhile,
My curious friends! and let us first arrange
In proper order your promiscuous throng.”
The large district of western Lancashire, denominated from time
immemorial the Fylde, embraces one third at least of the Hundred of
Amounderness, and a line drawn from Ashton, on the Ribble, to Churchtown,
on the Wyre, forms the nearest approach to an eastern boundary
attainable, for although the section cut off by its means includes more
land and villages than properly appertain to the Fylde, a more westerly
division would exclude others which form part of it. The whole of the
parishes of Bispham, Lytham, Poulton, and St. Michael’s; and the parish
of Kirkham, exclusive of Goosnargh-with-Newsham and Whittingham, are
comprised in the Fylde country.
The word Amounderness was formerly considered to signify the “Promontory
of Agmund,” or “Edmund,” and this origin is alluded to in a treatise
written some years since by Mr. Thomas Baines on the “Valley of the
Mersey,” in which the following remarks occur:—“In the year 911 the
Northumbrians themselves began the war, for they despised the peace which
King Edward and his ‘Witan’ offered them, and overran the land of Mercia.
After collecting great booty they were overtaken on their march home by
the forces of the West Saxons and the Mercians, who put them to flight
and slew many thousands of them. Two Danish Kings and five Earls were
slain in this battle. Amongst the Earls slain was Agmund, the governor,
from whom the Hundred of Agmunderness (Amounderness) was probably named.”
In order that the reader may properly comprehend why Mr. Baines should
surmise that Amounderness received its title from the Danish Earl,
Agmund, it may be stated that the extensive province of Northumbria, then
colonised by the Northmen or Danes, embraced, amongst other territory,
the district afterwards called Lancashire, and, consequently, the Hundred
of Amounderness would be in a great measure under Danish governance.
When, however, we call to mind that the Danes did not invade England
until A.D. 787, and learn that this Hundred was entered in the Ripon
grant in A.D. 705, as Hacmunderness, it becomes obvious that the name
cannot have been conferred upon it by that nation, and some other source
must be looked to for its origin. In Gibsons’ Etymological Geography
there is “Anderness” (for Ackmunderness) described as a “promontory
sheltered by oaks, (ac, oak; and mund, protection).” As many large trunks
of trees have been discovered beneath the layers of peat in the extensive
local mosses, whilst others have been laid bare along the shore by the
action of the tides, it can be readily believed that at one time the
greater share of the district was clothed with forests. Leyland, who
was antiquary to Henry VIII., and surveyed the Hundred during the reign
of that monarch, 1509-47, says:—“Al Aundernesse for the most parte in
time paste hathe been full of woods, and many of the moores replenished
with hy fyrre trees; but now such part of Aundernesse as is towarde the
se is sore destitute of woodde.” With such irrefutable evidences of the
early woodland condition of Amounderness, there need be no hesitation
in accepting the signification which Messrs. Gibson have given to the
name—the Ness or Promontory protected by oaks. The word Fylde is regarded
simply as a corruption of “Field.” Camden in his “Britannia” of 1590,
writes:—
“Tota est campestris, unde Fild pro Field appellatur.”[1]
(The whole is champaign, whence it is called Fild for Field.)
In a subsequent edition of the same work Fild is spelt File, and the
latter orthography was used in Fileplumpton, in the Duchy records,
afterwards called Fylde Plumpton, and now Wood Plumpton. The Fylde
section of this Hundred is a level well-watered country, highly
cultivated and richly productive, especially of grain, from which
circumstance it was formerly designated the corn-field of Amounderness.
Anterior to the third invasion of the Romans in A.D. 43, the inhabitants
of the Fylde and other portions of Lancashire lying between the range
of mountains which separates this county from Yorkshire, and the coast
about the Bay of Morecambe, were called the Setantii or Segantii, “the
dwellers in the country of water,” but at that date the whole tract
populated by these people was included in the more extensive province of
the Brigantes, comprehending what are now known as the six counties of
York, Durham, Northumberland, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancaster.
The Fylde at that epoch would be composed chiefly of morasses and
forests, interspersed with limited areas and narrow paths of more
stable land, and there can be little doubt that the dwellers on such
an uninviting spot must have been very few, but that it was traversed
and, as far as practicable, inhabited by the ancient Setantii is evident
from the several relics of them which have been discovered amongst the
peat in modern days. Two or three canoes, consisting of light wooden
frameworks, covered with hides, were found by a man named Jolly, about
half a century ago, when cutting the “Main Dyke” of Marton Mere;[2]
Celtic hammers, axes, and spears have also been taken out of the mosses
in the district, all of which were doubtless originally the property of
the aboriginal Britons. The bay of Morecambe and the river Wyre acquired
their distinctive appellations from the Setantii, the one being derived
from the Celtic _gwyr_, pure or fresh, and the other from _mawr_, great,
and _cam_, winding or bent.
The hardihood of the native Britons of these parts is attested by Dion
Cassius, who informs us that they lived on prey, hunting, and the fruits
of trees, and were accustomed to brave hunger, cold, and all kinds of
toil, for they would “continue several days up to their chins in water,
and bear hunger many days.” In the woods their habitations were wicker
shelters, formed of the branches of trees interwoven together, and, in
the open grounds, clay or mud huts. They were indebted to the skins of
animals slain in the chase for such scanty covering as they cared to
wear, and according to Cæsar and other writers, dyed their bodies with
woad, which produced a blue colour, and had long flowing hair, being
cleanly shaved except the head and upper lip. That the power of endurance
possessed by the Setantii, and the neighbouring Brigantes is not to be
understood literally as expressed by Cassius may, we venture to think,
be taken for granted. It can scarcely be credited that the human frame
could ever be reduced or exalted to such an amphibious condition as to
be indifferent whether it passed a number of days on dry land or under
water; it seems more probable that in his description Cassius referred
to the hunting and other expeditions of the inhabitants into the forests
and morasses of the Fylde and similarly wooded and marshy tracts, where
there is no question the followers of the chase would be more or less in
a state of immersion during the whole time they were so engaged.
The religion of the Setantii was Druidical, and their deities resembled
those of other heathen nations, such as the Romans and Greeks of that
era, but differed in their names. Cæsar tells us that this order of
priesthood was presided over by a superior, who was known as the chief
Druid, and had almost unlimited authority over all the rest. The Druids
were settled at various points of the island, where they erected their
temples, but in addition to these principle stations, many of their order
were scattered amongst the native tribes of Britain, over which they
appear to have exercised the functions and power of judges, arranging
both public and private disputes, and deciding all criminal cases. It
was part of the creed professed by the Setantii, to vow, when they were
engaged in warfare, that they would, through the agency of the Druids,
immolate human victims as an atonement for slaughtered enemies, believing
that unless man’s life were given for man’s life, the divine anger of
the immortal Gods could not be appeased. There were other sacrifices of
the same kind instituted at regularly appointed seasons and on special
occasions. The Setantii also believed in an immortal soul, but seem to
have had no idea of a higher state, as their priests inculcated the
doctrine that after death the soul was transported to another body,
“imagining that by this the men were more effectually roused to valour,
the fear of death being taken away.”[3] Ornaments called “Druids’ eggs,”
and worn only by these priests, have been found in the Fylde.
