WHALLEY
Hwælleage, Hweallæge, A.-S. Chron. 798; Wallei,
Dom. Bk.; Wallebi, 1182 (exceptional); Wallega,
1183; Walelega, 1211; Walleye, 1245; Qwalley,
1257; Walley, Wallay, 1258; Whallay, 1298.
The township of Whalley lies along the Calder as
it flows north and west on its way to the Ribble.
The parish church, surrounded by the village, stands
near the north bank of the river in a central position,
and has the ruins of the once great abbey to its west.
Moreton lies in the south-east corner of the township, with Portfield a mile to the north and Clerk
Hill, on a spur of Pendle, still further north. Nethertown and Shawhouses are hamlets to the north-west
of Whalley village. The area of the township is
1,603 acres, (fn. 1) and in 1901 there was a population of
1,100.
The principal road is that from Blackburn, which
crosses the Calder at the village and then goes north
to Clitheroe; a branch turns off to the north-west to
cross the Ribble at Mitton. The Blackburn and
Hellifield branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire
Railway crosses the Calder valley by a viaduct and
runs north through the township; there is a station
to the west of the village.
In the main street is a house with a panel inscribed
'Thomas and Catharan Pecop 1667' within a scalloped border.
The township is governed by a parish council.
In the village are assembly rooms and a reading room.
The agricultural land in Whalley, Wiswell, Pendleton, Mitton and Coldcoats is thus occupied: arable,
5 acres; permanent grass, 4,327; woods and plantations, 472. (fn. 2) In Whalley proper, apart from considerable plantations, the land is chiefly in pasture; the
soil is a loam, overlying gravel and clay. An agricultural show is held in August. The corn-mill is
worked by steam.
There were formerly some minor industries such as
bobbin turning and nail making. (fn. 3) More recently
bricks and tiles have been manufactured.
Apart from the abbey there is little to relate of
the history of the place. The remarkable ancient
crosses have already been described. (fn. 4) Another cross,
on the bowling green, was destroyed in the first part
of the 17th century. (fn. 5)
One of the monks, William Haydock, was executed
at Whalley in 1537 in a field called Little Imps, for
his share in the Pilgrimage of Grace. (fn. 6)
The county lay of 1624, based on the old fifteenth,
required the chapelry to raise £3 3s. 9d. towards
each £100 levied upon the hundred. The townships contributed thus: Whalley, 10s. 7½d.; Mitton,
&c., 19s. 1½d.; Great and Little Pendleton, 14s. 10½d.;
Wiswell, 19s. 1½d. (fn. 7)
The Civil War was marked by a fight near Whalley
on the border of Read on 19 April 1643, when the
Earl of Derby marching towards Padiham was defeated
by the Parliamentary forces. By the latter, inferior
in numbers, an ambush was formed; the king's
troops, attacked unexpectedly at close quarters, fled
back to Whalley, where the earl himself made resistance for a time. At last, however, horse as well as
foot were driven over the Calder and the earl's design
was frustrated. (fn. 8)
The hearth tax return of 1666 quoted below shows
that Whalley was then a place of much greater relative
importance than in more recent times, though Clitheroe
with 198 hearths against 121 surpassed it. Two
halfpenny tokens were issued at Whalley in 1667–71.
Nonconformity found a leader in Thomas Jollie of
Wymondhouses, but the case of the Surey Demoniac
in 1689–90 did not altogether tend to its credit. A
certain Richard Dugdale of Surey near Whalley was
long subject to fits, which were attributed to possession
by an evil spirit. His parents, poor people, tried
various remedies, and one time took him to Henry
Crabtree, the curate of Todmorden, described as 'no
great scholar, a blunt but an honest man [who] served
a poor place for about £12 a year, which he augmented
by venturing to give physic to the country people';
he told the Dugdales a cure was possible if they
could pay for it. Then the Nonconformists of the
district held prayer meetings and exorcised the man
for about twelve months, when he was said to be cured.
