“3.—That every pair of equal weight are separated, and fight against others; provided it appears that the main can be enlarged by adding thereto.”
Skippool was one of the favourite resorts for the gentry of our district when wishful to indulge in their favourite amusement, and frequent allusions to the cockpit there are to be found in the journal of Thomas Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, as—“June 9, 1714, ... thence to Skipall, where at a cockin I meet with a deal of gentlemen. Gave Ned M⸺y 1s. for his expenses; spent 1s., and won 2s. 6d. of Dr. Hesketh’s cockes.” In 1790 a notice appeared in Liverpool that “The great main of cocks between John Clifton, Esq., of Lytham, and Thomas Townley Parker, Esq., of Cuerden, would be fought on Easter Monday, the 5th of April, and the three following days, at the new cockpit in Cockspur Street—to show forty-one cocks each. Ten guineas each battle, and two hundred guineas the main.” The great-grandfather of the present Lord Derby compelled each of his tenants to maintain a game-cock for his benefit, and many were the birds supplied from the Fylde to uphold his great reputation as a successful cock-fighter.
One of the most ancient punishments amongst our forefathers was that of the Brank or Scolds’ Bridle, a specimen of which was possessed by Kirkham, and doubtless many others existed in the Fylde. This instrument was but little removed in severity from those implements of torture in vogue at the time of the Inquisition, but differed from them in one important particular—it was intended to control or silence, and not to stimulate, the tongue of its victim. The Brank consisted of an iron framework, which was fitted on to the head of the offender, usually some woman whose intemperate language had incensed her husband; and a metal spike, attached to the front of it, was so inserted into the mouth that the slightest movement of the tongue brought that sensitive organ in contact with its sharp edge or point. Doctor Plott, who appears to have held the Brank in high estimation, and to have considered it greatly superior to another mode of correction, much in fashion during his day, says:—“This artifice is much to be preferred to the ducking-stool, which not only endangers the health of the party, but gives liberty of tongue betwixt every dip.”
The Ducking-stool or Cuck-stool consisted of a substantial chair, fastened to the extremity of a long pole, and suspended over a pool of water. The middle of the pole rested on an upright post near the edge of the pond, and was attached to it by means of a pivot-hinge, so that the chair could be swung round to the side to receive its victim, and, after being freighted and restored to its original position, plunged into the water by raising the other end of the shaft as often as those on the bank deemed it necessary to cool the anger of the unfortunate scold. Several pools in different parts of the Fylde still retain their names of Cucking-ponds, and the last person condemned to suffer the barbarous punishment was a young woman at Poulton, but she was happily rescued by the kindly intervention of Madam Hornby, who became surety for her good conduct in future.
In the belfry of Bispham church there formerly stood a plain-looking wooden frame, which in earlier times had done duty as a pennance-stool, but some years since the chair was removed, and probably destroyed, as no trace of its existence has since been discovered. The last to perform pennance in this church and sit upon the stool was a woman, who seems to have been living as recently as 1836. A public pennance was exacted by the Church from all frail maidens, who desired to obtain pardon for the sins into which they had fallen. The ceremony consisted of parading the aisles of the parish church with a candle in each hand, barefooted, and clothed in white. Jane Breckal, of Poulton, was the last to undergo the ceremony at that place, some time during the ministry of the Rev. Thos. Turner, 1770 to 1810. The sobs and cries of the unfortunate girl aroused the indignation of the inhabitants against the pennance, and the cruel and degrading exhibition was never repeated.
Riding Stang was another plan of punishment formerly inflicted on quarrelsome or adulterous persons, and a woman named Idle, of Great Layton, is mentioned as being the last of its victims in that locality, and very likely in the whole of the Fylde. There seem to have been two ways adopted of Riding Stang, one of which was to mount the offending party or parties on a ladder, supported at each end on the shoulders of one or sometimes two men, and carry them about the neighbourhood for several hours, accompanied by a band of men and boys beating tin kettles, frying-pans, etc.; the other mode, and perhaps the more antique one, was to place a youth astride a ladder, borne as in the previous case, and arm him with a hand-bell, so that he was fully equipped to undertake the duties of town crier. A procession was then formed, and, amidst the discordant sounds of the instruments just alluded to, paraded through the streets of the village, whilst the crier, who usually did his part with great gusto, shouted out the following doggrel rhymes, varying some portions of them when occasion required:—
“Ran a dan, ran a dan, dan, dan,
But for ... has been banging his good dame.
He banged her, he banged her, he banged her, indeed,
He banged her, poor woman, before she stood need;