HEATHYLEE
Heathylee was formerly a township in
Alstonefield parish and later a civil parish 5,535
a. (2,240 ha.) in area. (fn. 64) It is mostly pasture, with
scattered farms in river valleys and with no
village centre. The western boundary with Leekfrith is formed by Back brook, which flows south
to join the river Churnet, and two arms of Black
brook which flow north and west to join the river
Dane. Most of the northern boundary with
Hollinsclough runs along a ridge, and the river
Manifold forms the short eastern boundary with
Sheen. In 1934 the civil parish was enlarged by
the addition of land from neighbouring parishes:
a detached portion of Bradnop centred on
Hurdlow Farm and covering 385 a.; a detached
portion of Leekfrith lying between Hurdlow and
Upper Hulme and covering 10 a.; 30 a. from
Onecote; and 18 a. from Longnor lying on the
south side of the present course of the river
Manifold east of Longnor bridge. At the same
date 1 a. on the north side of the river was
transferred from Heathylee to Longnor. As a
result the area of Heathylee civil parish was
increased to its present 5,977 a. (2,419 ha.). (fn. 65)
This article deals with the former township
together with the land added in 1934.
Morridge divides the township into a western
part and a larger eastern part. The former is
drained by the Churnet and the latter by the
Manifold and a tributary, Oakenclough brook.
The land lies at 825 ft. (251 m.) in the south-west
corner beside Back brook. To the north and east
on Morridge it reaches 1,535 ft. (468 m.) near
Morridge Top Farm and 1,590 ft. (487 m.) near
Blake Mere. On the east side of the township the
land lies at 942 ft. (287 m.) where the LeekLongnor road crosses Oakenclough brook at
Hardings Booth and 862 ft. (263 m.) where the
road crosses the Manifold at Longnor bridge.
The underlying rock is sandstone of the Millstone Grit series, which outcrops on the west
side of the township at Ramshaw Rocks and near
Newstone Farm. A shallow basin of the Coal
Measures overlies the rock in the Blue Hills area
along the western boundary. The best soil lies
in the east where it is coarse loam. Elsewhere it
is mostly clay and loam, with peat on the west
side of Morridge. (fn. 66)
HEATHYLEE 1994
The number of people in Heathylee owing suit
at the manor court in the late 1760s was 100. (fn. 67)
The population of the township was 520 in 1801,
706 in 1811, and 788 in 1821. By 1831 it had fallen
to 689, and a steady decline thereafter reduced
it to 504 in 1861, 361 in 1891, 353 in 1901, 331 in
1911, 333 in 1921, and 345 in 1931. The population of the enlarged civil parish was 280 in
1951, 279 in 1961, 258 in 1971, 265 in 1981, and
244 in 1991. The population of the Hurdlow
Farm area added in 1934 was 25 in 1841 and 23
in 1881. (fn. 68)
The earliest medieval settlement was probably
in the south-west corner where the hamlet of
Upper Hulme existed on the Leekfrith side of
Back brook by the mid 13th century. (fn. 69) There
was an estate called Broncott on the Heathylee
side of the brook by 1299; the name is derived
from words meaning broom cottage. (fn. 70) A house
built north of Broncott Farm in the later 18th
century almost certainly for Joseph Billing, who
worked a quarry there, was an inn by the later
1820s. It was then called the New inn, and it
survived as a public house, the Olde Rock, in
1994. (fn. 71) A cottage beside Back brook west of the
inn has the date 1778 over a fireplace. To the
north of Upper Hulme a house called Naychurch, in existence by the early 15th century, (fn. 72)
retains 17th-century stonework.
