Lancashire

Windleshaw Chantry

Sep 23, 2021

buildings, religion

Isabella Strangeways, Lancashire, Mass, recusants, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool, Sir Thomas Gerard, St. Helens, Windleshaw Chantry

Windleshaw Chantry dates from about 1415 and is the oldest structure extant in St. Helens. (Now Merseyside, formerly Lancashire.) It is an unusual example of a detached chantry, not part of some other religious building. Locally, it is sometimes known as Windleshaw Abbey, though in fact it was never an abbey or even a priory.…
Sir John Dalton and the wealthy widow….

Apr 7, 2021

anniversaries, buildings, law, religion, sources

abduction, Aldworth, alice of norfolk, Baron Poynings, Beaumys Castle, Bipsham, Bungay, Constable of the Tower, Edmund Bacon, Edward III, edward montacute, Gerard Lord de l’Isle, Lancashire, Margery de Poynings, Maude Holland, murder, Nicholas Lord de la Beche, Prior of Burscough, Priors of Upholland, Scotland, Seneschal of Gascony, Sir John Dalton, Sir Robert Dalton, Thomas Aderne, Thomas of Brotherton, Wallingford

I have seen the above painting used an an illustration for the abduction of Guinevere. All that’s lacking are the fluffy kittens with pink satin bows. If it was really a medieval abduction, it wouldn’t be anything resembling this idyllic springtime scene, but much more likely to be as the illustration below! I’ve posted…
The Harringtons of Hornby Castle and the Stanleys

Jan 30, 2021

anniversaries, battles, buildings, genealogy, law, religion

Anne Conyers, Battle of Bosworth, Bishops of Durham, Catherine Parr, Cuthbert Tunstal Bishop of Durham, dispensations, Genealogics, Harringtons, heiresses, Hornby Castle, Lancashire, properties, queens consort, Ricardian, Richard Lord Lumley, Sir Richard Ratcliffe, Stanleys, Wakefield

Most people are aware of the story of the original Hornby Castle. Sir Thomas Harrington and John, his elder son, were killed fighting at Wakefield in the Yorkist cause. John Harrington left two daughters – Anne was five and Elizabeth four at the time – and the Stanleys, assuming them to be their grandfather’s heirs,…
Yet another C17 coincidence

Jan 25, 2021

anniversaries, battles, buildings, genealogy

Battle of Marston Moor, Battle of Nantwich, Battle of Preston, Battle of Whalley, coincidence, Colonel Ralph Assheton, English Civil War, James Earl of Stanley, Lancashire, Long Parliament, Members of Parliament, memorial brass, Middleton Church, namesakes, Parliamentary army, Richard Neville, Richard of Warwick, self-denying ordinance, Thomas Fairfax, Vice Constable of England

The English Civil War often looked like Round Two of the Wars of the Roses with, geographically, Yorkists morphing into Parliamentarians and Lancastrians becoming Royalists. One parliamentary commander was a Richard Neville and another bore the name of Ralph Assheton, as we shall show, descended from the Vice-Constable of the 1480s: Colonel Assheton, of Middleton,…
Old maps of Lancashire….

Dec 14, 2020

art, travel

Blackburn, Darwen, Greenwood brothers, John Speed, Lancashire, Lancashire County Council, Lancaster, Leyland, Ordnance Survey, Ormskirk, past maps, Preston, William Yates

It so happens that I am writing about the Holands, a noble family that originated in Lancashire and rose to prominence in the 14th and 15th centuries. The town of Upholland records their name. And what should come my way? A link to old maps of Lancashire! An extract from one of these maps is…
The castles of Lancashire….

Jul 4, 2020

buildings

Beeston Castle, castles, Cheshire, Chester Castle, Cholmondeley Castle, Clitheroe Castle, Dobroyd Castle, Greenhalgh Castle, Halton Castle, Hoghton Tower, Lancashire, Lancaster Castle, Mow Cop Castle, Peckforton Castle, Skipton Castle, Yorkshire

I have to admit that when I think of England’s many castles, I don’t always think of Lancashire. But this article names and features no fewer than twelve. So read and enjoy!
A Naughty Anchorite

Feb 27, 2020

buildings, religion

anchorites, Henry VI, Isolde de Heton, Lancashire, pregnancies, Whalley Abbey

Isolde de Heton, a widow, retired to a hermitage attached to Whalley Abbey with the intention of living as an anchorite. Henry VI appointed her to the position during 1437-38. Isolde, besides having a roof over her head, was to receive a weekly food allowance that included twenty-four loaves of bread and eight gallons of…
The historic Townleys of Burnley, Lancashire….

Nov 18, 2019

buildings, genealogy

Berwick, Lancashire, Richard III, Scottish campaign 1482, Towneleys

I have to confess that I had never heard of the Towneleys of Lancashire, so I came as some surprise to see them described as one of the most notable families in that county. I do have an interest in a particular Lancashire family, the Holands of Upholland. There is a connection with Richard III,…
Sweet, sweet revenge….! The White Rose forever….!

Oct 12, 2019

anniversaries, battles, humour, travel

Lancashire, Ludford Bridge, rescue services, Yorkshire

Not quite grossly humiliated over the back of a horse, but it’ll have to do. Much better if there’d been a very thorny white rose stuck in the van’s exhaust pipe. Ah, well….
A fleeting trick of the eye….

May 26, 2019

art, Science

bigamy, Dumfriesshire, Lancashire, Moffat, murder, NPG, portraits, Richard III, Ruxton murder case, secret marriage

Occasionally, an image glimpsed quickly on TV appears to be something it is not. This happened to me when I first saw the TV trailer for the series Catching History’s Criminals: the Forensics Story on the Yesterday channel. Being inured to the old, old propaganda that Richard III was the first criminal in all Creation,…