History built on a hill

A HISTORIAN friend of mine once said: :If you want to follow the history of Preston, go to Penwortham."

There is a lot of truth in what he said, because Penwortham is set on top of a rock high above an ancient ford over the River Ribble.

The name derives from Pen, meaning a hill; weid, meaning a ford, and ham, meaning a settlement. There was certainly a Saxon castle on the hill and before 1066 the lands belonged to King Edward the Confessor.

William the Conqueror gave all the land between the Mersey and the Furness district to his relative Roger de Poicteau, who fought bravely at Hastings. A Norman castle was constructed on the site and, although it dominated the river crossing, it was never very large.

You can still see the castle mound (the motte) between the church and the Ribble. All traces of the courtyard (the bailey) have gone, but there is still a haunting feel to this site.

Roger gave some of this area to the Benedictine Abbey at Evesham and they built a small so-called "daughter" abbey at Penwortham. Building began in 1075 and it continued to function until it was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1535.

The king sold the priory and its lands to the Fleetwood family for the then-huge sum of £3,088. The Fleetwoods built a grand house based on the priory and what a pity it is that this was demolished in the 1920s and houses were built on the site. I have often wondered if there is a photograph of this dwelling. The church of St Mary still stands and there has been a building on this site since AD 644 but the present one is mainly 15th century, although the chancel was built in the previous century.

From St Mary's I followed the church path and looked up to the old castle mound to the right. Horse chestnut trees were dominant and almost covered the site, while the red berries of the little plant Lords and Ladies were also in evidence.

The old name for Lords and Ladies was Starch wort.

The roots of the plant were dried in ovens and crushed to produce starch to stiffen clothes, especially for the ruffs in Elizabethan times.

Beyond the Motte I soon found the river.

Although the course of the Ribble has been altered several times, especially when Preston Docks were built in 1892, you can still see the line of the old ford.

These days you can see Preston laid out in front of you.

It is easy to see the value of Penwortham when Edward was Confessing, the monks were meandering and when the docks were busy.

Places such as this are the yarn from which Lancashire's history has been spun.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.