LITTLE LEVER
Lefre, 1212; Lethre, 1221; Leuere, 1278;
Leuir, 1282; Leuer, 1291; Leyver, 1550.
This township is bounded on three of its five sides
by the Irwell, the Croal, and Blackshaw Brook, but
a small portion projects north of the last-named brook.
The village occupies the centre of the area and spreads
itself along the roads leading east to Radcliffe, west to
Farnworth, and north-west to Bolton. On the
southern border is the hamlet of Nob End, and on
the eastern that of Stopes. The area is 807 acres. (fn. 1)
The Bolton and Manchester Canal passes along by
the south-west boundary and after descending by six
locks crosses the Irwell by an aqueduct; near this
the branch canal parts off towards Bury. The population in 1901 was 5,119.
There are numerous coal mines; also cotton mills
and bleach works, iron foundry, chemical works, and
paper mill. A pottery and a terra cotta factory are
worked and bricks are made. The soil is clay; the
agricultural land is mostly in pasture.
In 1666 there were sixty hearths liable to the tax;
the only large house was that of John Andrews, with
nine hearths. (fn. 2)
The township was governed by a local board from
1872 (fn. 3) to 1894, when an urban district council was
formed; there are twelve members elected by four
wards—Church, Ladyshore, Stopes, and West.
John Seddon, born at Lomax Fold in 1719, became
minister of Cross Street Chapel, Manchester, and died
there in 1769. (fn. 4)
DARCY LEVER
This township is bounded on the west, south, and
east by the Croal and its affluents. The general slope
of the surface is from north to south. The area is
499 acres. The population in 1901 was enumerated
with Great Lever.
The road from Bolton to Little Lever and Radcliffe
passes east through the centre, the village of Darcy
Lever, practically a suburb of Bolton, lying along the
western end of it; and there are other roads leading
north and south. The Lancashire and Yorkshire
Company's Bolton and Bury railway crosses the
Tonge by a long and lofty viaduct and then passes
east through the township; and the Bolton and
Manchester Canal passes through it, near the Croal,
crossing the Tonge by an aqueduct.
The township abounded with coal, but it has practically been worked out. Several mines were worked
till recently; one is still in operation. There is
a cotton mill at the village. On the southern
boundary, by the Croal, are sewage works of the
Bolton Corporation.
Darcy Lever was incorporated with the borough
and township of Bolton by the Extension Act of 1898.
There were several large houses in the township in
1666; Robert Lever's had eight hearths liable to
the tax, Jame; Bradshaw's and John Crompton's
seven each, and Lawrence Fogg's six. There were
only twelve hearths in the rest of the township. (fn. 5)
Manor
The manor of LITTLE LEVER formed
part of the barony of Manchester, and was
assessed as four oxgangs of land. From
an early time it was held in moieties. Albert Grelley
the younger in the time of Henry II gave one moiety
to Alexander son of Uvieth at a rent of ½ mark and
a hawk or 12d (fn. 6) The name of the tenant in 1212 is
not given; but in 1227 Adam de Radcliffe was called
upon by Robert Grelley to perform suit at his court
of Manchester fortnightly instead of monthly. (fn. 7) A
little earlier Eugenia, widow of William de Radcliffe,
demanded against the same Adam her dower in four
oxgangs in Little Lever among other lands. (fn. 8) From
this it would appear that the Radcliffes had had a
grant of the whole of Little Lever, perhaps between
1212 and 1221. There are later tokens of their
connexion with it. (fn. 9)
The next lord of the whole or part of Lever is one
Leising de Lever, who had part at least of Great
Lever also. (fn. 10) Possibly descended from him was the
Adam de Lever, living in 1246, (fn. 11) ancestor of the
family of Lever of Little Lever, (fn. 12) which apparently
held a share of the manor till the beginning of the
17th century. In the absence of satisfactory evidence
of the descent it can only be stated that in 1320
William de Radcliffe and William de Lever held
Little Lever by homage, service, and suit to the court
of Manchester, rendering yearly 4d. sake fee, 6s. 8d.
rent, also 12d. and providing puture for the serjeant
and foresters—8s. in all (fn. 13) ;
that in 1473 John Lever held
half the manor by the twentieth
part of a knight's fee, a rent
of 3s. 4d. and 2d. sake fee,
rendering puture and other
services, while Sir Richard
Tempest held the other moiety
similarly (fn. 14) —these moieties being respectively Little Lever
and (the later) Darcy Lever; (fn. 14a)
and that in the 16th and
17th centuries the manor is
found to be divided between two Lever families—the
Chisnalls—Bradshaws, and others. (fn. 15) It is not possible
to trace the subdivisions further.
Lever of Lever. Argent two bendlets sable, the lower one engrailed.
The estate of the Levers of Little Lever passed to
the family of Andrews of Rivington. This branch of
the Levers recorded pedigrees in 1567 (fn. 16) and 1613 (fn. 17) ;
while Andrews of Little Lever did likewise in 1665. (fn. 18)
Of this stock came Thomas Lever, one of the most
upright and advanced of the Protestant Reformers of
the 16th century; he was master of St. John's College in 1551, went into exile in Switzerland in the
reign of Mary, and returning in 1558 was made
master of Sherburn Hospital in Durham. (fn. 19) Darcy
Lever Hall was the seat of another family of the
local surname; (fn. 20) one member of it was the founder
or refounder of Bolton Grammar School. (fn. 21)
DARCY LEVER OLD HALL stands 2 miles southeast of Bolton on high ground sloping down to the Blackshaw Brook, which flows past the house on the south
side, not far from its junction with the River Tonge.