The ministers chiefly concerned in these exercises
were Thomas Jollie and John Carrington, and the
latter, afterwards stationed at Lancaster, in 1697
published an injudicious narrative of the event (fn. 9)
tending very much to his own glorification. The
slight on the Church of England implied by the
alleged success of the Nonconformist ministrations
brought out a reply or examination by Zachary
Taylor, one of the king's preachers and curate-incharge of Wigan. This is a specimen of the worst
kind of controversy, that in which the writer, without any sincere conviction, tries merely to annoy his
opponents. Though his title, The Surey Impostor, (fn. 10)
and most of his argument urge that the fits were mere
tricks by Dugdale, he yet questions the cure, cites
Crabtree's statement that the man might have been
cured naturally and prints a certificate from a local
doctor that the man had been cured by medicine he
had given. (fn. 11) Several pamphlets were issued on both
sides. (fn. 12)
Afterwards the district appears to have had the
uneventful life of a retired country place, though
manufactures were introduced in Wiswell about the
end of the 18th century.
Manor
In 1066 the church had two ploughlands in WHALLEY, (fn. 13) and these seem to
have formed the later manor which with
the rectory passed to the monks of Stanlaw and
Whalley. (fn. 14) Peter de Chester,
as rector, obtained in 1284 a
grant of free warren in the
demesne lands of his church. (fn. 15)
After the confiscation of the
abbey's estates in 1537 the
Crown held the manor till
1553, when it was purchased
for £2,132 by Richard
Assheton, younger son of
Ralph Assheton of Great
Lever, and John Braddyll of
Brockhall in Billington. (fn. 16)
Whalley Abbey. Gules three whales hauriant with the heads of croziers issuant from their mouths or.
Richard Assheton, later in
the service of William Lord
Burghley, acquired great
wealth, and purchased also the manor of Downham
and other estates (fn. 17) ; on his death in 1579 without
issue, his property was divided among relatives, the
manor or moiety of Whalley being given to his
nephew Ralph Assheton of Great Lever, with remainder to Ralph his eldest son. The manor was
said to be held of the queen in chief by the fortieth
part of a knight's fee. (fn. 18) Ralph Assheton the elder
died in 1587 holding the 'manor or house and site,'
and was succeeded by his son Ralph. (fn. 19) This Ralph
died in 1616 holding Whalley
by the above tenure, and
leaving a son Ralph, (fn. 20) whc
was created a baronet in
1620, (fn. 21) and made Whalley
his principal residence, selling
Great Lever in 1629.
Assheton of Great Lever and Whalley, baronet. Argent a mullet sable pierced of the field, a canton . . . for difference.
In 1635 he had some
trouble with Archbishop Laud
concerning the lease of the
rectory, (fn. 22) and about the same
time the Star Chamber fined
him £300 for various acts
of adultery and incest. (fn. 23) Like
other members of the family
he took the Parliamentary side on the outbreak of
the Civil War, and was appointed a justice of the
peace and sequestrator by the Parliament. (fn. 24) He
died in October 1644 and was buried at Whalley.
His son Sir Ralph, born about 1605, was educated
at University College, Oxford, (fn. 25) and admitted to
Gray's Inn. He represented Clitheroe from 1640
till he was excluded from the House in 1648. (fn. 26) He
was a Parliamentarian like his father and appointed on
the committee of the county in 1645 (fn. 27) ; he was also
a member of the Presbyterian Classis in 1646. He
succeeded to Downham in 1657. At Whalley he
pulled down what remained of the abbey church and
tower in 1661–2. (fn. 28) He died in London in January
1679–80 and was buried at Downham. (fn. 29) His brother
Sir Edmund succeeded, and at his death in 1695
was followed by another brother, Sir John; he died
the following year, when the baronetcy became
extinct, and on a division of the estates the manor of
Whalley went to his nephew Sir Ralph Assheton of
Middleton, (fn. 30) son of his sister Anne, and descended
to the Curzon family, who alienated it. (fn. 31)
The Braddyll estate, or moiety of the manor, on
the death of John Braddyll in
September 1578, descended
to his son Edward, then aged
forty-four. (fn. 32) Edward Braddyll
acquired the Portfield estate, (fn. 33)
which became the chief residence of the family, and died
at Billington in 1607, leaving
a son John, aged fifty. (fn. 34) This
John died at Portfield in
1616, leaving a son of the
same name, aged twenty-five
or more. (fn. 35) In 1633 a
settlement of the manor of
Whalley and various lands
was made by John Braddyll and Margaret his wife. (fn. 36)
On the outbreak of the Civil War he took the
Parliament's side, (fn. 37) and his eldest son John at once
raised a company of 'stout men' who made a
name for themselves, (fn. 38) but their captain was killed
in July 1643 at the siege of Sir William Lister's
house at Thornton in Craven. (fn. 39) John Braddyll the
father survived till 1655, and was followed by his
son Thomas, who recorded a pedigree in 1664, (fn. 40)
and lived to see the Revolution, dying in 1706, aged
eighty-four. (fn. 41) His son John, who married Sarah
Dodding, the heiress of Conishead, lived at Ulverston,
and his descendants retained it till some fifty years ago.
