Townships: Wheatley Carr Booth

WHEATLEY CARR BOOTH

Whetley, 1423; Wheteleycarre, 1464; Whiteley Carre, 1474; Whitleycarr, 1495.

This small township, only 254 acres (fn. 1) in extent, was considered extra-parochial. (fn. 2) It lies on the right bank of Pendle Water, from which the ground rises 200 ft. towards the north-west to Wheatley Lane. It was long divided into three tenements—Wheatley Carr, Wheatley Laith and Higher Wheatley; this last is now the Inghamites' chapel. A small stream flows through Higgen Clough, lying rather on the eastern side, where villa residences have been erected in recent years. A bridle road traverses the township and crosses Pendle Water by a ford opposite Lomeshaye Mills.

The soil is clayey and the land is devoted to pasturage. A small strip of the township along the left bank of Pendle Water was in 1896 added to Nelson. (fn. 3) The population in 1901 numbered 47.

At Michaelmas 1418 Roger Flore, chief steward, let the herbage of Wheatley to Henry Worsley for ten years at £5 13s. 4d. yearly rent. (fn. 4) Bernard Shuttleworth in 1459 and 1464 paid £5 6s. 8d. for Wheatley Carr, (fn. 5) while ten years later Lawrence Towneley held it at the same rent. (fn. 6) His grandson Lawrence had it in 1495. (fn. 7)

At the granting of the forests in 1507 the pasture called Wheatley Carr was demised by copy of Court Roll to Nicholas Townley of Royle at a copyhold rent of £6 6s. 8d. (fn. 8) He held it in 1527, (fn. 9) and it descended in his line, being held in 1662 by Nicholas Townley (£4 7s. 1½d.), Isabel Townley, widow (£1 9s. 0½d.), and Henry Parker (10s. 6d.). (fn. 10) About 1725 Thomas Townley had three tenements here, viz. Upper Wheatley, 40 acres, occupied by Thomas Alston; Wheatley Upper Barn, 34 acres, by John Howorth; and Lower Wheatley, 13 acres, by John Mitchell. Mr. Harry Tunstill of Reedyford House is now the principal landowner.

Carr Hall and its demesne, though now in Barrowford, were formerly in Wheatley Carr, and probably represented £2 of the copyhold rent fixed in 1507.

In 1533 a special jury awarded a bridleway from the house of Hugh Parker (in Higham) for walking and riding over his own land to a gate situate in Wheatley Head called 'Le Heyghyait,' and so from Wheatley down to the water (of Pendle) to a gate at Lower Lomeshaye, and so through land belonging to Robert Banastre (of Lower Lomeshaye) and John Hargreaves (of Higher Lomeshaye) to the Hey and to Bradley Mill. (fn. 11)

On the northern boundary of the township is a chapel of the Inghamites, an early Methodist denomination. It is said to have been built in 1750 and rebuilt in 1837.