|
The Township of Haydock
extends from St. Helens C.B. in the West to the
Urban
District of Golborne in
the East. At
distance of approximately three
and three
quarter miles.
It is bounded on
the North side by the Urban
District of Ashton-in-Makerfield
and
the
South side by the Urban District
of
Newton-le-Willows.
The district is without any
marked undulations of surface, the height
above
mean sea-level varying from 65 feet
at the bottom of West End Road to 200
feet at the top of Millfield
Lane.
The sub-soil consists of
clay and marl with occasional beds of sand.
Surface Water
gravitates via the various brooks and
streams in the district to Sankey
Brook.
The East Lancashire
Road from Liverpool to Manchester
passes through the district.
The famous Haydock Park
Racecourse is situate, in
the North East
corner of the
Urban
District,
in
a very natural setting.
There is a good deal of historical evidence that
Haydock has existed as a
community
for many centuries, the first reference being
to the Manor of Haydock
in the reign of
Edward 11. Baines' Book on Lancashire
gives an interesting
insight into the ancient history
of Haydock, is will
be seen from the following extract.
The Manor of HAYDOCK was held in moieties by
the families of Holland and Haydock. Of the latter. the first who occurs is
Hugh de Eydock, one of' the jurors on the Gascon Sutage for West
Derbyshire. one who held in drengage one carucate of
land of the ancient feofment. In Edward II., John de Langton, first
baron of Newton of that name, was lord paramount of Haydock. Sir Robert de
Holand who held under him appears to have been to temporarily deprived during
the commotions occasioned by the barons’ war under Thomas, earl of Lancashire.
It has already been mentioned that an attempt was made to recover his estate by
force. Gilbert. the descendant of Hughe de Eydock, held for the prior and
convent of Burscough, a variety of messuage and the land, among which was half
the town of Haydock, but the manors of West Derby, Lathom, and Haydok
to the same Gilbert, who Edward III (1344) had a license for imparking
Haydok, and for free warren in Bradele. From this feudal proprietor descended
Sir Gilbert de Haydock, whose daughter and heiress married Sir Peter Legh of
Lyme, from whom descended the present Lord of the Manor, W. J. Legh, Esq.
Henry, Duke of Exeter, married Anna, sister of Edward, Duke of York
(afterwards Edward IV). The Duke of Exeter had inherited those estates of the Holands of Holand, which descended in tail-male: amongst which was half of the
manor of Haydock, held under the baron of Newton.
This moiety of the manor
was of course forfeited, when the Duke was attainted of high
treason, in the
first parliament held by Edward IV. Tile moiety of this manor, with other
forfeited
properties, was re-granted to the Duchess of Exeter, and afterwards
entailed upon her
daughter by her second husband, Sir John Seyntleger, whom
she had married in the life-time
of the duke. This lady had no issue, and
amongst the estates resumed by the Crown in
Richard Ill (1483) were Holand's
half of Haydock and a bovate of land in Newton, called in the entries oil the
Rolls of Parliament “the manors of Haydock and Newton ". The other half of the
manor of Haydock descended from the Haydocks to the Leghs of Lynme, and was
never forfeited, as erroneously stated in the 1835 edition of this work.
The
ancient seats of Bruche and Peel Hall in this township have disappeared, and
of
the latter all that remains is the name of a field called "Peel Hall
Meadow." The Bruches
were seated here in the time of Henry VIll, but nothing
remains of the family mansion, and
little to mark its site, except the remnant
of a moat by which it was surrounded. Haydock
Lodge, though of considerable
antiquity, has lost its ancient character by modern
improvements.
Map of the district |
|