The Whalley estate was sold by Wilson Gale Braddyll
to James Whalley of Clerk Hill. Thus in 1794 the
lords of the manor were Penn Assheton Curzon
and James Whalley. (fn. 42) No manor is now known.
Braddyll of Whalley. Argent a cross lozengy vert over all a bend gobony ermine and azure.
Abbey
The Cistercian 'Locus Benedictus de
Whalley' was founded in 1296, and none
of the buildings on its site are anterior
to that date. (fn. 43) Gregory de Northbury, Abbot of
Stanlaw, with twenty monks, on 4 April 1296 took
up his residence in the old parsonage pending the
building of the new abbey. The site of this parsonage is probably marked by the early 16th-century
building which was the abbot's lodging at the time
of the forfeiture in 1536, and became the residence
of the Assheton family.
The first stone of the buildings was laid on the
morrow of St. Barnabas (12 June), 1296, by Henry
de Lacy, and in 1306 'a great part' of the abbey and
the whole precinct were consecrated by Thomas Bishop
of Whithern. (fn. 44) The 'great part' did not include
the church, the frater or refectory, or the monks'
dorter, which were not yet begun. Probably it consisted of the north-west gateway, the marking out of
the precinct and the plotting of the cloister with its
surrounding buildings, and the crection of the lower
portion of the south wall of the church, the southern
end of the lower stage of the east range, with its
external stage, and the reredorter adjoining it.
In the succeeding decade it seems likely that a
temporary oratory was built, pending the completion
of the quire, for a magnum altare was consecrated by a
suffragan of Walter de Langton, Bishop of Lichfield,
who died in 1321, before the high altar of the church
could have been consecrated.
In 1319 the grant of a quarry from Adam de
Huddleton indicates building activity. In 1330
Abbot Robert de Topcliffe began the building of the
church, (fn. 45) and further grants of three quarries were
made to the abbey in 1334 and 1336. There are no
exact data as to the completion of the church, but it
would appear to have been finished about 1345. The
sacristy was probably built at the same time as the
south transept. The tiles in the quire discovered by
Whitaker in 1798 appear to have been of the latter
half of the 14th century, and John de Kuerdale was
buried in the new church in 1345. In 1339 a licence
was obtained to build and crenellate a stone precinct
wall. From 1339 to 1425 building operations around
the cloister were continuous. The frater and kitchens,
forming the south side, were followed late in the 14th
century by the chapter-house, adjoining the sacristy
on the south and another chamber to the south again,
completing the east side of the cloister. Next the
upper stage of this range, being the monks' dorter,
was completed from end to end. The 'new dorter,'
which was consecrated in 1425, may be either this
upper stage or the whole building of the west range,
commonly known now as the dormitory.
The Lady chapel was added to the church by
Paslew, the last abbot, between 1521 and 1536. He
also rebuilt the abbot's lodging about the same time.
The north-east gateway is of his time or a little
earlier.
Whalley Abbey: Dormitory.
The actual remains at present are small. The
church is all gone, except the south jamb of a window
at the west end of the south aisle, which abuts against
the west wall of the western range, a portion of about
half the length of the south wall of the church, and
of the south-west walls of the south transept. The
general lines of its plans were recovered by Whitaker.
The whole of the west range of the cloister is standing
and is still roofed. The lower portion of the frater
wall and the ground stage of the eastern range and
the reredorter are still above ground, as well as the
stair to the destroyed
dorter, between the
dorter ground stage
and the site of the
frater. The gatehouses are both standing, the north-west
gate-house are nearly, and
the north-east quite,
to the full height. The
abbot's, lodging, which
became the residence
of the Asshetons after
1536, is practically
intact in its north and
east portions. The
south and west sides,
which contained the
infirmary, and are
earlier than the lodging, are ruined, but
standing to some
height, and the northwest angle has been
added since the Dissolution. The abbey
mill, to the south-east
of the lodging, has been destroyed since 1818.
The destruction in 1536 was not so complete as
this. In 1661 and 1662 Sir Ralph Assheton pulled
down the 'old steeple and the walls adjoining,' the
'high cloister, walls, next the dove-cote' and the
'great window or door at the head of stairs in
the cloisters'—doubtless the dorter door.