How Cæsar, in B.C. 54 and 55, invaded Britain a first and a second time,
achieving at best an empty conquest, and how, after his death, the
emperor Claudius sent over an army with a determination to exterminate
the Druids, and after thirty pitched battles, subdued province after
province, is beyond the limits of this work to state, but as a connecting
link of the history of the country with that of our own county, and
that portion of it especially under examination, it may be stated that
Britain was finally conquered by the Romans under Julius Agricola, and
that the best investigation of the subject leads to the opinion that the
district which we call Lancashire, was brought into subjection to the
Roman conqueror in A.D. 79. A vigorous resistance was for long offered
to the army of invaders in the territory of the Setantii by the natives
under the Brigantine chief Venutius, but the well drilled legions of the
Romans, when commanded by Agricola, proved too formidable to be checked
or broken by the wild, undisciplined valour of the Setantii. Tacitus,
the son-in-law of the general, informs us that early in the summer of
A.D. 79, Agricola personally inspected his soldiers, and marked out many
of the stations, one of which, either made at that time or later by the
same people, was situated at Kirkham, on the line of the Roman road
running from the mouth of Wyre, which will be described hereafter. He
explored the estuaries and woods along the western coast of Lancashire,
and harassed the enemy by sudden and frequent incursions. When the
Brigantes and Setantii had been thoroughly overawed and disheartened by
the invincible Romans, Agricola stayed his operations in order to shew
them the blessings of peace, and in that way many towns which had bravely
held out were induced to surrender and give hostages. These places he
surrounded with guards and fortifications. The following winter was
passed in endeavouring, by various incentives to pleasure, to subdue
the warlike nature of the Britons, thereby diminishing the danger of an
outbreak, especially amongst such tribes as the Setantii, whose intrepid
spirits had been so difficult to quell, and who were not likely to submit
quietly to the yoke of the conqueror, unless some means were adopted to
allure them by the charms of civilised luxury from their free field and
forest mode of existence. Temples, courts of justice, and comfortable
habitations were first erected; the sons of the petty chiefs were next
instructed in the liberal arts, and Agricola professed to prefer the
genius of the Britons to the attainments of the Gauls. The Roman dress
became the fashion, and the _toga_ was frequently worn. The “porch,
luxurious baths, and elegant banquets” were regularly instituted, and by
degrees the crafty design of the Roman general was accomplished, and the
vanquished Britons had ceased to be the hardy warriors of old.
About one century after the subjugation of Britain by Agricola no less
than seven important Roman stations, or garrisoned places, had risen
up in the county of Lancaster, and were situated at Manchester, Colne,
Warrington, Lancaster, Walton-le-dale, Ribchester, and Overborough. The
minor ones, such as Kirkham, supposing their sites to have been first
built upon in a season of warfare, subsequently became small settlements
only, and were, in all probability, unused as military depots. The rivers
which flowed in the neighbourhood of the several encampments, terminated
in three estuaries, denominated by Ptolemy,[4] the ancient geographer,
in his book, completed in A.D. 130, the Seteia Æstuarium, the Moricambe
Æstuarium, and the Belisama Æstuarium. The first of these estuaries is
generally regarded as the mouth of the Dee, the second is identified with
Morecambe Bay, and the third with the Ribble by some historians and the
Mersey by others. The same authority mentions also a Portus Setantiorum,
which has been located on the banks of the Ribble, Lune, and Mersey, by
different antiquarians, but in the opinion of the most recent writers the
ancient harbour of the Setantii was situated at the mouth of the river
Wyre. Further reference to the Setantian port will be made in a later
page of the present chapter.
At the shore margin of the warren at Fleetwood there was visible, about
forty years ago, the abrupt and broken termination of a Roman road, which
could be traced across the sward, along the Naze below Burn Hall, and
onward in the direction of Poulton. From that town it ran in a southerly
line towards Staining, crossing Marton Mere, on its way, in the cutting
of which its materials were very apparent, and lying on the low mossy
lands to the depth of two yards in gravel. From Staining it proceeded to
Weeton, and in a hollow near to the moss of that township, consisted of
an immense stony embankment several yards in height; in the moss itself
the deep beds of gravel were distinctly observable, and from there the
road continued its course up the rising ground to Plumpton, the traces as
usual being less obvious on the higher land. From Plumpton it travelled
towards the elevated site of a windmill between Weeton moss and Kirkham,
at which point it turned suddenly, and joined the public road, running in
a continuous straight line towards the latter town. The greater part of
the long street of Kirkham is either upon or in the immediate vicinity
of the old Roman road. From Kirkham the road directed its course towards
Lund church, somewhere in the neighbourhood of which it was joined by
another path formed by the same people and commencing at the Neb of the
Naze near Freckleton.[5] Leaving Lund it ran through Lea on to Fulwood
moor, where it took the name of Watling street, and proceeded on to
Ribchester. This road has always been known in the Fylde as the Danes’
Pad, from a tradition that those pirates made use of it at a later period
in their incursions into our district, visiting and ransacking Kirkham,
Poulton, and other towns or hamlets of the unfortunate Saxons. Numerous
relics, chiefly of the Roman soldiery, have been dug or ploughed up at
different times out of the soil, bordering on the road, or found amongst
the pebbles of which it was composed, and amongst them may be mentioned
spears, both British and Roman, horse shoes in abundance, several stone
hammers, a battle axe, a broken sword, and ancient Roman coins, all
of which were picked up along its line between Wyre mouth and Weeton.
Several half-baked urns marked with dots, and pieces of rudely fashioned
pottery were discovered in an extensive barrow or cairn near Weeton-lane
Heads, which was accidentally opened, and is now pointed out as the abode
of the local hairy ghost or boggart. In the neighbourhood of Kirkham
there have been found many broken specimens of Roman pottery, stones
prepared for building purposes, eight or ten urns, some containing ashes
and beads, stone handmills for corn grinding, ancient coins, “Druids’
eggs,” axes, and horse shoes; in the fields near Dowbridge, where several
of the above urns were discovered, there was found a flattened ivory
needle, about five or six inches long with a large eyelet. A cuirass was
also picked up on the banks of the Wyre; but the most interesting relic
of antiquity is the boss or umbo of a shield, taken out of a ditch near
Kirkham, which will be fully described in the chapter devoted to that
township. The Romans were accustomed to make three kinds of roads, the
first of which, called the Viæ Militares, were constructed during active
warfare, when they were engaged in pushing their way into the territory
of the enemy, and easy unobstructed communication between their various
encampments became a matter of the utmost importance. The second, or
public roads, were formed to facilitate commerce in time of peace; and
the third were narrower paths, called private roads. The county of
Lancaster was intersected by no less than four important Roman routes,
two of which ran from north to south, and two traversed the land from
west to east. The course of one road, and perhaps the best constructed
of the whole four, we have just followed out; of the remainder, the
first, commencing at Carlisle, passed near Garstang and Preston, crossed
the Irwell at Old Trafford, and maintaining its southerly direction,
ultimately arrived at Kinderton, in Cheshire. The second extended
from Overborough to Slack, in Yorkshire, passing on its way through
Ribchester, the Ribble, Radcliffe, Prestwich, and Newton Heath; whilst
the third had its origin at a ford on the Mersey, in close proximity to
Warrington, and from that spot could be traced through Barton, Eccles,
Manchester, Moston, Chadderton, Royton, and Littleborough, thence over
Rumbles Moor to Ilkley, where was located the temple of the goddess
Verbeia. It is conjectured that these roads, which consisted for the most
part of pavement and deep beds of gravel, were begun, or at least marked
out, by Agricola during the time he was occupied in the subjugation of
Lancashire, and if this very probable hypothesis be correct the course
taken by that general in his exploration of the woods of the Fylde, and
the estuaries of Morecambe and the Ribble is clearly indicated by the
direction of the ancient path communicating with the mouth of Wyre and
the Naze.
