Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/433

 priest, the Rev. Father Watts, renounced his creed, publicly recanting at Kirkham; he died in 1773, when minister at the episcopal chapel of Wrea-green. According to Mr. Thornber, the priests of Singleton could seldom assign a better reason for desiring a removal to another sphere of labour, than that they were surfeited with wild ducks from the "carrs." The chapel was rebuilt subsequently, but closed when the present one at Poulton had been completed and opened a few years.

Mains or Maynes Hall is situated in the manor of Little Singleton, and appears on ancient maps as Monk's Hall. The original Hall was built in the form of a quadrangle, the chapel being on the right and the kitchen on the left; the latter, taken down rather more than half a century ago, was roofed with tiles, about six inches square, piled thickly upon one another, and contained several secret recesses or hiding places, one of which was situated near the mantel-piece, and another, entered from the floor above by means of a ladder, showed manifest evidences of having been occupied. The present Hall is less antique in its construction and arrangements than its predecessor. In 1745 a party of Scotch rebels feasted there; and George IV., when Prince of Wales, is said to have been an occasional visitor at the mansion. The mantel-piece of the drawing-room was formerly adorned with a family painting of the Howards, dukes of Norfolk; and adjoining that spacious apartment is a small room, which appears to have been an oratory, containing relics of distinguished saints. The outside wall of the old chapel bears the date 1686, and within are a gilded altar in a state of dilapidation, a large picture of the 'Virgin and Infant,' a coat of arms, and various scraps of scriptural texts and ordinances of the church of Rome.

Cardinal Allen, of Rossall Hall, the brother-in-law of William Hesketh, who was living at Mains Hall at the opening of the seventeenth century, is said to have frequently secreted himself in the hiding places there, during the time he was engaged in endeavouring to alienate the loyalty of the catholics of this district, and induce them to assist the invasion of Philip of Spain, whose forces were expected to land at Peel in Morecambe Bay.

The Heskeths were the first tenants of Mains Hall of whom we have any notice, and the above William was the first of the family