There was a house on the site of Knowles Farm
north-east of Upper Hulme probably by 1308,
when Robert of Knolles was recorded as a tenant
of Alstonefield manor, and certainly by 1476. (fn. 73)
To the east, across the headstream of the
Churnet, pasture on Morridge was called Swains
moor by the early 14th century. (fn. 74) There was
house called Strines on the edge of the moor by
1415, (fn. 75) and one to the west on the site of Little
Swainsmoor Farm by the early 16th century. (fn. 76)
South of Swains moor, the detached portion of
Bradnop township added to Heathylee in 1934
was centred on Hurdlow Farm, which belonged
to Dieulacres abbey at the end of the Middle
Ages. The name Hurdlow combines Old English
hord, treasure, and hlaw, a hill or possibly a
barrow. (fn. 77) There was a house at Stoney Cliffe
south-west of Hurdlow by 1586. (fn. 78)
On the east side of the township there was a
settlement at Hardings Booth at the confluence
of the Manifold and Oakenclough brook by
1327. (fn. 79) The site of Oakenclough Hall to the
south-west in the valley of Oakenclough brook
was inhabited by the early 15th century. (fn. 80) A
17th-century stone house there, styled a hall in
1747, (fn. 81) was replaced by the present house built
on an adjacent site in the later 1890s. (fn. 82) The site
of Badger's Croft further west was probably
inhabited by 1308, when Robert of Bochardescroft was recorded as a tenant of Alstonefield
manor. The house was known as Butcher's or
Badger's Croft in the 18th century. (fn. 83)
A house called Heathylee was recorded in
1406. Its site was probably in the Manifold
valley north-west of Hardings Booth, where
there were two houses called Heathylee in
1571. (fn. 84) There was a house in the upper part of
the valley at Thick Withins by 1406, (fn. 85) and others
to the east at Fawside by c. 1420 (fn. 86) and Ball Bank
by 1444. (fn. 87) There were also houses by the earlier
15th century on the south side of the Manifold:
Hole Carr was recorded in 1414, (fn. 88) Bradshaw in
1429, (fn. 89) and Marnshaw in 1444. (fn. 90) Houses at
Coldshaw and Merril Grove beside the Longnor
road were recorded respectively in 1429 and
1439. (fn. 91) The place-name 'shaw' means a copse,
and its use suggests late-medieval settlement in
a wooded landscape. (fn. 92) The site of Heath House
on the Longnor road east of Hardings Booth was
occupied by 1406. (fn. 93) Waterhouse Farm at the
township's eastern tip beside the Manifold was
so called by 1571. There were then two adjacent
houses, Over Waterhouse and Stewards Place,
the latter possibly once used by the steward of
Alstonefield manor. There were still two houses
there in the later 18th century. (fn. 94)
Blue Hills north of Upper Hulme was probably the last area of the township to be settled.
So called by c. 1680, it apparently takes its
name from the colouring of watercourses by
coal deposits, which were mined by the early
15th century. (fn. 95) A house called Gylfields in
1481 stood near Gib Torr Rocks (in Quarnford), possibly on the site of the present Gib
Torr Farm. There was certainly a house called
Gib Torr by 1564. (fn. 96) The present house is
probably of the 19th century, and a barn
carries the initials of Sir George Crewe and the
date 1841. There was a house at Hazel Barrow
by 1719, (fn. 97) and Newstone Farm is dated 1773.
A pool called Blake Mere on the east side of
Swains moor was evidently so called in the 14th
century, when the name was used for a nearby
house (the present Mermaid inn) in Onecote, in
Leek parish. (fn. 98) A belief that the pool was bottomless and that cattle would not drink from it or
birds fly over it was dismissed as fanciful by the
antiquary Robert Plot, writing c. 1680. He accepted, however, a story about the rescue of a
woman whose lover tried to drown her in the
pool. The event was the subject of Robert
Southey's poem 'Mary, the Maid of the Inn',
written in 1796. (fn. 99)
The Leek-Buxton road through Heathylee was
laid out in the later 1760s as a branch of the road
from Newcastle-under-Lyme to Hassop (Derb.)
