Oldest Building in Accy
 

Anyone know what is the oldest habitable building in Accy?

Phil

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

St James Church?

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

High Riley Cottages, up sandy Lane, the next one is Higher Hey.

the next oldest buildings are at the bottom of Warner St, just before the Warner Arms, after that its the rest of Warner St and Oak St, Abbey St, most of the buildings there, are around 1810-1820, the Red Lion was the first, built by Jacob Lang, who had previously owned a pub in Grange Lane called the Red Lion. In the 1841 census it shows Jacob Lang in the Red Lion, but that was his son.

St James Church is not a habitable building, cold, damp and drafty.

Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Where is St James Church? Accy or Church Kirk.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

There are 3, St James Church Accy, St James Church Altham and St James Church Church Kirk, Church, which is really St James Church, Church, Church, Church.

Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Brill thanks for the reply.....what age would High Riley cottages and Higher Hey be then?

Phil

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Have you been on the bevie......bit dangerous at your age?

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Without looking in my records 1640 ish, High Riley Cottages are the oldest by about 5 years, there is a date stone in one of the cottages.

Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Don't drink intoxicating liquids, first and last time I was in a pub, it was on fire, and I did'nt rush to get there, hoping it would burn down.

Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Well, I don't know about buildings but there are a few old fossils knocking about Accy still, and there's a lot of um on here, including Me:D

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Cheeky beggar, who you calling an old fossil.

Retlaw :tongueout

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Weren't singling anybody out Walter, only miself:D

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Still no wiser?

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

where are these cottages? I know sandy lane but how far up are we talking about?
Posted via Mobile Device

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Kirk means church, therefore St James Church, Church Kirk,( or Church Church), in Church.
Get it now? :)

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

OK Smart Arse....I fully understand the word Kirk and the meaning in Retlaws post.
Let''s put this in different context...what is the oldest building in the Accrington Area as it used to be....Accy Church and Ossy?

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Soz, seemed that was the bit you were refering to...:), and hence why you asked if hed been on the bevy!! :D

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

would have guessed the "Stag" at church, obviously wrong.:D

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

local knowledge says it the two cottages on whalley road just down from the oakleigh.[the proper spellin]:D

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Try Plowthalge. Tudor Mansion.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

When I lived in Belthorn the deeds of my cottage were dated 1812 but they had been drawn up for an 'existing dwelling' so the build date is not known.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

never was to hot at geography, but is belthorn accy n district?:hehetable

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

High Riley, next but one after New barn farm, try google earth and follow Sandy Lane or just type in the address.

Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Your lucky Margaret, in those days deeds usually refered to land, buildings were'nt reckoned to be of much value, there are some old cottages near me, there are visible three different building lines, you can see where others have been added, they were built circa 1820, not one of them has a deed earlier than 1840.
Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

It was classed as part of Greater Accrington, in WW1, thats why men from that area are in my WW1 files.

Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

The boundary is the road through the village - I lived on the Hyndburn side

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

What about that farm in Clayton ... off the end of Rishton Rd. ... Think it is called Ringstonhalgh, or something like that ... farmed by the Swales when I was a kid (no jokes please, we are all getting older) ... and those cottages near Bayley St. Stone Row I think.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

:gooddog: ya learn summat new every day, ta fer that folks.:)

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

There hasbeen that many changes to the boundries that would it not be wise to say that they should be in a set distance of the market or old town gate?

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Always got told the oldest building in "Church" was the farm on your left when you go over the canal bridge at the end of St James Rd, don't know how true it is though

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

still think its the cottages or the church in the town centre:confused:

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

The farm may also be referred to as Ponthalgh, Plowtalgh, Powtehalgh, and later Park Farm. This homestead is mainly associated with the Rishton family who occupied the homestead from the 15th to 17th century. The Rishtons finally left Ponthalgh for Preston, as a result of supporting the King during the English Civil War. In 1659 Ponthalgh was sold to the Walmesley's.

I lived at Park Farm in the 1950s.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Accy...He asked oldest building in accy so i told him:D

parts of which hail from the 16th Century!

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Sorry Panther, but St James Church is not 16th century.
There is a sign on the Cannon St side showing when it was built,
its wrong by two years, quite a lot of it was rebuilt during the 1800's, and the roof was lowered as well.

Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

2 years:eek:!!

