The Hamlet of Admergill-in-Brogden

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Admergill (SD 850 420) is the name of a hamlet within the valley below the bulking height of Wheat Head – this is where the East Lancashire civil parishes of Barley with Wheatley Booth, Barrowford Booth and Brogden in Barnoldswick meet. The valley runs approximately from One Tree Hill, below the Moorcock Inn, on the Blacko to Gisburn Road, and ends at Casterclough where the boundary stream of Claude’s Clough meets Admergill Water. An ancient track ran along the Admergill stream bank, from Admergill itself, through Bell Wood to Bank End Wood and on to the villages of Over Barrowford and Roughlee. Copyright John A Clayton 2005

There were two farms, Higher and Lower Admergill, within the hamlet, and another known as Admergill Pasture higher up Blacko Hillside. In 1580 there is written evidence that this area was known as "Admergill-in-Blacko, divided by an ancient ditch from the adjoining area of Blacko-in-Barrowford." Admergill New Hall (Lower Admergill) stands next to the stream of Admergill Water, one of a few remaining buildings in the valley, the present Hall was built around 1611. A much earlier building, the Old Hall stood next to the New Hall, this was known locally as The Monastery but the ruins of this ancient building have recently been demolished. A 19th century photograph of the Old Hall shows what appears to be a 16th century building of three bays. There was originally a simple hall sited tangentially to the stream with the main entrance in the gable. A matching bay was later added and this shared the original doorway, with its pronounced Gothic arched lintel - there was no porch. At a later stage still smaller cross wing was added to the southern side and an outshut was built onto the northern side. By the time the building was demolished it had crumbled to the height of the lower window heads. Both Higher and Lower Admergill houses contain remnants of the Old Hall, stone fireplaces and door-arches have been incorporated into the internal structures.

It is thought that Cistercian monks inhabited the Old Hall, thus giving rise to the title of 'monastery' - this religious movement was founded in Citeaux around 1098. Interestingly the area upon Blacko Hillside, known as Admergill Pasture, has a field named Judde Field. The name Judde, in Early Modern times, was often related to the Christian name of George. It is likely, however, that this area of land would be named in the Medieval period and therefore Judde was the shortened form of Jordan. The 1st Crusade took place in 1095, the 2nd in 1147, the 3rd in 1185, the 4th in 1202, the 5th in 1221, the 6th in 1228 and the 7th in 1244. As a consequence of these protracted incursions by the English nobility and friends, all things related to the Holy Land became fashionable, and therefore desirable. Crusaders and pilgrims returning from their journeys brought souvenirs back, some of which took the form of glass phials containing water from the river Jordan. There was a roaring trade in the Holy Land whereby local people would point out to the pilgrims the 'exact spot' in the river where baptisms were carried out in the time of Christ. This carried on for centuries after the last Crusade - there is a record of a child being baptised at Colne parish church during the 16th century where the font contained Jordan water. The Christian name of Jordan became very popular around this time amongst people of a religious background, as it did amongst people of higher status within the community. The link here, between the Admergill field name and the possible ecclesiastic farming operation of the Old Hall, is pure speculation on my behalf but perhaps worthy of consideration for all that! There is also the consideration that Judde has the same derivation as 'judge' as in Judge Fields (an area in the town of Colne) or the name may have related to the fact that a 'field' in this period was an area of common grazing or turbary (an area where turf was cut for fuel).

A 1581 map showing the boundaries of Foulridge and White Moor has Lower Admergill as containing five separate buildings, the Mill Field to the south of the present buildings, the presence of grooved rack-stones within the stone walls around the hall prove that there was once a corn drying operation here. It is tempting to assume that the mill field held a corn mill but across the stream there is a large circular mound in which a number of dressed stones have been unearthed. This mounds has all the physical hallmarks of an early settlement, I hope to look further into this but, at this stage it is possible that the site was a corn-drying kiln and, if this was the case, equally as likely to be the source of the rack stones.

In 1801 James Hartley of Admergill was a worsted manufacturer which begs the questions as to whether he worked the mill and what period the mill dated from. Was it built purely as a weaving, or fulling mill or could it have been a converted corn mill? As a matter of interest there is no mention of the Admergill mill within the 16th century Clitheroe Court Rolls, nor is there a mention in later records. The fact that mills were an important source of income to landowners means that they were often mentioned in court and tax returns. The absence of any reference to this mill suggests that it could have been an early building – perhaps as early as the de Lacy or Poitou stewardships in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. During this period the Crown claimed Admergill in a long-running land dispute, it is unlikely that the Crown was desperate to keep an area of moorland but they would definitely value a corn mill for the income it provided. This at least a pointer towards the possible era within which the mill served the area.

