KIRKHAM
Chicheham, Dom. Bk.; Kirkeheim, 1196;
Kirkeham, c. 1200; Kirkam, 1260; Kirkham,
1271.
This township, which contains the church, is comparatively central for the main portion of the parish.
It has an area of 857 acres, (fn. 1) and the population in
1901 numbered 3,693. The surface is generally
level; the highest ground is in the centre and at the
west end—here 100 ft. above sea level is attained—
and it slopes away to the north and east, forming
a slight valley, through which the boundary brook
flows.
The principal road is that from Preston westwards;
along it the town is built, as it descends from the
Mill Hill on the east, rises, falls and rises again to
the Willows at the west. A road branches south to
Freckleton, from the old market square, and another
north to the church. Further west is the road leading
to the railway station in Wesham. The market cross
was demolished about a hundred years ago. (fn. 2)
The town had in 1825 manufactures of sail-cloth
and cordage, and also of fine and coarse linen;
and the cotton manufacture had been introduced. (fn. 3)
This last has continued to expand, and affords employment to the majority of the people.
The soil is boulder clay, sand and gravel, overlying
red marls.
The market has long been obsolete. (fn. 4) The dates
of the fairs have been changed from time to time;
there are now three cattle fairs—4–5 February,
28–9 April and 18–19 October.
The court-house and police station is in Freckleton
Street; the workhouse of the Fylde Union (1844) is
at the west end of the town.
Kirkham and the district were visited by the plague
in 1631. (fn. 5)
Halfpenny tokens were issued in 1670 and 1671
by Kirkham traders. (fn. 6)
In 1754 there was a 'chalybeate water called
Humphrey's Spa' to the north of the town. (fn. 7)
The cucking-stool was used at Kirkham. (fn. 8)
A football match used to be played in the streets on
Christmas Day in the afternoon. (fn. 9)
The printing press is said to have been in use in
the town about 1790. (fn. 10)
'The town hall or moot hall was destroyed by fire
some eighty years ago [c. 1810]; it formerly stood in
the market place. The ground floor was occupied by
shop-keepers, and part of the upper story was used as
a flax-dressing room, the remaining space being taken
up by the large room in which the town's business
was transacted. This room was approached from the
outside by a flight of stone steps.' (fn. 11) The urban
district council meets in Station Road.
Zachary Langton, third son of Cornelius Langton
of Kirkham, born 1698, and educated at the local
grammar school and at Magdalen Hall, Oxford,
acquired some reputation as a divine, publishing an
essay Concerning the Rational Human Soul. He died in
1786. Thomas Parkinson, likewise born at Kirkham
(1745) and educated there, became Fellow of Christ's
College, Cambridge, and Archdeacon of Huntingdon
and Leicester. He distinguished himself as a mathematician, and was elected F.R.S. in 1786. He died
in 1830. Philip, son of Humphrey Shuttleworth
vicar of Kirkham, was born in the town in 1782.
After education at Winchester he went to New College,
Oxford, becoming warden in 1822. This dignity
he held till he was made Bishop of Chichester in
1840. He wrote against the Tractarians. He died
in 1842. (fn. 12)
Manor
In 1066 KIRKHAM, like the whole
parish, was part of the fee of Earl Tostig;
it was assessed as four plough-lands. (fn. 13) This
probably included Wesham and other hamlets, Kirkham proper (fn. 14) —the later township—being no doubt
then or soon afterwards a rectory manor, held by
the clerks or others responsible for the church, (fn. 15) and
it always descended in the same way as the rectory,
the history of which has already been recorded. The
Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, leased
the manor to the Cliftons of Lytham, (fn. 16) but in 1871
the manor and part of the land were sold to Thomas
Langton Birley. (fn. 17) No courts are held.
Borough
Soon after receiving Kirkham the
Abbot and convent of Vale Royal in
1296 constituted a free borough there.
The burgesses were to have a gild, with gaol, pillory
and cuck-stool and other means of punishing malefactors, the assize of bread and ale, and other liberties
of a borough; their bailiffs were to be presented to
the abbot. Perquisites of the courts, stallage and
other dues were reserved to the abbey. (fn. 18) A charter
for a weekly market and a fair at Midsummer had been
granted to the town by Edward I in 1287. (fn. 19)
In 1599 the mayor and burgesses of Preston, in
virtue of their charters, which granted all the toll and
stallage of the wapentake of Amounderness, complained
that they had been defrauded of their dues by the
bailiffs of Kirkham. The bailiffs in reply quoted their
charters, and stated that the Abbot and convent of
Vale Royal had had, in addition to the Midsummer
fair, another fair at St. Luke's Feast (viz. 17–21
October), by prescription. (fn. 20)
'Formerly the fee-farmer convened annually a jury
of thirteen inhabitants who constituted a court leet
and met in June, when they nominated two bailiffs
for the borough, a constable for the borough, town
and township, with tax-layers, viewers of fish, flesh
and other provisions; scavengers, by-law men, affeerers,
swine-ringers, pinders or pounders, assizers of bread
and beer, and leather searchers. The lord himself
appointed a collector of tolls. The bailiffs and twelve
or more burgesses constituted a corporation.' (fn. 21) A
court of requests was granted in 1770, and used to
meet monthly for the recovery of small debts. (fn. 22)
A local board was appointed in 1852, (fn. 23) and this
was in 1894 transformed into an urban district council
of nine members. There was no school board. The
Fylde Rural District Council holds its meetings in the
town. Kirkham and the district around are supplied
with water by the Fylde Water Board; the gas
supply is in the hands of a private company, formed
in 1839. (fn. 24)
Kirkham occurs as a surname, (fn. 25) but in mediaeval
times there does not seem to have been any important
resident family. (fn. 26) The mill was held by the Cottams. (fn. 27)
Many of the neighbouring gentry had burgages or
lands in the town. (fn. 28)
William Walker, attorney, had his estate sequestered
by the Parliament for adhering to Charles I. (fn. 29) James
Lowde recorded a pedigree in 1664. (fn. 30) Thurstan
Whalley of Warton registered an estate at Kirkham
in 1717, being a 'Papist.' (fn. 31)
The parish church has been described above.
The Wesleyan Methodist church was built in
1844. (fn. 32) The Congregationalists' first chapel, Zion,
was built in 1810 and the next in 1818; the present
church replaced it about 1900. (fn. 33)
The Roman Catholic church of St. John the Evangelist, at the Willows, represents the old mission at
Mowbreck. This was transferred to Kirkham in
1809, when the chapel of Holy Cross, taken down
in 1883, was opened. The present church, designed
by Pugin, was consecrated in 1845. (fn. 34) There are
registers from 1775.