via Leek and Longnor, turnpiked in 1765. (fn. 1) Two
miles north of Upper Hulme the Hassop road
followed the line of a road which existed by 1408,
when it was apparently known as Jaggers Lane
in the Hardings Booth area; (fn. 2) a jagger was a
carrier or packman. At that time it probably ran
across the breadth of the township, crossing into
Quarnford past Gib Torr. There was an inn by
1805 where the Buxton branch left the main
road. By 1833 it was called the Royal Cottage, a
name taken from a belief that Prince Charles
Edward Stuart slept in the house in 1745. In fact
he stayed in Leek, and it is not known that there
was a house on the site before the turnpike road
was laid out. (fn. 3) The bridge over Oakenclough
brook at Hardings Booth was rebuilt in 1779 and
again shortly after 1808, by which date it was a
county responsibility. (fn. 4) A side road running
north-west from the Royal Cottage via Gib Torr
to Manor Farm, in Quarnford, was turnpiked in
1773. Another road to Manor Farm running
across the Blue Hills area via Hazel Barrow was
turnpiked in 1793. (fn. 5) A tollgate and house were
erected at Gib Torr in 1775; the gate was
removed in 1825, when another was set up
further along the road in Quarnford. (fn. 6) A road
from Warslow laid out in the late 1810s joined
the Leek-Buxton road south of the Royal Cottage, and by the later 1820s there was a tollbar
east of the junction. (fn. 7) A tollhouse was built on
the main road near Ramshaw Rocks in 1842. (fn. 8)
The road system was disturnpiked in 1875. (fn. 9) A
new stretch of road was built in 1955 to bypass
Upper Hulme on the east. (fn. 10)
A short stretch of the Cheadle-Buxton road
runs through the east side of the township. Formerly it joined the Longnor road near Longnor
mill, but after being turnpiked in 1770 it was
realigned to run directly to Longnor village by way
of a bridge at Windy Arbour. (fn. 11) By 1818 there was
a tollgate at the junction of the old and new
routes. (fn. 12) The road was disturnpiked in 1878. (fn. 13)
A surviving stone bridge across a stream northwest of Stoney Cliffe carried a packhorse way
between Cheshire and Nottinghamshire, which
crossed the south-western tip of the township
before climbing Morridge to the Mermaid inn
in Onecote. (fn. 14)
Heathylee was connected to a mains electricity
supply in 1963. (fn. 15)
It was apparently a custom in the early 19th
century for people to gather on May Day at the
Bald Stone west of the Royal Cottage and to
paint it white. (fn. 16) The New inn at Upper Hulme
was the meeting place of the Colliers' Refuge
friendly society, established in 1842 as a lodge
of the Order of Foresters. The society had 162
members in 1876. (fn. 17) A brass band formed at
Upper Hulme by 1850 (fn. 18) was probably drawn
from members of the lodge.
ESTATES.
An estate centred on BRONCOTT
FARM at Upper Hulme probably existed by
1299 when the widow of Henry of Broncott held
a house of Nicholas de Audley, the lord of
Aenora Malbank's share of Alstonefield manor. (fn. 19)
In 1327 Ranulph of Bagnall gave his son William
lands and tenements in the vill and fields of
Broncott, and in 1341 Thomas of Bagnall acquired a 'great house' there with further land.
In 1370 the estate was held by Thomas's son
John, and in 1432 John's son William granted it
to Roger Fowall, retaining a life-interest. (fn. 20) Richard
Fowall held the estate in 1557, when he was
succeeded by his son William, (fn. 21) and Roger
Fowall held it in 1567 and 1577. The owner in
1591 was Ralph Fowall, who became the tenant
in 1592 on selling the estate to John Harpur, lord
of Alstonefield manor. (fn. 22) In 1633 the tenant of
what was then a 52½-a. farm was Robert Brough
(d. 1657). (fn. 23) He was succeeded by his son
Thomas, and Thomas by his son Robert, the
tenant in 1679. (fn. 24) He or another Robert was
succeeded in 1712 by his son Robert (d. 1753). (fn. 25)
The tenant when the Harpur Crewe family
offered the farm for sale in 1951 was Colin
Lownds (d. 1975), whose daughter Edith and
her husband William Waters were the owners in
1994. (fn. 26) The stone-built farmhouse is dated 1833.
The detached portion of Bradnop added to
Heathylee in 1934 consisted of an estate centred
on HURDLOW FARM. The estate belonged to
Dieulacres abbey at the Dissolution, and in 1546
the Crown sold it to two speculators, Hugh and
Robert Thornhill. (fn. 27) By 1625 it was owned by the
Hollinshead family, later of Ashenhurst Hall in
Bradnop, who still held it in 1680. (fn. 28) The later
descent is unknown until 1835, when a house
and 189 a. were offered for sale under the will
of John Bourne, possibly of Lane End in
Longton. (fn. 29) The property was again offered for
sale in 1845, and 177 a. were bought by the Revd.
John Sneyd of Basford Hall, in Cheddleton. (fn. 30)
Rebuilt in the 19th century, the house with its
farmland was owned by the Belfield family in
1994.
