Woodplumpton, ENG - Postcode - PR4 0LE

Description of Woodplumpton

Located around 5 miles (8 km) to the north of Preston, Woodplumpton is a village and civil parish in the City of Preston in Lancashire, England. In 1901, there were 1,208 people living in the parish, which encompassed 4,970.5 acres.  With a population of 2,051 in the 2001 census and 2,154 in the 2011 count, it has grown steadily since then.

It lies on the Fylde, a level plain that separates the Forest of Bowland from the coast of Lancashire. There is a church, a pub called the Wheatsheaf, and an elementary school in the little town. There is a deep connection between the church and this school because it is Church of England.

History of Woodplumpton

Originally named Plunton, Woodplumpton has been there for a long time. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book back in 1086.

In 1336, it was renamed 'Wode' Plumpton to differentiate it from the Plumpton near Kirkham, which had by then become Field Plumpton and was eventually renamed Great Plumpton. By 1256, it was simply known as Plumpton. Woodplumpton Manor was a real place. Even when it was a thriving community, Woodplumpton was only a part of the massive St. Michael's-on-Wyre parish that included anywhere from northern Stalmine and Pilling to southern Woodplumpton. However, Woodplumpton was a sizable town that included the neighborhoods of (Wood) Plumpton, Bartle, Catforth, and Eaves. Edward III's 1332 Exchequer Lay Subsidy returns show that Woodplumpton, with its rateable population of 18, was the most prosperous township in St. Michael's parish, followed by Great Eccleston, Inskip with Sowerby, and Elswick. According to the land and goods tax taken in 1523, the richest landowner was John Boteler of Out Rawcliffe, followed by William Ambrose and John Newsom of Woodplumpton.

A township's Lord of the Manor was often its largest landowner. In 1066, Earl Tostig owned five ploughlands at Woodplumpton, making it his manor. The lordship has been held continuously since 1066. In 1206, Robert de Stockport was Lord, the year he passed away. Before John Warren of Poynton (died 1386), the Stockport family held the lordship. Prior to Viscount Bulkeley's marriage into the Warren family in 1777, the lordship had been held by the Warrens. Lord de Tabley was established for Sir John Fleming-Leicester in 1822, and the title later descended to his son and grandson, Charles Birley of Bartle Hall (d.1891), who both had the name "Birley." (The manorial succession is chronicled in detail in Victorian County History, Volume VII, Lancashire.)

Although they were both prominent in Cheshire, the Stockports and the Warrens showed little interest in Lancashire and hence presumably never lived in Woodplumpton. A steward would have lived with them to look after their needs.

The baptisms of Kathleen Warren, daughter of Sir Edward Warren, in 1605, and John Warren, son of John Warren Esquire, in 1606, are, nevertheless, recorded in the Parish Registers of Woodplumpton Church (son of the Sir Edward). The death of Sir Edward Warren, Knight and Baron of Stockport, is also documented in the register, which occurred in 1609 in Poynton. They must have visited Woodplumpton at some point during that time.

The first edition Ordnance Survey Map, surveyed in 1844 and published in 1847, depicts the location of a manor house in Woodplumpton known as Woodplumpton Hall. It stood at what is now called the western terminus of contemporary route The Orchard. The cobblestone path that is still visible today most likely led to the Hall. House, barn, garden, fold, and orchard were all on the property in 1838. When we first started working together in 1851, the connected farm included a total area of 190 acres.

It was held by the Reverend Thomas Jackson Calvert, Warden of Manchester, from 1823 until 1840, but William and Ann Jackson lived there. Ann stayed after William's death in 1825 until her own death in 1859. No one can say for sure when the ancient Hall was constructed or demolished, but a barn stood on the site until recently. However, Woodplumpton Hall is shown as the structure opposite the Church on the 1890–25 Ordnance Survey Map (previously Woodplumpton Hall Farm).

The Shirebuerns (of Stoneyhurst) purchased Catforth, the Ambroses (of Ambrose Hall) constructed Chingle Hall, and the Singletons (of Chingle Hall) also obtained freehold land in the region between the 14th and 15th centuries. Gilbert of Morhalle (Moor Hall) and Richard Newsam were both 1332 ratepayers (Newsham).

Hollowforth Hall, Crow Hall, Midge Hall, Bartle Hall, and Swillbrook House are only few of the notable halls that were constructed in Woodplumpton as a result of the increasing prosperity of the town's yeomen farmers during the next decades. In 1650, the Ambrose family moved out of their manor, and it wasn't restored until 1871. The existing halls date back to the 18th or 19th century and are essentially enormous farmhouses.

The church sits on a hilltop with a spectacular view of the Woodplumpton Brook valley to the south and west. It is unknown how long a church has been in existence. Evidence of a Norman structure was discovered during the vestry's extension in 1900. During the twelfth century, Richard, the founder of Lytham Priory, owned the Manor and, as a devout man, may have built a Manor Chapel there. According to one historian, the Manor of Woodplumpton possessed the privilege of patronage of the church of the said Manor in a document from the fourteenth century. Based on its design, we may estimate that the earliest section of this church was built about the year 1400. The first written record of the current church dates back to 1552, when a Royal Commission made a thorough inventory of the altar and its fittings. From 1552 onward, the church was led by a curate selected by the vicar of St. Michael's-on-Wyre, the mother church. There is a plaque on the north wall of the church listing the incumbents since that time.