At the opening of the third century the Roman governor of Britain found
it necessary to obtain the personal co-operation of Severus, in order
to put an effectual check to the repeated outbreaks of the natives; in
A.D. 207, that emperor having landed and established his head-quarters
at York, a considerable force marched northwards under his leadership
to punish the revolting tribes, and it is surmised that the curious
road, running across the mosses of Rawcliffe, Stalmine, and Pilling,
was constructed by the legionaries whilst on this tour. The pathway
alluded to, and commonly known as Kate’s Pad, was deeply situated in the
mosses, and had apparently been formed by fastening riven oak planks
on to sleepers of the same material, secured and held stationary by
means of pins or rivets driven into the marl a little above which they
rested. Its width was about twenty inches, but in some places rather
more.[6] Herodian, in describing the expedition of Severus to quell the
insurrection of the Briton, says:—“He more especially endeavoured to
render the marshy places stable by means of causeways, that his soldiers,
treading with safety, might pass them, and having firm footing fight
to advantage. In these the natives are accustomed to swim and traverse
about, being immersed as high as their waists: for going naked as to the
greater part of their bodies they contemn the mud. His army having passed
beyond the rivers and fortresses which defended the Roman territory,
there were frequent attacks and skirmishes, and retreats on the side
of the barbarians. To these indeed flight was an easy matter, and they
lay hidden in the thickets and marshes through their local knowledge;
all which things being adverse to the Romans served to protract the
war.” There can be no doubt that, when the path, which consisted in some
parts of one huge tree and in others of two or more, was formed, timber
must have been very plentiful in the vicinity, and at the present day
numbers of tree trunks of large size are to be found in the mosses,
further corroborating the conclusions arrived at by Leyland, whose words
have already been quoted, and Holinshed, who wrote:—“The whole countrie
of Lancaster has beene forests heretofore.” An iron fibula, a pewter
wine-strainer, a wooden drinking bowl, hooped with two brass bands and
having two handles, a brass stirrup, and other relics have been taken
out of the moss fields; and in the same neighbourhood an anvil, several
pieces of thin sheet-brass, and a pair of shears were discovered in a
ditch.
About the year 416 the Romans finally removed themselves from our island,
taking with them many of the brave youths of Britain, and leaving the
country in the hands of a people whose inactive habits, acquired under
their dominion, had rendered them ignorant of the art and unfit for the
hardships of warfare. According to Ethelwerd’s Chronicle, in the year 418
those few of the Roman race who were left in Britain, not being able to
put up with the manifold insults of the natives, buried their treasure in
pits, hoping that at some future day, when all animosity had subsided,
they would be able to recover it and live peaceably, but such a fortunate
consummation never arrived, and weary at length of waiting, they
assembled on the coasts and “spreading their canvass to the wind, sought
an exile on the shores of Gaul.” The Saxon Chronicle says:—“This year,
A.D. 418, the Romans collected all the treasures that were in Britain,
and some they hid in the earth so that no one since has been able to find
them; and some they carried with them into Gaul.” It is far from unlikely
that the silver denarii, discovered in 1840 by some brickmakers near
Rossall, and amounting to four hundred coins of Trajan, Hadrian, Titus,
Vespasian, Domitian, Antonius, Severus, Sabina, etc., were deposited in
that spot for security by one of those much harassed Romans, previous to
his departure from our coast.
A prize so easily to be obtained as Britain in its practically
unprotected state appeared, was not long in attracting the covetousness
of the neighbouring Picts and Scots, who came down in thousands from
the north, forced their way beyond the Roman Wall erected by Hadrian,
occupied the fortresses and towns, and spread ruin and devastation in
their track. The northern counties were the chief sufferers from these
ruthless marauders. Cumberland, Yorkshire, and Lancashire, were ravaged
and plundered to such an extent that had it not been for the seasonable
assistance of the Saxons, the whole country they embrace would have been
utterly devastated and almost depopulated. Gildas, the earliest British
historian[7], born about 500, described our land before the incursions of
the Picts and Scots as abounding in pleasant hills, spreading pastures,
cultivated fields, silvery streams, and snow-white sands, and spoke of
the roofs of the buildings in the twenty-eight cities of the kingdom as
“raised aloft with threatening hugeness.” We may readily conceive how
this picture of peace and prosperity was marred and ruined, as far as the
three counties above-named were concerned, by the destroying hand of the
northern nation. The British towns were still surrounded by the fortified
walls and embattled towers, built by the Romans, but the unfortunate
inhabitants, so long unaccustomed to
“The close-wedged battle and the din of war,”
and deprived of their armed soldiers and valiant youth, were panic
stricken by the fierce onslaughts of the Scottish tribes, and fled before
their advancing arms. Some idea of the critical and truly pitiable
condition to which they were reduced may be gleaned from the tenor of an
appeal for help sent by them to their old rulers, which the author last
quoted has preserved as follows:—
The Lamentation of the Britons unto Agitius, thrice Consul.
“The barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea drives us back to
the barbarians. Thus of two kinds of death, one or other must be
our choice, either to be swallowed up by the waves or butchered
by the sword.”