An old trackway, still visible on aerial photographs, ran from the corner of Blacko Bar straight down to the mill field, the foundations of the old bridge over Admergill Water, where this track crossed over, are still to be seen. In the Pendle Witch legends Richard Baldwin, a miller, lived at Wheat Head and his daughter was said to have been bewitched by Elizabeth Southerns alias Old Demdike. It is not clear from the contemporary accounts of the witch trials as to which particular Wheathead was being referred to; Baldwins farm of Higher Wheathead is on the slope above the Admergill mill site whilst Lower Wheathead is below the site, above Casterclough. Either way I have often thought that Richard Baldwin could very well have worked the Admergill mill, if indeed it was a corn mill, rather than the one that he is generally thought to have worked – the one built in 1598, a mile or so downstream from Wheathead at Roughlee.

A few years ago, whilst exploring the Admergill area, the present owner pointed out a hollow that he had excavated by machine. He had unearthed a number of large stone flagstones from the foundations of this lost building, the site of which was on a circular loop in the stream some way above the hall. I carried out a minor dig on the site with my brother – however I soon had cause to revert to using a spade as he constantly complained that the heavy clay was hurting his head! We found that the building had steps leading down below ground level and large lumps of furnace slag covered the site. This would probably be either a forge for metalworking (smelted bronze waste has been recently found in the area but there could be a number of reasons for this) or a kiln, possibly for pottery manufacture. The fact that the building is situated on what appears to be a man-made bend in the stream shows that the process carried out could have been water driven, or may have required copious amounts of water. Alternatively the siting might be due to a need for a furnace to be sited away from the main settlement buildings.

Further up the valley an old track leads to the top of the hill opposite the Moorcock Inn, near to the top of this track is a mark stone, this is carved with what appears to be a runic symbol. When the bracken grows on the Blacko-facing slope of this hill it shows rectangular shapes, linked by parallel linear lines. Above this, on the hilltop, are a group of stones that, when complete, could very well have been a circle. This area, sited at the head of the Middop and Admergill Valleys, would have been ideally placed for either a permanent or a transient encampment for the British and Saxon people. The old track descends from the hill into Admergill valley but comes to an abrupt halt. Across the bottom end of the track is a large mound, if this is a man-made feature (as it certainly appears) then it was obviously constructed after the trackway. When attempting to date this feature it has to be remembered that the Saxons built round barrows and had a tendency to re-use earlier burial mounds; what may have been a small round barrow covering a Bronze Age interment could become a large mound in later ages.

Up to the 18th century Admergill would be the nearest thing to a clustered community in the local area. Around 30 years ago the owner of Blacko Tower Farm (formerly Stansfield’s House) stated that there had always been a legend amongst local people that nearby Blacko Hill was connected to Admergill by a tunnel. Tunnel legends relating to old sites and buildings are very common, they are usually rooted in a folk memory of some actual connection between one area and a nearby site – the real connection having been lost in time the tunnel story becomes adopted.

During the 16th century Lower Admergill farm had a larger land holding than any local farm, the tenants held isolated lands as far afield as Simonstone and Colne along with the lands around Admergill, Wheat Head and Rimington Moor. Even in the 19th century the farm was shown as having well over 200 acres and employing ten men. In 1802 a number of pennies, 117 in all, dating from the time of Edward 1st (1272-1307) and John Baliol, king of Scotland, were found in the Lower Admergill area.

In later times Admergill would come to be subject to the halmote courts of the Honour of Clitheroe held at Colne, Ightenhill and Higham, and would fall within the ecclesiastical bounds of the parish of Colne. It is unlikely that Admergill was the equivalent of an ecclesiastical demesne or local manorial centre, the Cistercians were a self-governing movement and did not hold with the manorial system. The term manor is of Norman origin and is not really of relevance within our area of Blackburnshire, there was however a Saxon equivalent in the term of lageman, a person who had jurisdiction over the local area.

Shortly before the Norman Conquest a Saxon by the name of Gamel held Barnoldswick. Following the conquest William 1st granted the lands to Berengen de Todeni who in turn transferred them to Roger de Poitou who played a key part in the conquest under William 1st. Roger held the Lordships of both Lancaster and Clitheroe.

