Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/301

 The old parsonage stood on the same site as the present one, and consisted simply of two cottages united to form one small residence. In 1846 this house was pulled down, and another, elegant and commodious, erected in its place, being completed the following year. Attached to the parsonage are eleven acres of glebe land.

James Baines, of Poulton, by will dated 6th of January, 1717, devised unto John Hull and six others, of Marton, their heirs and assigns, the school-house lately erected by him in Marton, the land whereon it stood, a messuage or tenement in Warbreck, containing about six acres, a messuage or dwelling-house in Hardhorn-with-Newton, with the smithy and two shippons thereto belonging, and several closes of land in the same township, called the Sheep Field, the Croft, the Garden, being about three acres; also the Many Pits, the Debdale, the Cross Butts, the Wradle Meadow, and the field adjoining its north-west end, and the Carr, containing twelve and a half acres, to the intent that the rents arising from the foregoing should after the deduction of 10s. for an annual dinner to the trustees, be directed to the maintenance of a master to instruct the children of the township in the above-mentioned building. The revenue of the school was greatly impoverished for many years by the expenses of a chancery suit about 1850, which arose on the question whether the school should be continued as formerly or be divided, and part of its income be devoted to the establishment and support of a similar institution in the adjoining district of Little Marton. The whole of the funds were defrayed out of the funds of the charity. A scheme for its regulation was framed in 1863 by the Master of the Rolls, providing amongst other matters that the school should be open to Government inspection, but in no way interfering with its gratuitous character. The commissioner of 1869 reports:—"Sixty-three children were present on the day of my visit, of whom fifty-two were girls, who are taught in the same classes as the boys, and are with them in play hours. The school being free, no register of attendance is kept. In arithmetic, six boys (average age 11), and four girls (average age 10-1/2), did fair papers; the questions of course were simple ones. Grammar and geography, in which subjects I examined the highest class, were tolerably good. The girls read well; the boys (as usual) less so;