A few facts about Bryn and Ashton-in-Makerfield
Ashton 1825
Baine's Lancashire for 1825 refers to Ashton as a large populous village. The poor are industrious and employers prosperous.
Listing include many occupations :- Tallow Chandler, cotton and fustian manufacturers, dyers, tax collectors and excise officer, boll turner machine maker,and an overseer of the poor
Three schools or academies are mentioned and there were four clergymen. Many well known Ashton Pubs are already in business in 1825. There were obviously thriving businesses.
Many family names still common in the area can be found in the list, but that of Crompton is absent.
It gives details of places near Ashton which is listed as Ashton-in-Mackerfield or otherwise Ashton in the Willows. In addition to the episcopal chapel there are here a Friends Meeting House, a Methodist Chapel and a Roman Catholic Chapel.
The Ashton I remember was quite different. The main source of employment being Cromptons in Gerard Street. The trolley buses were still running then and a daily occurrence was the trolley fittings coming adrift when the bus turned the corner from Warrington Road into Gerard Street. The shop window on the corner was very often smashed by a bus careering into it having come of the rails.
The Congregational Church was at the bottom of Gerard Street nearly opposite Princess Road. St Thomas' Church was in Warrington Road.
I lived in Bryn and believe this was called Bryn after Peter-de Brynne's daughter married into the Gerard family in about 1250. Bryn Cross as it was known had a few shops and quite a large Co-op with a butchers and drapery department. I think Rushtons took over the Drapery department later on.
St Peter's Church was in Bryn Road and St Peter's school which I attended as a child was in Downall Green Road.
BRYNNE HALL AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS taken from the "Wigan Examiner" 31st March 1908. The article is unsigned.
The scene of this narrative lies in the heart of sturdy Lancashire: not the Lancashire we know today of coal pits, factories, canals and railways but simply a countryside of farms and homesteads, with here and there set on the pinnacle of a hill, some ancestral hall and in the lowly valley sheltered by nature's shade some holy shrine.
Such was Brynne (Bryn) Hall in the early days of the fourteenth century when the lordly Gerrards of Brynne held sway in their domain. Little does one dream now in passing through this peaceful country of the noble deeds of chivalry done and the stirring events performed in this secluded spot in the days of old when every baron retained his power by the strength of his own right arm and was prepared to guard himself against all foes.
Men and women, holy and pious have dwelt in this fair land. Men and women whose deed of daring have echoed through the land. The Fitz Gerrards of Brynne who boasted an ancient ancestry going back to Alfred the Great. Little is known of them in these early days except in connection with an occasional feud with some of their neighbours. Their home and castle seems to have stood just in the bend of the road near Landgate Farm for the description given of it corresponds with this locality. Set in a mound, surrounded by a moat and protected by a drawbridge, this lordly pile defied the enemies of its lord and what made it more inaccesssible was the low swampy morass which surrounded the place.
Roby in his "Traditions of Lancashire" describes Brynne Hall - It was the seat of the Gerrards by virtue of marriage between William Gerrard about the year 1250 with the daughter and sole heiress of Peter de Brynne. It was built in a quadrangular form with a spacious courtyard to which admittance was gained by a narrow bridge over the moat. The gatehouse was secured by massive doors, well studded with iron and a curiously carved porch led to the great hall wherein the chimney piece were displayed the arms of England not later than James 1st. A railed gallery ran along one side in which a person might stand to observe entertainments below without mingling with them. It was supported by double pillars in front of the palasters forming arches between, profusely ornamented by rich carved work. Most of these decorations together with the carved wainscots were taken to embellish Garswood Hall where the family resided after their removal. In the windows were some armorial bearings of painted glass, the first quarterings beginning with Leghe of Lyme instead of Gerrard of Brynne as might be supposed. After being in state for many years in this old home and the times becoming more peaceful we next find the Gerrards in their new home, near Brynne near to the old Roman Road which passed close to the present Brynne Hall Colliery.
Nearer to the second Brynne Hall, a chapel and shrine was erected and dedicated to St.Oswald the patron saint of the Gerrard family.
The writer of the article goes on to say that there were several old halls on the Roman Road and names them as Ince, Brynne, Bamfurlong, Abram, Lowe, Lishaw, Byrom and Mossey Old Hall, eight papist houses all in a row.
The article then goes on to tell the story of St. Edmund Arrowsmith which is a story well known in Ashton and people visit St.Oswalds Church to see the hand of Sir Edmund Arrowsmith - but that is another story.