The Romans were fully occupied with enemies of their own, the Goths, and
consequently were unprepared to offer any assistance to the Britons,
whose position was shortly afterwards rendered additionally wretched
by famine and its attendant evils. At that period both the state of
Lancashire itself and of its inhabitants must have been exceedingly
deplorable—the country ravaged and still exposed to the depredations and
barbarities of the enemy, had now become a prey to a fearful dearth. Many
of the descendants of the old Setantii, unable any further to support
the double contest, yielded themselves up to the Picts and Scots in
the hope of obtaining food to appease the fierce cravings of hunger,
whilst others, more hardy, but outnumbered and weakened by long fasts,
sought refuge in the woods and such other shelters as the neighbourhood
afforded. Disappointed in the Romans, the Britons applied for aid to
the Saxons, or Anglo-Saxons, a mixed and piratical tribe, dwelling on
the banks of the German Ocean, and composed of Jutes, Angles, and pure
Saxons. The men of this race are described as determined, fearless, and
of great size, with blue eyes, ruddy complexions, and yellow streaming
hair. They were well practised in warfare, and armed with battle-axes,
swords, spears, and maces. Their chief god was Odin, or Woden, and their
heaven Valhalla. About one thousand of these warriors, under the command
of Hengist and Horsa, embarked in three vessels, built of hides, and
called _Cyulæ_ or _Ceols_. They landed on the coast of Kent, about the
year 449, and by the direction of Vortigern, king of the Island, marched
northwards until they arrived near York, where an encounter of great
moment took place, terminating in the utter defeat of the Picts and
Scots. Inspirited by so early and signal a success the Saxons followed
up their advantage with alacrity, drove the baleful marauders out of the
counties of Lancaster and York, and finally compelled them to retreat
across the frontier into their own territory. After having rescued the
kingdom from these invaders the Saxons settled at York and Manchester,
and not only evinced no sign of returning to their own country, but even
despatched messengers for fresh troops. This strange and suspicious
conduct on the part of their allies excited considerable alarm and
anxiety amongst the Britons, who practically expressed their disapproval
by refusing to make any provision for the reinforcements. After a
short interval a mandate was issued to the Saxon leader ordering him to
withdraw his army from the soil of Britain. Incensed and stimulated by
such decisive action Hengist determined at once to carry out the object
he had cherished from the first—the subjugation of the people and the
seizure of the island. Having procured a further supply of men under
his son Octa, he established them in the country of the Brigantes, and
almost immediately invited the native nobles to a friendly conference
with his chiefs on Salisbury plain. The Britons, who were far from
suspecting his treacherous design, attended the assembly unarmed, and in
that defenceless state fell an easy prey to their Saxon hosts, who in
the midst of feasting and revelry, brutally massacred the whole of their
guests. Successful in his cowardly and murderous stratagem, Hengist took
possession of the southern counties, whilst his son Octa maintained his
sway over the Brigantine province of Northumbria, in which the Fylde was
included, as intimated at the beginning of the chapter.
The ancient warlike spirit of the Setantii, which had lain almost
dormant for centuries, was once more thoroughly aroused in the natives
of Lancashire, and a determined and valiant opposition offered by them
to Octa and his army. Overborough capitulated only when its inhabitants
were worn out by fatigue and famine, whilst Warrington and Manchester
sustained severe and protracted sieges before they fell into the hands
of the enemy. Nennius, another early historian, who was born towards the
end of the sixth century, informs us that the famous King Arthur and his
sixty Knights of the Round Table worsted the Saxons in twelve successive
battles, four of which were fought on the banks of the Douglas, near
Wigan. In those conflicts our county was well and effectively represented
in the person of Paulinus, the commander of the right wing of the army,
who after many brave and sanguinary struggles overthrew the hitherto
unconquered Octa, and for a time, at least, delivered the Fylde and other
parts of Northumbria from the rule of the Saxons. This gallant soldier
was the offspring of a union between a Roman warrior and a British
maiden, who had established themselves in Manchester. The chieftain
Ella, however, compelled the Britons to submission, and assumed the
government over part of Northumbria. Clusters of Saxon huts, soon growing
into villages, now sprang up on the soil of the Fylde, which under the
wood-levelling and marsh-draining Romans had lost much of its swampy and
forest characters and been transformed into a more habitable locality. We
need have little hesitation in conjecturing that the valour displayed by
the inhabitants of our county was greatly increased, and often rendered
almost desperate, by the knowledge that if their land were subdued
and occupied by the Saxons the key, if it may so be called, to their
mountainous strongholds would be lost, and the line of communication
between them impassably and irretrievably obstructed; for the venerable
Bede[8] tells us that a portion of the Britons fled to the hills and
fells of Furness, and we are aware that a much larger share sought refuge
amongst the mountains of Wales, lying to the south-west, and visible
from the shores of the Fylde. Others escaped over to Armorica in France,
and from them it acquired the name of Brittany. Additional evidence that
Furness was peopled by the Britons, even for more than two centuries
after the arrival of the Saxons, is to be found in the writings of
Camden, who says:—“The Britons in Furness lived securely for a long time,
relying upon those fortifications, wherewith nature had guarded them; for
that the Britons lived here in the 228th year after the coming of the
Saxons, is plain from hence; that at that time Egfrid, the king of the
Northumbrians, gave to St. Cuthbert the land called Cartmell, and all the
Britons in it; for so it is related in his life.”
The Saxons were great idolaters, and soon crowded the country with their
temples and images. The deities they worshipped have furnished us with
names for the different days of the week, thus Sunday is derived from
_Sunan_ the sun, Monday from _Monan_ the moon, Tuesday from _Tuisco_
a German god, Wednesday from _Woden_, Thursday from _Thor_ or _Thur_,
Friday from _Friga_, and Saturday from _Seater_.
When the nation was once more at peace, all the towns and castles which
had been damaged during the wars were repaired, and others, which had
been destroyed, rebuilt. The Britons were brought by degrees to look
with less disfavour on their conquerors, and as time progressed adopted
their heathenish faith and offered up prayer at the shrines of the same
idols, drifting back into darkness and forgetting or ignoring those true
doctrines which, it is said, had been declared and expounded to them at
the very commencement of the Christian era. According to Clemens Romanus
and Theodoret, the Apostle Paul was one of the earliest preachers of the
Gospel in Britain, but whatever amount of truth there may be in this
statement, it is certain that at the Council of Arles in A.D. 314, and
ten years later at that of Nicene, three British bishops were present.
All traces of their former religion quickly vanished from amongst the
native population of Lancashire under the pagan influence of their
rulers; and it was during that unhallowed age that Gregory, surnamed the
Great, and afterwards pontiff, being attracted by the handsome appearance
of some youths exposed for sale in the market-place at Rome, and finding,
on inquiry, that they came from the kingdom of Deira, in Britain,
determined to send over Augustine and Paulinus to Christianise the
inhabitants. In 596 Augustine landed with forty missionaries on the coast
of Kent, the king became a convert, and the new faith spread rapidly
throughout the island. Thousands were baptised by Paulinus in the river
Swale, then called the Northumbrian Jordan, and the waters of Ribble were
also resorted to for the performance of similar ceremonies.
The advent of the Roman mission initiated a fresh epoch in the
ecclesiastical history of the county, monasteries and religious houses
sprang up in different parts, and at the consecration of the church and
monastery of Ripon, lands bordering on the Ribble, in Hacmundernesse
(Amounderness), in Gedene, and in Duninge were presented amongst other
gifts to that foundation. Paulinus was created bishop of Northumbria in
627, and it is to his ministrations and pious example that the conversion
of the inhabitants of the Fylde and vicinal territory is generally
attributed. The Saxon Chronicle records, however, that in 565 Columba
“came from Scotia (Ireland) to preach to the Picts.” Columba was born
at Garten, a village in county Donegal, and according to Selden and
other learned writers, the religion professed by him and the Culdees, as
the priests of his order were called, was strictly Presbyterian. Bede
writes:—“They preached only such works of charity and piety as they could
learn from prophetical, evangelical, and apostolic writings.” Columba
established a monastery at Iona. Dr. Giles states that “the ancient name
of Iona was I or Hi, or Aoi, which was Latinised into Hyona, or Iona; the
common name of it now is I-colum-kill, the Island of Colum of the Cells.”
