Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/439

 and included in the cemetery. The southerly stretch of this ancient ditch or fosse ran just within the railings, protecting the burial ground in front. When the existing walls were built round the yard great difficulty was met with in forming a good foundation over the site of the moat at different points, as it was found to be filled in with fragments of bricks, mortar, and general rubbish, which seems to indicate that it was abolished when the church itself was in course of reconstruction, and that the old building materials and debris were used for the purpose of raising it to the common level, indicating that the work must have been accomplished either at the rebuilding of 1749, or at some previous and unrecorded one. The moat would be crossed by a bridge of fair dimensions, which was probably situated on the west side, as the sexton lately discovered the well-preserved remains of a straight footpath, paved with long tiles, and running from the church for some distance towards the site of the moat in that direction; the path was between two and three feet below the surface of the ground.

The church was separated from the mother edifice of Kirkham, and had an independent district assigned to it in 1846. The incumbent has the title of vicar.

CURATES AND VICARS OF HAMBLETON. +- +- Date of   |                   |	   Cause of Vacancy. Institution.|                       | ++- About 1648. | Robert Cunningham. | Before 1662.| William Bullock. | About 1725. | William Whitehead, B.A.| In 1735. | John Field, B.A.      | Resignation of W. Whitehead. " 1765-86 | Mr. Parkinson.         | "  1796. | Thomas Butcher, B.A.  | " 1835.   | Mr. Howard.            | Death of T. Butcher. "  1836. | William Hough. | Resignation of Howard. ++-

An Independent chapel was erected by subscription a few years since, and schools subsequently added.

From the report of the Charity Commissioners, we learn that long before the commencement of the nineteenth century there was a school at Hambleton, but no attempt to elucidate more