The church consisted of a quire of three bays, with
north and south aisles, central tower, north and south
transepts, each with an eastern aisle of three bays
divided into chapels, and a nave and aisles of ten
bays. (fn. 46) The vaulting of the aisles was supported on
corbels, of which two remain on the north wall of the
west range. The west wall of the south transept also
shows the vaulting corbels, indicating that the transept
was vaulted in three bays, the vault resting on an
arcade on the east side of three arches opening to as
many chapels. The south wall of the transept has a
doorway to the sacristy. A night-stair descends in
the south-west angle of the transept from the dorter.
In the exterior of the west wall are two book-closets,
and a third in the exterior of the sacristy west wall,
which is continuous with that of the transept. Beside
it is a door from the cloister to the sacristy with
shallow continuous mouldings. The interior partitions of the range have disappeared. A wide doorway with a series of continuous hollow chamfers, of
which two are filled with flat flower ornaments, is
flanked by two pointed two-light windows with a
quatrefoil in the head, and shafted jambs. This doorway led to the chapter-house, or more probably to a
vestibule opening into the chapter-house, as in the
opposite (eastern) wall of the range is a corresponding
doorway, with a moulded rear arch and shafted
exterior jambs, which is contemporary with the
building. If this is so, however, all trace of
the chapter-house itself is lost. To the south of the
chapter-house group of door and windows on the
cloister side is another doorway, of the same height,
but narrower, moulded with three hollow chamfers,
which entered a room, probably the parlour, as there
seem to be traces of a fireplace on its south side. It
has a three-light window in the east wall, which
appears to replace an original doorway. In the walls
of the remainder of the ground stage are various openings not corresponding to one another in the two
walls. On the east side are four two-light windows,
and in the middle, backing against a buttress between
the second and third windows, was a fireplace; last,
to the south is a doorway opening to a dog-leg passage,
lighted on the north, south and east by loops, which
leads to the reredorter. In the south wall was a wide
three-light window, now converted into a door. The
south-west angle has right-angled buttresses, and there
are two more buttresses on the west wall, between the
angle and the south wall of the dorter-daystair, with
three two-light windows between them. All along
the interior of the east wall are plain corbels, at a
height to support an upper floor, just clearing the
heads of the chapter-house and parlour doors. In
the southern portion of the range another row of
corbels at a lower level perhaps indicates an original
intention to vault the ground stage, abandoned
as the work proceeded further northward. Above
the floor level of the upper stage are indications
of window openings, but the walls of this stage,
which stand to about one-third of their original
height, are so overgrown as to render reconstruction
impossible.
The door leading from the east end of the south
wall of the cloister to the dorter stairs, which are
now gone, is high and pointed with shafted jambs,
and has a moulded hood mould like that of all the
openings on the cloister side of the east range. Next
to it is a much smaller plain pointed doorway, probably that of the warming-house, which is, however,
wholly gone, though a small broken spur of wall just
to the west of it on the south side of the wall may
indicate its western, and the continuation of the south
wall of the dorter stair its southern limit. Again,
to the west of this doorway, in the south wall of the
cloister, which stands to about 10 ft. for its whole
length, is a wide segmental-headed recess with continuous mouldings, which was the lavatory. Nothing
remains of the frater, but if it followed the usual
Cistercian plan it ran southward from about the
middle of the south cloister wall. The doorway,
about two-thirds westward of the length of the wall,
would then be either a direct entrance to it, as at
Waverley, or may have opened to a lobby or
stair to an upper story, the latter being likely
if, as in other instances, a misericorde was placed
in the ground stage. At the western end of this side
is another doorway, which would lead to a kitchen
court, the kitchens being in the destroyed southern
portion of the west range, of which only two buttresses and two windows remain. The whole range
from this angle to the south wall of the church is
complete, and consists of a building of two stages
with seven buttresses on the west wall, having a
window between the southernmost pair in each stage,
a door with a window above between the next two,
and one window in each stage between each succeeding pair of buttresses, making thirteen windows and
a door in all on the west. All the windows are of
two trefoiled lights in segmental heads with hood
moulds, and all are now blocked up to the tracery,
the mullions being gone. The southernmost is converted into a door, and the fourth from the north is
quite gone, a large rectangular opening in the wall
occupying its position. The original door, which
formed the principal entrance to the cloister from
without, has a moulded two-centred arch and jambshafts. A roughly moulded plinth runs at the sill
level of the windows. On the cloister side are no
buttresses, but in the upper stage are, or were,
windows like those on the west. A door in the east
wall opposite that in the west indicates that this
portion formed a passage through the range. Another
door, opposite the second window from the north in
the west wall, suggests the position of a partition to the
south of it occupying about one-third of the ground
stage. The remainder was probably the cellarium,
or possibly the frater of the servants, there being
most likely no conversi. The upper stage was probably at this date the servants' dorter, or may have
been used for storage.