Bishop Turner affirms that “the lands in Amounderness, on the Ribble,”
were first presented to a Culdee abbot, named Eata, on the erection of
a monastery at Ripon, but that before the building was finished he was
dismissed and St. Wilfred made abbot of Ripon, sometime before 661. If
the foregoing assertion be correct there is certain evidence that the
Culdee doctrines were also promulgated in Lancashire, and doubtless in
our own district, at that early date. Bede seems to support such an
assumption when he states that the Ripon lands were originally granted to
those who professed the creed of the Picts to build a monastery upon, and
did not pass to St. Wilfred, bishop of Northumbria, until afterwards, in
705, when he re-edified the monastery. Whatever discrepancies may exist
as to the exact period and manner in which Christianity was introduced
or revived in the bosoms of our forefathers, there is ample and reliable
proof that the majority of them had embraced the true faith about the
middle of the seventh century, when churches were probably erected in the
hamlets of Kirkham and St. Michael’s-on-Wyre.
About the year 936 the Hundred of Amounderness was granted by Athelstan
to the See of York:—“I, Athelstan, king of the Angles, etc., freely give
to the Omnipotent God, and to the blessed Apostle Peter, at his church
in the diocese of York, a certain section of land, not small in extent,
in the place which the inhabitants call Amounderness,” etc. The Hundred
of Amounderness when this grant was made must have been pretty thickly
peopled, for Athelstan states that he “purchased it at no small price,”
and land at that date was valued chiefly by the number of its residents.
Here it will be convenient to observe that in some instances, as in
that of Amounderness, the Hundreds acquired the additional titles of
Wapentakes, and, in explanation of the origin of the term, we learn from
“Thoresby Ducat Leodiens,” that when a person received the government of
a Wapentake, he was met, at the appointed time and usual place, by the
elder portion of the inhabitants, and, after dismounting from his horse,
he held up his spear and took a pledge of fealty from all according to
the usual custom. Whoever came touched his spear with theirs, and by
such contact of arms they were confirmed in one common interest. So from
_wœpnu_, a weapon, and _tac_, a touch, or _taccare_, to confirm, the
Hundreds were called _Wapentakes_. Traces of the above antique ceremony
are still to be met with in the peculiar form of expression used when the
tenantry and others are summoned by the manorial lords of Amounderness to
attend their court-barons and court-leets.
The Heptarchy, established about 550, and consisting of seven sovereign
states, was finally abolished in 830, and Egbert became king over the
whole island. The province of Northumbria, more especially the Fylde
and tracts of adjoining territory, had at that date been the scene of
irregular and intermittent warfare during the previous forty years.
Lancashire had suffered cruelly from the visitations of the Northmen,
or Danes, who spared neither age, sex, nor condition in their furious
sallies. In the years 787, 794, and 800, these pirates invaded the soil,
ravaged the country, butchered the inhabitants, and on the last occasion
shot Edmund, the king of the West Saxons, to death with arrows, because
he refused to renounce the Christian faith and embrace the errors of
heathenism. Egbert was no sooner seated on the throne than the Danes
re-appeared off the coasts, and there can be little doubt that some
of their bands made their way down the western shore of the island,
entered the Bay of Morecambe, and, guided by the old Roman road near
the mouth of the Wyre, pushed onwards into and through the heart of the
Fylde, plundering and laying waste villages, hamlets, and every trace
of agriculture in their path. “The name of the _Danes’ Pad_,” says Mr.
Thornber, “given to the Roman agger is and ever will be an everlasting
memorial of their ravages and atrocities in this quarter.”[9] In addition
it may be stated that many warlike relics of the Danes have been found
along the road here indicated, and that the names of the Great and
Little Knots in the channel of Wyre, opposite Fleetwood, were of pure
Scandinavian derivation, and signified “round heaps,” probably, of
stones. These mounds were, during the formation of the harbour entrance,
either destroyed or disfigured beyond recognition. Several localities,
also, along the sea boundary of the Fylde bear Danish denominations,
which will be treated of hereafter. In 869 Lancashire was again visited
by a dreadful famine, and many of the people in every part of the
county fell victims either to the dearth itself or the fatal disorders
following in its train. Those who were fortunate enough to escape the
wholesale destruction of the scourge suffered so severely from the
merciless massacres of the Danes that at the accession of Alfred the
Great, in 871, our Hundred was but sparsely populated. During the reign
of that illustrious monarch England was divided into counties, which
again were subdivided into Hundreds. Each Hundred was composed of ten
Tithings, and each Tithing of ten Freeholders and their families. When
this division of the kingdom was effected the south-western portion of
the old province of Northumbria was separated from the remainder, and
received the name of _Lonceshire_, from the capital _Loncaster_, the
castle on the _Lone_, or Lune. Alfred, as we are told by his biographer
Asser, did much to improve the condition of his subjects both for peace
and war; referring to their illiterate state, on his accession the king
himself says:—“When I took the kingdom there were very few on the south
side of the river Humber, the most improved portion of England, who could
understand their daily prayers in English, or translate a letter from
the Latin. I think they were not many beyond the Humber. There were so
few that I cannot, indeed, recollect one single instance on the south
of the Thames.”[10] After suffering a defeat at Wilton almost at the
outset of his career, Alfred surprised and overthrew the Danish camp at
Eddington; Guthrum, their leader, and the whole of his followers were
taken prisoners, but afterwards liberated and permitted to colonise East
Anglia, and subsequently Northumbria, an act of clemency which entailed
most disastrous consequences upon the different sections of the latter
province. The Fylde now became the legalised abode of numbers of the
northern race, between whom and the Saxon settlers perpetual strife was
carried on; in addition the restless and covetous spirit of the new
colonists constantly prompted them to raids beyond the legitimate limits
of their territory, rebellions amongst themselves, and conspiracies
against the king; insurrection followed insurrection, and it was not
until Athelstan had inflicted a decisive blow upon the Danish forces,
and brought the seditious province of Northumbria under his own more
immediate dominion, that a short lull of peace was obtained. In the reign
of his successor, however, they broke out again, and having been once