Well i was nearly right;)

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Yeah by 2 centuries not 2 years :D

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Eup Panther.
Mind if I give you a little lesson, 16th century means 1500's, not 1600's,
St James Church Accrington is 17th century.
St James Church, Church Kirk, is sometimes refered to as being the site of a Kirk since the 12th century, I doubt the present building is anywhere near that old. When I indexed the parish records for Church Kirk the 1st one was dated 6-4-1600.
When you look at the grave yard, and know how many people were buried there in the past 400 years, its a wonder the grave yard is not six feet higher than it is.
Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Why do you choose to ignore this Retlaw......Have I offended you?

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Not in the slightest, but the question was "oldest building in Accrington", which I answered, High Riley Cottages Sandy Lane, Accrington.

Don't know much about the history of Church or Rishton.

Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Accrington was built around Oakhill Park. So I'm guessing maybe around that area.
But St. James Church in Accy has grave stones nearly 300 years old.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Accrington was built around Oakhill Park.
Eh, who told you that fairy tale.

Accrington before 1878 was two separate hamlets,
one was centered around the Bull Bridge area, with Union St being the main street. The other known as New Accrington was centered around where Church St, Cannon St, Oak St and Black Abbey St meet. The fact that they were called Old & New Accrington, has nothing to do with their ages.
Its related to copyhold rights.

I have a list somewhere of all the residents of both
hamlets in 1660.

Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Wow...i'd love to see that Retlaw.....is there any chance that you could put the list on here?...would be very interesting to see those names!


Best Regards - Taggy

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

I don't think its possible, all my work on Accrington's History, and the WW1 files are on another computer which runs under DOS 6 the files are in Wordstar 6, that computer has never been connected to the internet, and never will be.

The list of names runs to 28 A4 pages of
information.

And before you join the others who have critisised me for working in such an old system, I like WS6, I've never seen or used a wordprocessor that will maintain my files as I like them, and no dammed mouse either, fingers only, fonts, line spacing and other commands, on the page where you can see them, not in some scratty little box at the top, which you hope is the same font you started with.
There are 100's of us all over the world who still use WS6 or WS7.

Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Oh thats a shame Retlaw, i wouldn't dream of critisizing your system....i'm a chap who still prefers Pen and Ink, over emails!!

Best Regards - Taggy

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

What sort of optical media is there in that computer ? Get the file on a floppy and then run a conversion program such as the ones found here WordStar for DOS - Downloads ABit.

As for word processing have you ever tried LaTeX ? That gives you proffessional type setting with only a very moderate learning curve.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Hi Sam
Now why should I bother trying to convert my files to another format, I've been using WS6 ever since it came out some 20 or more years ago, the keyboard is set up for WS6, my fingers are programed for WS6.
If I wanted pain and aggro I could talk to the wife.
:theband::theband:
Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

To share the information you've collated with the world :) Don't get me wrong I'm sure it is a great program however you listed two drawbacks(files stuck on one machine, having to use a different computer to perform word processing that you are happy with) of using it and I was simply trying to suggest a way around those drawbacks to improve your overall functionality, please don't think I am claiming new==better, the program I use most nowadays is vim which was created only one year after I was born and that version was adapted from vi which dates back to '76.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Hi Sam.
To share the information you've collated with the world
Am I right in thinking your suggesting a web site, to share it with the world. Why? should I go to the expense of creating and maintaing a web site, what would I gain from that, apart from a lot of aggro, and another workload on top of what I already have.

Retlaw

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Wasn't anything as high maintainance as that pal, was just thinking stick the file on a floppy, convert it to plain text and you could send it to those who were interested, who themselves could do what they wanted with it. Another option would be to upload it to wikipedia or something similar.

You are right that you would gain nothing, other than saving others going through the trouble you will have done to collate the information.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

High Riley Cottages
Old Homesteads of Accrington states;
High Riley rebuilt four times. earliest 1628
Accrington Silver Jubilee publication states
Oldest building in town erected 1628

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

The building has a date stone on it 1628, which is accepted as fact, but where did Ainsworth get the info that it had been rebuilt four times.
There is nothing in the Public Record Offices at Preston, or Kew to support Ainsworth, no one has been able to find evidence of much of what he wrote in that old homesteads.
Many others have tried to verify his tripe and also come up blank.
The book makes a good read for some, as do books written by Ray Bradbury.

Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

The next oldest building, Higher Hey.
Picture of date stone attached.
Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Retlaw, it appears that you have a treasure house of invaluable research and material.If you don't make it more accessible it could one day be lost forever to those who would value all your work.If nothing else,what about a copy for Accrington Library?

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

I've donated lots of articles and photographs to Accrington Library over the years, the librarian kept them in folders, she has since retired. Just go in the library to the reference room, and ask them to look up on computer all things in my name.

Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Bit of an odd datestone, that...5 sets of initials all with an 'H'. One family? And the year - 1688 - The Glorious Revolution. It's a bit of an enigma...should you wish to make it one.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Nowt odd, the present owner of the property, I was talking to him about a month ago, has already reseached the family.
1688 had nowt to do with the revolution.
James II was on the throne then, the revolution ended in 1660 when Charles II came back on the throne.

Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Err...Time to get your history book out, Retlaw. 1688 = The Glorious Revolution.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Your on about King Billy & his wife Mary, it were no revolution here, but in Ireland it was another matter altogether.
I was refering to Cromwell incident.
Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Oh Dear....so we have to scrap every history book since 1689 and tell parliament that they must no longer refer to the events of 1688 as The Glorious revolution?

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Right at the top near where sandy lane meets the by-pass. I think a tower of some sorts has been built onto the cottages...you can see it from the by-pass.

Phil

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Errr... isn't that what is familiarly known as Spire Farm? In other words, High Riley.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Probably, we have been trying to understand what is the oldest habited building in Accy and I think it has been agreed that it is High Riley cottages 1628 ish.

So High Riley cottages is now named Spire Farm is it?????

Phil

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

High Riley cottages, and Spire Farm are not the same, although they are close to each other. You could well be right about the cottages being the oldest habited buildings in Accrington. I'm not sure. I walked past them this afternoon in the rain and the mist.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

No - Spire Farm is just what we always called it - because of the tower I guess. Surprised you don't know the name. Officially it's High Riley.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

So wheres Higher Hey in Accrington then?

Phil

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Just looked on Google maps and you are correct, the cottages are a hundred yards or so further up the lane from the farm..my mistake

Phil

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Spire Farms correct name is High Riley, the original site was farmed by the Monks of Kirkstall back in the 1200's, when they left Accrington the lands were taken back by the de Lacey family, they appointed a stewrad to oversee their holdings he was called Robert, he took up residence on the site of Riley & on all the accounts he submitted to de Lacey, he signed his name Robert de Ryley. I was re-reading some of those accounts a couple of days ago. The tower or Spire as its called was actually a building on a site to the rear of the High Riley Cottages, the tower was taken down and the stone used in the rebuilding of the barn, that event is dated between 1828 & 1835 in the valuation records. It then became known as New High Riley.
There were several farms in the area with the name Riley attached.
Retlaw.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

High riley cottages are the oldest Listed buildings in accrington that is true and are indeed lived in, one by a relative of mine, his is actually the newest of the three cottages built onto the end in about 1800. The row was made up of what is number 3 and 5 , 7 . Number 5 and 7 are now one cottage along with number 3 the one with the date stone and the "new" cottage number 1.

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

about half a mile from the roundabout by St Anne's school

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

This may help

Attachment 18944

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Lovely photos Jeff -takes me back.
It was a favourite Sunday walk of ours to go up Sandy Lane and walk through Spire's Farm (still a working farm 30-0dd yrs ago and then past the cottages and up to Hambledon Hill. I have been inside one of the cottages as my dad was friends with a work colleague who lived there and we used to stop off and play with his children sometimes.
Haven't been back up that way for about 30 years I think...

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Anyone point out the location of higher hey?

Phil

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

how old are the cottages whalley road next to ribblesdale avenue heard they were listed:confused: oakleigh area could be something to with the glorious revolution as you have pilot street, orange street, whittaker street, pilot street if you know your history you will get the connections with the wee free church;)

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Anyone?

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

See post #18 in this thread
http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...tml#post754547

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Higher hey is a farmhouse on the kings highway across the a56 bypass opposite baxenden golf course

Re: Oldest Building in Accy
 

Aren't they called Dyke Nook cottages. There is a larger building 100yds further down called Dyke Nook and there is a thread on here about the area...under "Dyke Nook Accrington"

Phil