Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/480

 Great Eccleston, Elswick, and Little Eccleston-with-Larbrick townships were, in 1849, constituted a separate ecclesiastical district, known as the parish of Copp, of which this chapel is the parochial church. There is a vicarage house.

CURATES AND VICARS OF COPP. -++- Date of     |                   | Cause of Vacancy. Institution. |                       | -++- Before 1775. | Christopher Swainson, | |  B.A.                 | |                       |   "   1841. | Reginald Sharpe.       |             |                        |   In  1841. | Thomas Hathornthwaite, | Resignation of             |   L.L.D.               |   R. Sharpe.             |                        |   "   1864. | William C. Dowding,   | Resignation of             |   M.A.                 |   T. Hathornthwaite. |                       |   "   1870. | William Bateson, M.A.  | Resignation of             |                        |   William C.Dowding. -++-

A new Catholic chapel was completed in 1835, and superseded one of considerable age. Three fairs are held each year on March 14th, April 14th, and November 4th, for cattle.

The origin of the free school at Copp has not been discovered, but the earliest endowment to be found dates from 1719, when William Fyld, yeoman, of Great Eccleston, left the remainder of his personal estate, amounting to about £250, to be invested in trustees, and the interest to be paid yearly "for a Master to teach Poor Children here, or in some other part of the township." By his will, dated 1st of April, 1748, William Gaulter bequeathed £242 14s. to certain trustees to augment the stipend of the master of this school, and directed that in case the educational establishment should ever be abandoned, or the terms of the will not be observed, the annual income derived from his bequest should be distributed amongst the poor inhabitants of the neighbourhood. In 1866 the school was temporarily closed, whilst the charity was under the revision of the Charity Commissioners; and in 1871 a new and more commodious building was erected. There is also another school in this township, called Lane Head school, held in a building erected by subscription on the site of the original one, which had collapsed through age. The only endowment is a rent charge of £5 supposed to have been left by Thomas Clitherall.