In his History of Whalley Dr.Whitaker states that:
There was a strong tendency to secularisation of ecclesiastical property in very early times; a natural consequence of enormous landed endowments which always led either to violent resumptions on the part of the Crown or to a silent transition from patronage to property and from the character of incumbent to that of impropriator

In the 12th century the Cistercian monks of Kirkstall Abbey held lands in the Honour of Clitheroe, they created a grange at Accrington by means of depopulating the area, this was a polite term for throwing the poor off their lands. This was a highly unpopular act with the local people and, unfortunately, was a common occurrence. In 1258 Edmund de Lacy granted two oxgangs of land in Marsden (Nelson) and the whole of Barnside at Laneshawbridge to Kirkstall Abbey. In 1287 the de Laceys took back the possessions of Kirkstall Abbey within Blackburnshire (apart from Extwistle) in exchange for an annual pension. However Sawley Abbey and Pontefract Priory still retained lands there. The hamlet of Cotes in Barnoldswick was acceded to Sawley Abbey, it is possible that Admergill also came under the wing of this house.

Following the Norman Conquest local written records began to appear, as time progressed the assimilation of information regarding lands and estates was organised on a scale never seen before. This means that there are valuable records relating to the Admergill area through to modern times. To illustrate this Whitaker used records from the Honour of Clitheroe and Whalley Abbey to report a long running land dispute over the Admergill area:

The boundaries of Pendle Forest, contiguous to those of Barnoldswick, were perambulated by the first Henry de Lacy in person on the day he delivered possession of Barnoldswick to the monksthe coucher book of Abbott Lyndlay (shows that) Henry de Lacy the second had encroached on the property of the Kirkstall monks and his successors in the Honor of Clitheroe seemed disposed to maintain the wrong. This gave rise to a suit between that house and Queen Isabella which produced the following enquiry: The jury find that Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincolnshire, had violently taken away 840 acres of moor and pasture, parcel of the commons of Barnoldswick valued at 35 shillings per annumit was accordingly restored to the proper owners.’

To clarify this I quote from previous work carried out on the subject by the prominent local historian Stanley Graham:In 1147 Henry de Lacy granted Barnoldswick to Abbott Alexander of Fountains Abbey to build a monastery there. De lacy made a perambulation in that year before granting the charter and noted that Admergill was part of Barnoldswick. Later court action saw the Crown imply that Admergill was rented from the Crown and therefore de Lacy could not have legally granted it. This dragged on for many years; in 1333/4 Edward 111 was ordered to return the lands to the Abbott of Kirkstall. In 1374 Edward 111 disputed the land again. Richard 11 granted out the Admergill estate in 1395 to be used as a vaccary (farm)– this showed that the Crown now regarded itself as proper owner of the area. By the 16th century Admergill was officially a Royal Manor and Kirkstall Abbey had lost their rights to Admergill.
It is worth remembering that stewardship of the lands making up the Honour of Clitheroe was as chequered as that of the Honour of Lancaster. It is not surprising that the land dispute over Admergill occurred when it is realised how complex the politics were.

Following his successful conquest of Britain in 1066 William the Conqueror found that he had a problem with his northern subjects. He took his army into the badlands of northern England and laid waste to many areas of Yorkshire and, to a lesser extent, parts of Lancashire. Following this he decided that he needed a capable person to take charge of these areas and appointed the 3rd son of his cousin Roger de Montgomery to the post. Thus in 1071 Roger de Poitou was entrusted with the huge north west estates of lands between the Ribble and Mersey (Lancashire south of the sands) and large holdings in the Craven district of Yorkshire. However, by the year 1086 the King had reclaimed these holdings for the Crown; the reason for this is unclear but was possibly due to a rebellion, or a land exchange. By the 1090s Roger de Poitou again held the Lancashire estates along with the lands north of the sands. In 1102 Roger again lost the estates when he joined with his brothers in a rebellion against Henry 1st. The lands were then kept together as a unit and granted to Henry 1st’s nephew Stephen, Count of Bologne (later to become King Stephen) between 1114 and 1116. In 1138 the Scots army occupied the areas north of the Ribble and Ranulf 11, Earl of Chester, annexed the lands between Ribble and Mersey, eventually holding them legally between 1141 and 1149. The 1153 treaty of Wallingford saw Stephen’s son William de Warrene hold the Lancashire estates until his death in 1159, the Honour reverted to the Crown in 1164. Following the accession of Richard the Lionheart, John (Richard’s brother) was granted the Honour in 1189. The Honour of Lancaster was not exactly the same as the shire of Lancaster; the Honour was a feudal lordship of castles and dues and covered other parts of the country such as Derby, Nottinghamshire and Suffolk.