ECONOMIC HISTORY.
Agriculture.
Over
field and Nether field recorded at Broncott in
1341 may have been open fields. (fn. 31) The common
waste lay chiefly on Morridge and covered 940
a. in 1839 when it was inclosed under an Act of
1834 amended in 1836. Sir George Crewe was
awarded 48 a. as lord of the manor and 276 a.
as impropriator of Alstonefield rectory, and the
inclosure commissioners sold him a further 332
a. (fn. 32) Sir George also acquired by exchange in
1839 the 207 a. which had been awarded in lieu
of tithes to the vicar of Alstonefield. (fn. 33)
Of the 2,034.9 ha. of farmland returned for the
civil parish in 1988, grassland covered 1,609.6
ha. and there were 402.6 ha. of rough grazing.
The farming was dairy and sheep, with 2,065
head of cattle and 7,438 sheep and lambs. One
farm specialized in fattening pigs, of which there
were 2,032 in the civil parish. Of the 55 farms
returned, 47 were under 50 ha. in size, 5 were
between 50 and 99 ha., and 3 were between 100
and 199 ha. (fn. 34)
Mills.
What was called Frith mill by 1404 (fn. 35)
almost certainly stood on the Manifold in
Heathylee near Longnor bridge: land called
Milne Holme, with which the mill was held in
the 16th century, lay in that area. (fn. 36) In 1605 Sir
John Harpur replaced it with a mill on a nearby
site called Longnor mill and powered by a cut
from the Manifold. (fn. 37) Shortly before 1770 Longnor mill was rebuilt by a corn dealer and
chapman, Richard Gould of Brownhill, in Warslow. Gould became bankrupt in 1773, and the
mill may have fallen into disuse. (fn. 38) It was working
again by 1831, when it was enlarged to include
a bone mill. (fn. 39) The mill was used for grinding
corn until c. 1870 and for grinding bone until c.
1890. By 1884, and possibly by 1880, the mill
was also used as a saw mill, specializing in the
manufacture of rakes. (fn. 40) It remained a saw mill
until it ceased working in the mid 1980s.
Trade and industry.
In 1401 Richard Strongarme took a year's lease of two coal mines and a
forge at Back brook and Thomas Smyth a year's
lease of a vein of coal at Black brook. In 1404 a
smith named John Toples took a lease for life of
140 ft. of coal at Black brook. He seems to have
worked the mine only until 1407. About 1415 a
mine was let for 12 years to Robert of Hulme. (fn. 41)
A mine in the Blue Hills area was being worked
c. 1680. (fn. 42) In 1764 Sir Henry Harpur let a mine
at Blue Hills for 21 years to James and Tobias
Mallors, stipulating 1/10 of the coal as rent. (fn. 43) What
was called the Bluehills Colliery in 1796 was
then owned by the earl of Macclesfield. It still
existed in 1869, when it was offered for lease. (fn. 44)
Four miners lived in the Blue Hills area in 1871,
but only one in 1881. (fn. 45)
The house north of Broncott Farm which
became the New inn was occupied in 1786 by
Joseph Billing, a stone cutter who presumably
worked the quarry still open there in the early
19th century. (fn. 46) Several small quarries were
opened along the Longnor road later in the 19th
century, and there were 3 stonemasons and 3
stone breakers in the township in 1861 and 2
masons in 1881. (fn. 47) In the later 1820s there was a
brickyard east of Heath House. (fn. 48)
In 1601 a button maker lived at Stonieway,
apparently near Hardings Booth. (fn. 49) About 1680
a stream issuing from a mine at Blue Hills was
used to dye button moulds, and poor people of
that area were then said to be much employed
in making buttons. (fn. 50) It was common for women
and girls in the township to work as button
makers in the earlier 19th century, and some of
them may have been involved in an attempt to
establish a trade union in 1834. (fn. 51) Only 6 women
button makers were recorded in the township in
1841, but there were 38 in 1851 and 42 in 1861.