The 'Abbot's Lodging' is of two principal dates,
with 17th-century additions at the north-west. It
consists of a central court with north and east sides
consisting of the 16th-century building of Abbot
Paslew. The east and north sides are still occupied.
A modern bay window has been added to the north
end of the east part, but the rest retains its 16thcentury character, having a small four-centred doorway (which has a modern sash window over it), three
four-light square-headed windows in the lower stage,
and three large five-light square-headed windows in
the upper story, all with two transoms. Projecting
eastward at the southern end is a building of two
stages, which contained two chambers on each floor
communicating with one another and having traceried
windows of early 15th-century character. This
formed part of the old infirmary, and probably contained its chapel. The old south range is much
ruined and built over, but the portion abutting on
the south end of the present house contains one
large chamber and has several three-light windows in
square heads.
At the south-west angle a block known as the
'Abbot's Kitchen' projects over the watercourse.
In its interior west wall are a wide low recess and a
vice leading to a garderobe. In the south wall are
two three-light windows between buttresses, and in
the south end of the east wall is a doorway to the
open. The rest of the east wall is occupied by two
wide splayed recesses. A three-light window is in
the west wall, and to the north of it two small recesses
and a doorway to the open. North of this block is
the so-called 'long gallery,' which was partly repaired
by Sir Ralph Assheton in 1661, but has since been
again ruined at its south end and absorbed into the
house. It was the infirmary hall, and opened on to
its cloister by two doors on the east, and to the
south of each door was a large three-light window.
Opposite these in the thickness of the west wall is a
long recess about 2 ft. deep. A door in the south wall
leads to the kitchen. It seems likely that before the
destruction of the monastery this hall had been subdivided and put to other than its original use, or it
may be that the infirmary proper was in the upper
stage.
Whalley Abbey: North-West Gateway
Of the two gate-houses, that at the north-west is
of early 14th-century date. It stands east and west,
and is about 75 ft. long by 33 ft. wide. Its east
and west entrances are wide two-centred archways
with single-shafted jambs, and about one-third of the
length from the east end are the customary large and
small entrances, the former a segmental arch at the
north and the latter a pointed arch at the south side
of the passage. Both the larger and smaller portions
of the passage are vaulted, the former in five and the
latter in three bays, the ribs springing from moulded
corbels, and the wall ribs forming an acutely pointed
wall arcade. In the north and south walls of the
eastern portion are blocked pointed doorways. A
similar doorway in the north wall of the larger
portion is open. In the upper stage are three threelight windows on each side and similar windows at
the east and west ends. It is conceivable that this
important and well-lighted room may have served as
a capella extra portas. The windows at the sides all
retain their mullions and tracery, except the westernmost on the north side and the middle window on
the south. This tracery consists of three trefoiled
lights, the centre ogeed and the flanking lights
round, with two bowed quatrefoils and a true quatrefoil over in a two-centred head. The east window
is an elaborated version, on a larger scale, of the same
arrangement, but the west window is quite plain
and of one light. The upper stage was reached by
a stair from the blocked doorway in the north wall
of the ground stage leading to a doorway between
the two easternmost windows of the north wall
above.
The north-east gateway is of the 15th century,
and is of two stages, with angle buttresses. It stands
north and south, and has wide two-centred arches
with heavy jamb-shafts at each end, and has larger
and smaller entrances exactly midway. In the southwest corner of the inner portion is a vice to the
upper stage, which has a high embattled parapet
carried also round the heads of the diagonal buttresses. On the north face of the upper stage are
three niches, the central one canopied and lower
than the others and containing a later figure. It is
also flanked by two shields of arms.