more reduced to order, agreed to take the name of Christians, abjure
their false gods, and live quietly henceforth. These promises, made to
appease the anger of Edmund, were only temporarily observed, and their
turbulent natures were never tranquilised until Canute, the first Danish
king, ascended the throne of England in 1017. The Norse line of monarchs
comprised only three, and terminated in 1041. Reverting to Athelstan
and the Danes we find that about ten years after the subjugation of the
latter in 926, as recorded in the Saxon Chronicle, Anlaf, a noted Danish
chieftain, made a vigorous attempt to regain Northumbria. The site of the
glorious battle where this ambitious project was overthrown and the army
of Anlaf routed and driven to seek refuge in flight from the shore, on
which they had but a short time previously landed exulting in a prospect
of conquest and plunder, is a matter of dispute, and nothing authentic
can be discovered concerning it beyond the fact that the name of the
town or district where the forces met was Brunandune or Brunanburgh, and
was situated in the province of Northumbria. The former orthography is
used in Ethelwerd’s Chronicle:—“A fierce battle was fought against the
barbarians at Brunandune, whereof that fight is called great even to the
present day; then the barbarian tribes were defeated and domineer no
longer; they are driven beyond the ocean.” Burn, in Thornton township,
is one of the several rival localities which claim to have witnessed the
sanguinary conflict. In the Domesday Survey, Burn was written _Brune_,
and it also comprises a rising ground or _Dune_, which seem to imply some
connection with _Brunandune_. From an ancient song or poem, bearing the
date 937, it is clear that the battle lasted from sunrise to sunset, and
that at night-fall Anlaf and the remnant of his followers, being utterly
discomfited, escaped from the coast in the manner before described. This
circumstance also upholds the pretentions of Burn, as it is situated
close to the banks of the Wyre, and at a very short distance both from
the Irish Sea and Morecambe Bay, as well as being in the direct line
of the road called Danes’ Pad, the track usually taken by the Northmen
in former incursions into the Fylde and county. In addition it may be
mentioned that tradition affirms that a large quantity of human bones
were ploughed up in a field between Burn and Poulton about a century
ago. Sharon Turner says:—“It is singular that the position of this
famous battle is not yet ascertained. The Saxon song says it was at
Brunanburgh; Ethelwerd, a contemporary, names the place Brunandune. These
of course are the same place, but where is it?”[11] Having done our best
to suggest or rather renew an answer presenting several points worthy of
consideration to Mr. Turner’s query, we will, before bidding farewell to
the subject, give our readers a translated extract from the old song to
which allusion has been made:—
Athelstan king,
Of earls the Lord,
Of Heroes the bracelet giver,
And his brother eke,
Edmund Atheling,
Life-long glory,
In battle won,
With edges of swords,
Near Brunanburgh.
The field was dyed
With warriors blood,
Since the sun, up
At morning tide,
Mighty planet,
Gilded o’er grounds,
God’s candle bright,
The eternal Lord’s,
Till the noble creature
Sank to her rest.
...
West Saxons onwards
Throughout the day,
In numerous bands
Pursued the footsteps
Of the loathed nations.
They hewed the fugitives,
Behind, amain,
With swords mill-sharp.
Mercians refused not
The hard-hand play
To any heroes,
Who with Anlaf,
Over the ocean,
In the ship’s bosom,
This land sought.
...
There was made to flee
The Northmens’ chieftain,
By need constrained,
To the ships prow
With a little band.
The bark drove afloat.
The king departed.
On the fallow flood
His life he preserved.
The Northmen departed
In their nailed barks
On roaring ocean.
Athelstan, in order to encourage commerce and agriculture, enacted that
any of the humbler classes, called Ceorls, who had crossed the sea
thrice with their own merchandise, or who, individually, possessed five
hides of land, a bell-house, a church, a kitchen, and a separate office
in the king’s hall, should be raised to the privileged rank of Thane.
Sometime in the interval between the death of this monarch, in 941, and
the arrival of William the Conqueror, the Hundred of Amounderness had
been relinquished by the See of York, probably owing to frequent wars and
disturbances having so ruined the country and thinned the inhabitants
that the grant had ceased to be profitable.
During the earlier part of the Saxon era the clergy claimed one tenth or
tithe of the produce of the soil, and exemption for their monasteries
and churches from all taxations. These demands were resisted for a
considerable period, but at length were conceded by Ethelwulf “for the
honour of God, and for his own everlasting salvation.”[12] In 1002, it
is recorded in the Saxon Chronicle, that “the king (Ethelred) ordered
all the Danish men who were in England to be slain, because it was made
known to him that they would treacherously bereave him of his life,
and after that have his kingdom without any gainsaying.” In accordance
with the royal mandate, which was circulated in secret, the Anglo-Saxon
populace of the villages and farms of the Fylde, as elsewhere, rose
at the appointed day upon the unprepared and unsuspecting Northmen,
barbarously massacring old and young, male and female alike. Great must
have been the slaughter in districts like our own, where from the Danes
having been established for so many generations and its proximity to
the coast and the estuaries of Wyre and Ribble, a safe landing and a
friendly soil would be insured, and attract numbers of their countrymen
from Scandinavia. The vengeance of Sweyn, king of Denmark, was speedy and
complete; the country of Northumbria was laid waste, towns and hamlets
were pillaged and destroyed, and for four years all that fire and sword,
spurred on by hatred and revenge, could effect in depopulating and
devastating a land was accomplished in Lancashire, and the neighbouring
counties, by the enraged Dane. Half a century later than the events just
narrated, earl Tosti, the brother of Harold, who forfeited his life and
kingdom to the Norman invaders on the field of Hastings, was chosen duke
of Northumbria. The seat of the new ruler has not been discovered, but
as far as his personal association with the Fylde is concerned it will
be sufficient to state that almost on its boundaries, in the township
of Preston, he held six hundred acres of cultivated soil, to which all
the lands and villages of Amounderness were tributary. As a governor
Tosti proved himself both brutal and oppressive. In a very limited
space of time his tyrannical and merciless conduct goaded his subjects
to rebellion, and with one consent they ejected him from his dukedom
and elected earl Morcar in his stead, a step commended and confirmed by
Harold, when the unjust severity of his brother had been made known to
him. Tosti embraced the Norman cause, and fell at the head of a Norwegian
force in an engagement which took place at Standford a few months before
the famous and eventful battle of Hastings.