Only 5 were recorded in 1881. (fn. 52)
In the later 1760s Adam Billing of Boarsgrove,
south-west of Oakenclough Hall, traded as a
hawker, selling goods from Manchester, possibly
small wares, in the summer and fish in the
winter. Isaac Belfield, who lived at Barrow Moor
on the Longnor road in 1772, also seems to have
been a dealer in small wares. (fn. 53)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
Heathylee was part
of the Forest tithing of Alstonefield manor by
the late 1390s and remained so in the earlier
1530s. (fn. 54) By 1594 it shared a frankpledge with
Hollinsclough, the joint tithing sometimes being
called High Frith. (fn. 55) That was still the arrangement in 1676, but by 1697 Heathylee had its own
frankpledge, by then styled a headborough. (fn. 56)
There was a pinner for the joint tithing by
1596. (fn. 57) In the later 1820s there was a pinfold on
the Longnor road west of Hardings Booth. (fn. 58)
HOLLINSCLOUGH 1994
Two surveyors of the highways for Heathylee
were appointed at the manor court apparently
for the first time in 1601. From 1602 there was
normally only one. (fn. 59)
In the later 17th and earlier 18th century the
poor of Heathlyee, Fawfieldhead, Hollinsclough, and Quarnford were maintained
jointly. (fn. 60) Heathylee relieved its poor separately
from 1733. (fn. 61) It became part of Leek poor-law
union in 1837. (fn. 62)
CHURCH.
In 1559 Ralph Gylmen of Merril
Grove in Heathylee bequeathed a lamb for
'God's service' at Longnor, probably an indication that he attended Longnor church; people
from Heathylee certainly did so by the late 17th
century. (fn. 63) From 1744 those living in the western
part of the township attended the church built
that year at Flash, in Quarnford, and in 1902
that part of Heathylee was assigned to Quarnford parish. (fn. 64) By 1900 and at least until the later
1950s mission services were held in the schoolroom on the Buxton road. (fn. 65)
NONCONFORMITY.
A Methodist society
met at Ridge Head, the home of Isaac Billing on
the Longnor road, in the late 18th and early 19th
century. (fn. 66) It numbered 46 in 1803 but only 8 in
1819, members presumably having moved to
other societies in the area. (fn. 67) In 1829 Wesleyan
Methodist services were held fortnightly on
Sundays at Hole Carr and at Upper Hulme and
once a month at Ridge Head. A Sunday service
was also held twice a month at Hazel Barrow
and at Newstone Farm, where a meeting room
or chapel had been added to the farmhouse
apparently in 1816. By 1832 Sunday services
were held three times a month at Newstone and
once a month elsewhere in the township. (fn. 68) A
chapel opened at Upper Hulme in 1837 had an
evening congregation of 30, besides Sunday
school children, on Census Sunday 1851. (fn. 69) Services were still held at the chapel in 1994. The
average attendance at Newstone in 1851 was
between 50 and 60 adults. Services were last held
there in 1930. (fn. 70)
A Primitive Methodist chapel opened in 1853
at 'Morridge End' was replaced c. 1880 by one
on the Buxton road north of Morridge Top
Farm. That chapel was closed in 1972 and was
used in 1994 as a farm outbuilding. (fn. 71)
EDUCATION.
There was no school in the
township in 1819. (fn. 72) In the earlier 1830s there
were two day schools, with between 30 and 40
children who paid fees. There was also a Sunday
school in which 120 children were taught free. (fn. 73)
A Wesleyan Methodist Sunday school at Upper
Hulme had an attendance of 28 on Census
Sunday 1851. (fn. 74) There was evidently a dame
school in 1841, when a schoolmistress lived in
the township. A mistress was again recorded in
1851, 1861, and 1881. (fn. 75)
A school board for Heathylee was formed
compulsorily in 1880, and in 1884 a school was
built on the Buxton road south of the Royal
Cottage. The cost was met by Sir John Harpur
Crewe. It became Ramshaw council school in
1903. (fn. 76) The decision in 1930 that what was
then an all-age school with 40 children on its
books should become a junior school took
effect in 1940, the senior children being transferred to Leek. (fn. 77) Ramshaw school was closed
in 1970, and the building was later converted
into a house. (fn. 78)
CHARITY FOR THE POOR.
By will of 1793
John Robinson of Fawside left half the interest
on £196 9s. 6d. for the poor of Heathylee and
Longnor. In 1972 the charity was administered
jointly with others for Longnor. (fn. 79)