Leyland’s Charity represents the sum of £60 left by Elizabeth Leyland to trustees, in 1734, in order that it might be laid out, and the annual revenue therefrom devoted to the assistance of the poor, either in relieving the elderly, or providing instruction for the young.
St. Annes-on-the-Sea. The locality in which the new watering-place is rapidly developing was indicated in the foundation charter of the Lytham Benedictine Cell as Kilgrimol. It has been suggested that the peculiar orthography of the word Kilgrimol points to there having been at some era a religious settlement, presided over by Culdees, the priests of Columba,[214] but it is more probable that the name is derived from the two British words kilgury, a corner, and mul or meol, a sand-hill. At a later epoch the district was known as Cross or Churchyard Slack, and tradition records that an oratory existed there until such time as it was swallowed up by an earthquake, long years ago. Mr. Thornber, in discussing the statement, advances the following fact as some evidence in favour of its veracity:—“Churchyard Slack is situated in a hollow, having on the north side a rising ground called Stony-hill, and at the distance of three-quarters of a mile a similar elevation, though not so marked. On these ridges are found innumerable small boulders of grey granite, having apparently been acted upon by fire; but it is particularly remarkable that not one can be found amongst them entirely whole. Similar stones in less quantities are discovered in the intervening space, all more or less broken.”
On the immediate outskirts of the embryo town is the small hamlet of Heyhouses, at which a school was established in 1821, and enlarged in 1853; and it was there that Lady Eleanor Cecily Clifton erected a church, in memory of the late James Fair, esq., of Lytham, on a site presented by her husband, the lord of the manor. The foundation stone of the edifice was laid in June, 1872, and on Wednesday, the 6th of August, in the ensuing year, the church and burial ground, occupying jointly 2½ acres, were consecrated by the Lord Bishop of Manchester. The interior contains accommodation for 300 persons, 145 seats being appropriated, and 155 free. The roof is of red tiles instead of slates. The building is at present a chapel of ease to St. Cuthbert’s, Lytham, but will, when occasion requires, have a separate ecclesiastical parish of its own.
The whole of the land of St. Annes-on-the-Sea was leased to a company of gentlemen for a term of 1,100 years by John Talbot Clifton, esq., and on the 31st of March, 1875, the formality of laying the first stone of the future watering-place was gone through by Master John T. Clifton, the eldest son of T. H. Clifton, esq., M.P. The ceremony was accomplished amidst a large concourse of people, and was in fact the commencement of the handsome and commodious hotel near to the railway station, which has since been completed. The estate has been judiciously and tastefully arranged by Messrs. Maxwell and Tuke, architects, of Bury, and is intersected by broad streets with gentle curves. The houses are intended to be built either singly or in pairs with few exceptions, but in no case will any group comprise more than six; gardens in each instance are to front the dwellings. A promenade, 3,000 feet in length and 180 feet in width, has been formed with asphalt along the marine aspect, and already between twenty and thirty villas have been raised on the sides of the recently made thoroughfares. A public garden with conservatories is also in course of formation, as well as efficient gas-works and other requisites.
CHAPTER XV.
PARISH OF ST. MICHAEL’S-ON-WYRE.
Upper Rawcliffe-with-Tarnacre.