Under the early rule of Henry 111 the Honour of Lancaster was run by a sheriff on behalf of the Crown; after his restoration in 1266 Henry bestowed the Honour of Lancaster, and all the royal demesne of Lancashire, upon his son Edmund - this effectively established the Duchy of Lancaster. Edmund died in 1296 and his son Thomas became the 2nd Earl of Lancaster, he married Alice de Lacy, the daughter and heir of Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln. On the death of Henry de Lacy in 1310 at Lincolns Inn, Thomas succeeded to the earldoms of Pontefract, Bolingbroke, Clitheroe and Halton.

Forty years later Henry, the 4th Earl of Lancaster, was made up into a Duke and Edward 111 created the County Palatine of Lancaster. This was largely because of Lancashires strategic position in the war against the Scots who had carried out many violent incursions into our area in 1316 and 1322. Palatine powers only ran within the county boundaries, the King’s writ did not take effect within the palatine although he had the final say within the Duke’s court. The King’s writ was effective elsewhere within the Duchy of Lancaster (outside the palatine bounds), this meant that the Crown had jurisdiction over the Admergill area. Henry 1V, from 1399, kept his Lancastrian patrimony separate from his Crown lands. The Queen is, of course, the present Duke of Lancaster.

Ilbert de Lacy had acquired the Honour of Clitheroe by 1102, having been placed as a reliable overlooker in the North by Roger de Poitou, and the family retained it for over a century until, as we have seen, the estates passed into the Duchy of Lancaster. In the Domesday survey of 1085 it is stated that the vill of Barnoldswick fell within the castellate of Roger the Poitevin, this could have referred to a castle in Yorkshire or, equally, to the castle at Clitheroe. By and large however it was the de Lacy family who controlled our local area.

The nature of post-Norman estate holdings was obviously complex. As we have seen, Henry de Lacy granted Barnoldswick to the Cistercian monks in 1147; unfortunately he made the mistake (deliberately?) of including the 840 acres of Admergill within the grant. A dozen monks and a few lay brothers arrived at Barnoldswick, following the charter, with the intent of founding a monastery. They demolished the existing Saxon church, much to the chagrin of the local people, grumbled about the weather for a few years then cleared off to set up a new abbey at Kirkstall. Following the departure of the monks Barnoldswick remained in the hands of Kirkstall Abbey in the form of a grange. A problem later arose in the monks tenancy of Barnoldswick as it became apparent that Henry de Lacy didnt actually own the area – he held it from the Earl of Norfolk but had omitted to pay the rent. Eventually Henry 11 remitted the rent and bestowed Barnoldswick fully to Kirkstall.

The township of Barnoldswick included four hamlets; two at Marton, and others at Cotes and Elfwynthorpe. There were also two other small hamlets at Bracewell and Brogden. As they did at their Accrington grange the Cistercians depopulated the area of Brogden, we do not know how many small settlements disappeared from the area at this time. It is entirely possible that Admergill was retained as a farmstead in order to run the southern area of the grange, given the long distance between the northern and southern boundaries of Barnoldswick outlying farms would have been necessary to manage the lands. Lay brothers, possibly under the supervision of a monk, would run the grange farms. In 1395 Admergill was let as a vaccary by the King to a Lancashire landowner – this may have been the end of any Cistercian involvement in the farm although it would be necessary to ascertain who the tenants were for the next two centuries to substantiate this. Somewhere here there may be a fitting explanation for the fact that Admergill Old Hall was known as The Monastery.

On July 9th 1688 Thomas Parker of Alkincotes wrote to Roger Kenyon:

"The inhabitants of Colne Parish design to move the Justices, at the Sessions at Preston, for an order to cause the inhabitants of Admergill to contribute towards the relief of their poor; by what law or rule, the writer does not understand. They neither being in the same parish or county."

Parker goes on to ask for Kenyon's favourable assistance to the inhabitants of Admergill.

In the late 18th century Barnoldswick Assessment there is a note concerning the assessment and collection of taxes of the hamlet of Admergill in the Constabulary of Barnoldswick but in the parish of Colne. These records show that the notaries of the 17th and 18th centuries had difficulty in placing the area of Admergill within a specific region of jurisdiction.