We have now traced briefly the history of the Fylde through a period of
eleven hundred years, and before entering on the era which dates from the
accession of William the Conqueror, it will be well to review the traces
and influences of the three dissimilar races, which have at different
epochs usurped and settled on the territory of the old Setantii; our
reference is, of course, to the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Danes. Under
the first, great advances were made in civilisation; clearings were
effected in the woods, the marshes were trenched, and lasting lines
of communication were established between the various stations and
encampments. The peaceful arts were cultivated, and agriculture made
considerable progress, corn even, from some parts of Britain, being
exported to the continent. Remains of the Roman occupation are to
be observed in the names of a few towns, as Colne and Lincoln, from
_Colonia_, a Colony, also Chester and Lancaster, from _Castra_, a Camp,
as well as in relics like those enumerated earlier. The word “street” is
derived from _Stratum_, a layer, covering, or pavement. Their festival
of Flora originated our May-day celebrations, and the paraphernalia of
marriage, including the ring, veil, gifts, bride-cake, bridesmaids,
and groomsmen, are Roman; so also are the customs of strewing flowers
upon graves, and wearing black in time of mourning. That the Romans had
many stations in the Fylde is improbable, but that they certainly had
one in the township of Kirkham is shown by the number and character
of the relics found there. This settlement would seem to have been a
fairly populous one, if an opinion may be formed from the quantity of
cinereal urns discovered at various times, in which had been deposited
the cremated remains of Romans, who had spent their days and done good
service in levelling the forests and developing the resources of the
Fylde. The traffic over the Roman road through the district must have
been almost continuous, to judge from the abundance of horse-shoes and
other matters picked up along its route, and whether the harbour of the
Setantii was on Wyre, Ribble, or elsewhere, it is evident from the course
taken by the well constructed path that something of importance, say a
favourable spot for embarcation or debarcation, attracted the inhabitants
across the soil of the Fylde towards its north-west boundary. Now arises
the question what was the boundary here denoted, and in reply we venture
to suggest that the extent of this district, in both a northerly and
westerly direction, was much greater in ancient days than it is in our
own, and that the Lune formed its highest boundary, whilst its seaward
limits, opposite Rossall, were carried out to a distance of nearly eight
miles beyond the existing coast, and comprised what is now denominated
Shell Wharf, a bank so shallowly covered at low water spring tides that
huge boulders become visible all over it. Novel as such a theory may at
first sight appear, there is much that can be advanced in support of it.
From about the point in Morecambe Bay, near the foot of Wyre Lighthouse,
where the stream of Wyre meets that of Lune at right angles, there is
the commencement of a long deep channel, apparently continuous with
the bed of the latter river as defined by its sandbanks, which extends
out into the Irish Sea for rather more than seven miles west of the
mouth of Morecambe Bay, at Rossall Point. This channel, called “Lune
Deep,” is described on the authorised charts as being in several places
twenty-seven fathoms deep, in others rather less, and at its somewhat
abrupt termination twenty-three fathoms. Throughout the entire length
its boundaries are well and clearly marked, and its sudden declivity
is described by the local mariners as being “steep as a house side.”
Regarding this curious phenomenon from every available point of view,
it seems more probable to us that so long and perfect a channel was
formed at an early period, when the river Lune was, as we conjecture,
continued from its present mouth, at Heysham Point, through green plains,
now the Bay of Lancaster, in the direction and to the distance of “Lune
Deep,” than that it was excavated by the current of Lune, as it exists
to-day, after mingling with the waters of Morecambe and Wyre. The course
and completeness of Wyre channel from Fleetwood, between the sandbanks
called Bernard’s Wharf and North Wharf, to its point of junction with
the stream from Lancaster, prove satisfactorily that at one time the
former river was a tributary of the Lune. Other evidence can be brought
forward of the theory we are wishful to establish—that the southern
portion of Morecambe Bay, from about Heysham Point, bearing the name of
Lancaster Bay, as well as “Shell Wharf” was about the era of the Romans,
dry or, at least, marshy land watered by the Wyre and Lune, the latter
of which would open on the west coast immediately into the Irish Sea.
If the reader refer to a map of Lancashire he will see at once that the
smaller bay has many appearances of having been added to the larger one,
and that its floor is formed by a continuous line of banks, uncovered
each ebb tide and intersected only by the channels of Wyre and Lune. The
Land Mark, at Rossall Point, has been removed several times owing to the
incursions of the sea, and within the memory of the living generation
wide tracts of soil, amounting to more than a quarter of a mile westward,
have been swallowed up on that part of the coast, as the strong currents
of the rising tides have swept into the bay; and in such manner would
the land about the estuary of “Lune Deep,” that is the original river
of Lune, be washed away. As the encroachments of the sea progressed,
the channel of the river would be gradually widened and deepened to the
present dimensions of the “Deep”; the stream of Wyre would by degrees be
brought more immediately under the tidal influence, and in proportion
as the Lune was absorbed into the bay, so would its tributary lose its
shallowness and insignificance, and become expanded to a more important
and navigable size. About the time that “Lune Deep” had ceased to exist
as a river, and become part of the bay, the overcharged banks of the Wyre
would have yielded up their super-abundance of waters over the districts
now marked by Bernard’s Wharf and North Wharf, and subsequently, as the
waves continued their incursions, inundations would increase, until
finally the whole territory, forming the site of Lancaster Bay, would be
submerged and appropriated by the rapacious hosts of Neptune. The “Shell
Wharf” would be covered in a manner exactly similar to the more recently
lost fields off Rossall; and as illustrations of land carried away from
the west coast in that neighbourhood, may be instanced a farm called
Fenny, at Rossall, which was removed back from threatened destruction
by the waves at least four times within the last fifty years, when its
re-building was abandoned, and its site soon swept over by the billows;
also the village of Singleton Thorp, which occupied the locality marked
by “Singleton Skeer” off Cleveleys until 1555, when it was destroyed by
an irruption of the sea. Numerous other instances in which the coast
line has been altered and driven eastward, between Rossall Point and
the mouth of Ribble, during both actually and comparatively modern days
might be cited, but the above are sufficient to support our view of the
former connection of “Shell Wharf” with the main-land, and its gradual
submersion. If on the map, the Bay of Lancaster be detached from that
of Morecambe, the latter still retains a most imposing aspect, and its
identity with the Moricambe Æstuarium of Ptolemy is in no way interfered
with or rendered less evident. The foregoing, as our antiquarian readers
will doubtless have surmised, is but a prelude to something more, for it
is our purpose to endeavour to disturb the forty years of quiet repose
enjoyed by the Portus Setantiorum on the banks of the Wyre and hurl it
far into the Irish Sea, to the very limits of the “Lune Deep,” where, on
the original estuary of the river Lune, we believe to be its legitimate
home. No locality, as yet claiming to be the site of the ancient harbour,
accords so well with the distances given by Ptolemy. Assuming the Dee
and the Ribble to represent respectively, as now generally admitted,
the Seteia Æstuarium and the Belisama Æstuarium, the Portus Setantiorum
should lie about seven miles[13] to the west and twenty-five to the
north of the Belisama. The position of the “Lune Deep” termination is
just about seven miles to the west of the estuary of the Ribble, but is,
like most other places whose stations have been mentioned by Ptolemy,
defective in its latitudinal measurement according to the record left by
that geographer, being only fifteen instead of twenty-five miles north
of the Belisama or Ribble estuary. Rigodunum, or Ribchester, is fully
thirty miles to the east of the spot where it is wished to locate the
Portus, and thus approaches very nearly to the forty-mile measurement of
Ptolemy, whose distances, as just hinted, were universally excessive.