CLERK HILL, the ancient Snelleshou, (fn. 47) was in
1553 sold by Assheton and Braddyll to John Crombock, (fn. 48) whose descendants retained it until 1699,
when it was sold to Thomas or James Whalley. (fn. 49)
The above-named James Whalley, who succeeded to
Clerk Hill in 1780, was one of his kinsmen, (fn. 50) and in
1797 took the additional names of Smythe Gardiner
on the death of an elder brother, whom he succeeded
as second baronet. (fn. 51) The estate was in 1871 sold by
the trustees of his grandson's only daughter to Solomon
Longworth and Richard Thompson (fn. 52) ; the trustees of
the former of these are the present owners. Lower
Clerk Hill was long the property of the Hammond
family. (fn. 53) John Hammond, LL.D., was baptized at
Whalley in 1542, became a civilian and master of
Chancery, and was one of the commissioners who
examined Edmund Campion and others under torture.
He died in 1589. (fn. 54) He was grandfather of the
celebrated Anglican theologian Dr. Henry Hammond
(1605–60).
Moreton (fn. 55) was formerly owned by the Nowells of
Read. (fn. 56) The estate is now owned by Mr. Henry
Wilson Worsley-Taylor, who resides there. (fn. 57) Moreton
Hall is a modern building in the Elizabethan style
erected in 1829 by John Taylor in place of an
older structure on a commanding site on the right
bank of the Calder. (fn. 58)
Asterley, (fn. 59) Parkhead (fn. 60) and some other estates in
the township occur in the records. (fn. 61)
The Subsidy Roll of 1626 gives the landowners as
Sir Ralph Assheton, John Braddyll, George Shuttleworth, Roger Kenyon and Richard Crombock, who
was in ward. There were thirteen non-communicants. (fn. 62)
A number of houses of fair size are shown by the
hearth tax list of 1666. Sir Ralph Assheton's house
had eighteen hearths, Richard Crombock's ten,
Thomas Braddyll's nine, and those of Richard
Haworth, Richard Horrobin, Margaret Shuttleworth
and Richard Waddington seven each; one house
had five hearths, two four and one three, the rest
being smaller. The total for the township was 121
hearths. (fn. 63)
The chief landowners in 1789 were P. A. Curzon,
James Whalley and Robert Isherwood. (fn. 64)
The parish church has been described above.
The Wesleyan Methodist chapel, first built about
1850, was rebuilt in 1872.
Thomas Dugdale had his barn in Whalley licensed
for Presbyterian meetings in 1689. (fn. 65)
Charities
Inquiries into the charities of
Whalley were made in 1826 and
1901. The report of the latter,
including a reprint of the earlier report, was issued
in 1903 so far as concerns the eight townships contributing to the repair of the parish church. The
educational endowments amount to £160 a year and
All Saints', Pendleton, has £182. Apart from these
the following are the only charities existing:—
For the eight townships a fund long accumulating
amounted to £441 by 1771, (fn. 66) when it was applied to
purchase land in Great Harwood. Part of the capital
was for the school, and other parts were intended for
apprenticing children of Whalley township and for
the purchase of blue cloth for the poor. The land
was sold in 1895 for £1,000. Thomas Braddyll in
1776 gave an annuity of £10 for apprenticing poor
children of Whalley township. These charities are
administered together. By a scheme of the Charity
Commissioners made in 1886 the apprenticing charities were added to the endowment of the grammar
school. For the general charities known as Chewe's
dole, &c., a capital of £477 consols remains, producing £13 2s. a year. Of this £1 4s. is distributed
in doles by the vicar as Kenyon's charity; £1 8s.
each is sent to Read and Wiswell, and is distributed
in doles of money or goods; and the remainder is
given to poor persons in the township of Whalley in
doles of cloth. The other five townships now
receive no share.
Sir Ralph Assheton of Downham in 1679 left
money to 'gratify two able and orthodox ministers'
who were to preach two sermons each at Whalley
and Downham, and a further sum for the poor of
the same places, particularly those who were 'constant comers to church.' This endowment is represented by a rent-charge of £8 on the Starkie estate in
Pendleton, £4 going to Whalley and £4 to Downham. At the former place £2 is paid to a special
preacher on 5 February and the rest in gifts of 5s. to
eight poor women.
Adam Cottam in 1835 gave land at the Grange in
Whalley and bequeathed about £1,800 for almshouses
for poor persons of Whalley township. Some additional gifts were made by Miss Isabella Riley (1855)
and George Haworth (1896), and the gross income
is £84 2s. There are six almshouses in one building,
each having living room and bedroom and a plot of
land. Women to occupy them are nominated by
the trustees, and each has 18s. a month and a small
coal allowance.
There was an old almshouse in Pendleton of
unknown origin. (fn. 67) The building fell into ruin before
1850 and the land is now unoccupied.