The principal front of the house, which is of timber
and plaster on a red sandstone base, faces north, and
has three timber gables, and a wing projecting northwards 23 ft., with a former timber gable rebuilt in
brick.
On a beam over the porch is inscribed R L E 1641
for Robert and Elizabeth Lever, and on the stone head
of the inner door the date is repeated. The plan
of the house seems to be a late development of the Hplan, and may very well belong to this date. The
screen passage is still represented, but the hall has become quite insignificant, and its porch, as at Kenyon
Peel, has been amalgamated with the west wing. The
principal room on the ground floor is the parlour,
entered through a lobby on the west of the screens.
The building, which is in a rather dilapidated
condition, is now used as a farmhouse, and has been
very much altered and modernized inside, though the
exterior retains much of its original picturesqueness.
It is of two stories with attics in the gables, and the
roofs are covered with grey stone slates. The north
front has been little altered except by the addition of
lean-to buildings in the recessed portions, but the
gables have lost their bargeboards, the attic windows
are built up, and the timber-work generally is in a
more or less decayed state.
The timber construction, which remains intact on
the north side, is continued round the east side, but
the south front has been entirely rebuilt in brick and
is without interest, the roof, which is hipped at the
east end, being in one unbroken length with overhanging eaves. The total length of the building is
about 78 ft., but at the west end a new brick built
house has been erected with which one of the lower
rooms of Darcy Lever Old Hall on the south side has
been incorporated, the two houses thus overlapping.
The half-timber work of the north front is of
simple construction, the gables being filled in with
diagonal pieces, with a plaster cove running round at
the level of the wall plates. The timber work is quite
plain except in the middle gable, which has quatrefoil
fillings and a cove at the level of the first floor.
Some of the windows retain their diamond quarries.
The entrance is through an open porch under the
middle gable, opening into a through passage with a
doorway at the end on the south side. Both doors
are the original ones of oak, nail studded, and with
good iron hinges and fittings. To the right of the
passage is a lobby leading to the parlour, a large room
23 ft. long by 16 ft. wide, with an ingle-nook on its
east side 14 ft. 9 in. wide and 4 ft. 6 in. deep., and
to the left is a room at the back, now used as a
larder. A smaller room at the front is now only
reached from the east wing, the two lower rooms of
which are used as workshops or lumber rooms, with
separate outer doorways.
The staircase is to the west of the porch, built
between walls and radiating from a central post. The
treads are of oak, but there is no ornamental detail.
There is an opening under the stairs giving direct
access to the kitchen from the open air, but this is a
later insertion. The interior, which shows the
timber construction throughout, has little architectural interest, there being no panelling, and all
the original furniture and fittings, with the exception
of a long 17th-century table in the parlour, have
disappeared. In one of the bedrooms is a good stone
fireplace, now whitewashed, with moulded jambs and
a shaped head, and the ceilings of the parlour and the
bedroom over are crossed by moulded beams.
The north wing, the roof of which is a little lower
than that of the main building, consists of kitchen and
washhouse, and breaks up the elevation on the north
side in rather a pleasing fashion, apparently reducing
the length of the building by forming a kind of
courtyard. This wing appears to be of about the
same date as the rest of the house, though it has
been largely rebuilt in stone and brick. On a line
with its east face is a portion of the 17th-century
stone fence wall running northward with weathered
coping and remains of a ball ornament.
HACKING, or Hacken, was another estate in the
township. It was held by the Byroms of Salford. (fn. 22)
Under this family it was occupied on lease by
Richard Crompton and his descendants, who seem to
have acquired the freehold. (fn. 22a) It descended to James
Crompton of Hacking, who died in 1727, and was
sold by his heirs in 1735 to the Peploes, and was
again sold at the beginning of last century by
Mrs. Peploe Birch to the Earl of Bradford, and has
descended with Great Lever. (fn. 23)
Byrom of Salford. Argent a cheveron between three hedgehogs sable, a crescent on the cheveron for difference.
Crompton of Hacking. Gules a fesse wavy between three lions rampant or.
Richard Heywood had a small estate in Little
Lever in the early part of the 17th century; (fn. 24) two
of his sons—Oliver and Nathaniel—distinguished
themselves as preachers and as leaders of the Nonconformists after 1662. (fn. 25)
The land-tax return of 1786 shows that James Bradshaw and John Peploe Birch were the chief proprietors
of Darcy Lever, paying between them nearly half the
tax. In 1797 Robert Andrews paid more than a third
of the tax for Little Lever, John Fletcher and Benjamin Rawson being among the smaller contributors. (fn. 26)
In connexion with the Church of England, St. Matthew's, Little Lever, was built in 1791 and rebuilt in
1865. (fn. 27) There are a mission church of St. Mary at
Nob End, and a mission room.
The Wesleyan Methodists have chapels at Little
Lever and Darcy Lever, and the Congregationalists
have one at the former place. (fn. 28)