As an instance of such error it may be stated that the longitude, east
from Ferro, of Morecambe Bay or Estuary given by Ptolemy, is 3° 40´ in
excess of that marked on modern maps of ancient Britannia, and if the
same over-plus be allowed in the longitude of the Portus Setantiorum a
line drawn in accordance, from north to south, would pass across the
west extremity of the “Lune Deep,” showing that its distance from the
Bay corresponds pretty accurately with that of the Portus from the
Morecambe Æstuarium as geographically fixed by Ptolemy. In describing the
extent and direction of the Roman road, or Danes’ Pad, in his “History
of Blackpool and Neighbourhood,” Mr. Thornber writes:—“Commencing at
the _terminus_, we trace its course from the Warren, near the spot
named the ‘Abbot’s walk’;” but that the place thus indicated was not
the _terminus_, in the sense of _end_ or _origin_, is proved by the
fact that shortly after the publication of this statement, the workmen
engaged in excavating for a sea-wall foundation in that vicinity came
upon the road in the sand on the very margin of the Warren. Hence it
would seem that the path was continued onwards over the site of the
North Wharf sand bank, either towards the foot of Wyre where its channel
joins that of Lune, and where would be the original mouth of the former
river, or, as we think more probable, towards the Lune itself, and
along its banks westward to the estuary of the stream, as now marked by
the termination of “Lune Deep.” The Wyre, during the period it existed
simply as a tributary of the Lune, a name very possibly compounded from
the Celtic _al_, chief, and _aun_, or _un_, contractions of _afon_, a
river, must have been a stream of comparatively slight utility in a
navigable point of view, and even to this day its seaward channel from
Fleetwood is obstructed by two shallows, denominated from time out of
mind the Great and Little Fords. The Lune, or “Chief River,” on the
contrary, was evidently, from its very title, whether acquired from its
relative position to its tributary, or from its favourable comparison
with other rivers of the neighbourhood, which is less likely, regarded
by the natives as a stream of no insignificant magnitude and importance.
As far as its navigability was concerned the Portus may have been placed
on its banks near to the junction of Wyre, but the distances of Ptolemy,
which agree pretty fairly, as shown above, with the location of the
Portus on the west extremity of the present “Lune Deep,” are incompatible
with such a station as this one for the same harbour. The collection of
coins discovered near Rossall may imply the existence in early days of a
settlement west of that shore, and many remains of the Romans may yet be
mingled with the sand and shingle for centuries submerged by the water of
the still encroaching Irish Sea. Leaving this long-argued question of the
real site of the Portus Setantiorum, in which perhaps the patience of our
readers has been rather unduly tried, and soliciting others to test more
thoroughly the merits of the ideas here thrown out, we will hasten to
examine the traces of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes.
Many, in fact most, of the towns and villages of the Fylde were founded
by the Anglo-Saxons, and have retained the names, generally in a modified
form, bestowed upon them by that race, as instance Singleton, Lytham,
Mythorp, all of which have Saxon terminals signifying a dwelling,
village, or enclosure. The word _hearb_, genitive _hearges_, indicates in
the vocabulary of the same people a heathen temple or place of sacrifice,
and as it is to be traced in the endings of Goosnargh, and Kellamergh,
there need be no hesitation in surmising that the barbarous and pagan
rites of the Saxons were celebrated there, before their conversion to
Christianity. Ley, or lay, whether at the beginning of a name, as in
Layton, or at end, as in Boonley, signifies a field, and is from the
Saxon _leag_; whilst Hawes and Holme imply, respectively, a group of
thorps or hamlets, and a river island. Breck, Warbreck, and Larbreck,
derive their final syllables from the Norse _brecka_, a gentle rise; and
from that language comes also the terminal _by_, in Westby, Ribby, and
other places, as well as the _kirk_ in Kirkham, all of which point out
the localities occupied by the Danes, or Norsemen. Lund was doubtless the
site of a sacred grove of these colonists and the scene of many a dark
and cruel ceremony, its derivation being from the ancient Norse _lundr_,
a consecrated grove, where such rites were performed.
At the present time it is difficult, if indeed possible, to determine
from what races our own native population has descended, and the subject
is one which has provoked more than a little controversy. Palgrave, in
his “History of the Anglo-Saxons,” says:—“From the Ribble in Lancashire,
or thereabouts, up to the Clyde, there existed a dense population
composed of Britons, who preserved their national language and customs,
agreeing in all respects with the Welsh of the present day; so that
even to the tenth century the ancient Britons still inhabited the
greater part of the west coast of the island, however much they had been
compelled to yield to the political supremacy of the Saxon invaders.”
Mr. Thornber states that he has been “frequently told by those who were
reputed judges” that the manners, customs, and dialect of the Fylde
partook far more of the Welsh than of the Saxon, and that this was more
perceptible half a century ago than now (1837). “The pronunciation,” he
adds, “of the words—laughing, toffee, haughendo, etc., the Shibboleth
of the Fylde—always reminds me of the deep gutterals of the Welsh,[14]
and the frequent use of a particular oath is, alas! too common to both.”
Another investigator, Dr. Robson, holds an entirely different opinion,
and maintains in his paper on Lancashire and Cheshire, that there is
no sufficient foundation for the common belief that the inhabitants of
any portion of those counties have been at any time either Welsh, or
Celtic; and that the Celtic tribes at the earliest known period were
confined to certain districts, which may be traced, together with the
extent of their dominions, by the Celtic names of places both in Wales
and Cornwall. From another source we are informed that at the date of
the Roman abdication the original Celtic population would have dwindled
down to an insignificant number acting as serfs and tillers of the land,
and not likely to have much influence upon future generations. Mr.
Hardwick, in his History of Preston, writes:—“Few women would accompany
the Roman colonists, auxiliaries, and soldiers into Britain; hence
it is but rational to conclude, that during the long period of their
dominion, numerous intermarriages with the native population would take
place.” Admitting the force of reasoning brought forward by the last
authority, it can readily be conceived that the purity of the aboriginal
tribes would in a great measure be destroyed at an early epoch, and that
subsequent alliances with the Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans, have
rendered all conjectures as to the race of forefathers to which the
inhabitants of the Fylde have most claim practically valueless.
The dense forests with which our district in the earliest historic
periods abounded must have been well supplied with beasts of chase,
whereon the Aborigines exercised their courage and craft, and from
which their clothing and, in a great measure, their sustenance were
derived. The large branching horns of the Wild Deer have been found
in the ground at Larbrick, and during the excavations for the North
Union and East Lancashire Railway Bridges over the Ribble, in 1838 and
1846 respectively, numerous remains of the huge ox, called the _Bos
primigenius_, and the _Bos longifrons_, or long-faced ox, as well as of
wild boars and bears, were raised from beneath the bed of the river, so
that it is extremely likely that similar relics of the brute creation
are lying deeply buried in our soil. Such a supposition is at least
warranted by the discovery, half-a-century ago, of the skull and short
upright horns of a stag and those of an ox, of a breed no longer known,
at the bottom of a marl pit near Rossall. Bones and sculls, chiefly
those of deer and oxen, have been taken from under the peat in all the
mosses, and two osseous relics, consisting each of skull and horns, of
immense specimens of the latter animal, have been dug up at Kirkham. In
the “Reliquiæ Diluvianæ” of Mr. Buckland is a figure of the scull of a
rhinoceros belonging to the antediluvian age, and stated to have been
discovered beneath a moss in Lancashire.
[Illustration]