Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/405

 Hankinson, in 1760, two years before his death, two closes of land, with their appurtenances, in Freckleton, called Bannister Flatt and Freckleton Croft, containing by estimate 1-1/2 acres, and 12 beast-gates upon Freckleton Marsh, all of which they conveyed by indenture in four months to John Dannet, Thomas Langton, and William Shepherd, in trust for the educating, teaching, and instructing, free from all charge, of such young girls within the township of Kirkham, as they in their discretion should make choice of, to read, knit, and sew; and that they should for that purpose meet twice a year, on the 25th of December and the 24th of June, at Kirkham, to make choice of proper subjects, and keep a book, wherein should be entered the accounts of the receipts and disbursements. During the ten years which elapsed after 1760 additional benefactions were received amounting to £440. By indenture, dated 2nd of March, 1772, Joseph Brockholes and Constantia, his wife, conveyed to William Shepherd and Thomas Langton, trustees of the school, their heirs and assigns, for the sum of £425, two cottages, with appurtenances, in Freckleton, with a garden containing 36 perches; a parcel of ground in a meadow in Freckleton, called Birl Brick Meadow, embracing 30 perches; one cowgate in Freckleton Marsh; five closes in Freckleton, named the Two Baker Meadows, the Two Lamma Leaches, and the Bank, holding six acres of customary measurement. From 1772 to 1813 further donations (£130) were received. The trusteeship of the school appears to have descended in the Langton family, and was held by the late Thomas Langton Birley, esq., whose father, Thomas Birley, had married Anne, the daughter and co-heiress of John Langton, of Kirkham. Clothing, as well as education, is supplied gratuitously to the scholars, who usually amount to 40, or thereabouts. A new building for the purposes of the school was erected on a fresh site a few years ago, in place of the former one, which had stood since 1761.

The Roman Catholics, through the munificence of the Rev. Thomas Sherburne, built a magnificent church at the Willows in 1844-5. The edifice comprises a nave, side aisles, chancel, south porch, and an elegant spire, having an altitude of 110 feet. On the south side of the chancel is the lady chapel, and opposite to it that of the holy cross. The high altar is beautifully sculptured in Caen stone, and the reredos and tabernacle are covered with rich