The fact that Admergill fell within the parish of Colne Parish Church and Whalley Abbey (the diocese of Chester) appears to be a consequence of the Admergill lands being part of the Honour of Clitheroe. We know that Admergill was within the parish of Brogden and was held by the Cistercians. Without having seen relevant records of this I can only think that the accession of Admergill to the parish of Colne was a late occurrence, perhaps around the 14 th century – certainly by the early 16th century the Colne Church records show Admergill to be firmly under its wing. Adjoining Admergill land on Blacko Hillside is the Malkin Tower Farm, by the year 1500 this was a rectory farm providing the living for the incumbent of Colne Parish Church. The Cistercians were a jealous movement in as much as they did not countenance interaction between themselves and other religious orders. It is unlikely then that they would share the rights of the Admergill estate with the Abbey of Whalley.

There is one outstanding factor here which suggests to me that Admergill came decidedly under the power of the Cistercian tenants of Barnoldswick. That is the control of the water supply to the hamlet, the mill would need a constant, reliable flow of water to carry out any reasonable amount of work. I have mentioned the Black Dyke previously; this was more than a substantial British, or Saxon, boundary ditch – it also carried drainage water from the Blacko Hill and the water-shed of the adjoining White Moor. Aerial photographs show a number of gulleys and ditches connecting the streams on White Moor with the Black Dyke. There are also a number of cloughs and ditches connecting the Black Dyke with Admergill Water down in the valley bottom. Any one of these ditches could be used to direct water to any point of the Admergill estate, east of the main stream, or could simply be used to swell the stream for driving the mill. The actual stream of Admergill Water rises on nearby Greystone Moor, the Black Dyke also begins at this point, this meant that all the water flow down to Admergill was controlled from the lands within the control of the tenants of Barnoldswick.

In the 14th century there were around 50 vills and hamlets within Blackburnshire, many of these have either completely disappeared or have been reduced to a few houses or a farm. A common reason for this was the centralisation of agriculture under expanding farmsteads and large estates, effects of disease and crop failure, depopulation by the Cistercians and (later) the migration to industrial towns such as Colne.

It would appear that by the time of the dissolution in the 16th century Admergill was being farmed by tenants within the auspices of the Clitheroe Lordship. So there we have it; Admergill was a hamlet within Brogden, within the Constabulary of Barnoldswick and ecclesiastically within Colne. The place can still be described as a hamlet, the original extent of the estate lands ran to 840 acres comprising a fascinating parcel squeezed between the parish of Colne, the villages of Over-Barrowford, Blacko and Roughlee and the larger areas of Pendle Forest, Rimington Moor, Middop, Wheat Head, Burn Moor and the Craven district of Yorkshire.


The boundaries of the Admergill estate are ancient and obvious, large extant ditches, dykes and the pikelaw of Jackson Slack Hill (Alaineseat) define the area, when plotted on the map these boundaries show that this area must have been incorporated into Barnoldswick at a relatively late date and for a specific reason. The natural border of the parish of Brogden runs contiguously with that of Middop and then with that of Admergill (the Black Dyke). The present civil parish of Brogden, however, intrudes into the natural area of Wheatley Booth by crossing the major earthwork of the Black Dyke. I have no hesitation in suggesting that this dyke was intended by its constructors to be a major statement, dependant upon when the dyke was constructed it would have been either an inter-tribal boundary, a marker between kingdoms or a Saxon estate demarcation. The 840-acre spit of land comprising Admergill was welded to the eastern area of Barnoldswick where it does not seem to have belonged, further to this the modern map shows that the Admergill area is within the civil parish of Brogden detached.

The fact that the Crown took the trouble to dispute the ownership of this neck of the woods in the 14th century gives credence to the idea that Admergill had been separate from Barnoldswick township within the early Norman period. As I have already postulated, the Crown could have coveted the hamlet, with its adjoining lands, so as to benefit from the mill; the illegal granting of Admergill to the Cistercians possibly fixed the area within Brogden permanently (on paper at least). The early Norman records of the land holdings would show that the perceived parish boundary had been moved and later generations would accept this. The land dispute rumbled along for centuries and so the boundaries were immutable by the time that the issue was finally settled. Admergill is, to all intents and purposes, a hamlet within Blacko, it does not relate to the town of Barnoldswick, nor the parish of Brogden, in any physical context other than a shared boundary. I am convinced that this was the case within the early English period, right up to the Norman hegemony.


From early times the strategic significance of Admergill, at the head of the watershed valley routes from east and west, would have been obvious to local inhabitants and, therefore, I have no hesitation in suggesting (albeit without archaeological proof) that we have here a well preserved example of settlement, the continuity of which reaches back towards the Bronze Age.

© J A Clayton BACK TO TOP