guilding. The walls contain several noble windows of stained glass. This church superseded one which had been erected in the same locality in 1809, anterior to which the chapel attached to Mowbreck Hall had been used by the Romanists of the neighbourhood for their celebrations and services. The Independents and Wesleyans also have places of worship in the town, situated respectively in Marsden and Freckleton Streets. The chapel of the Independents was constructed about 1793, and rebuilt in 1818, but that of the Wesleyans is of more recent origin. At the Willows, it should be mentioned, there is a school, open to all denominations, but under Roman Catholic supervision, which was established about 1828. Kirkham was first illuminated with gas in 1839. It contains a County Court House[1] and the Workhouse of the Fylde Union,[2] in addition to several other public buildings, as a Police Station, Waterworks' Office, National and Infant Schools, etc. The town is governed by a Local Board of Health.
No papers have so far been discovered throwing any light upon the origin of the Free Grammar School, and the earliest intimation of its existence is in 1551, when Thomas Clifton, of Westby, bequeathed "towards the grammar scole xx^s." Thirty-four years later it was arranged amongst the "Thirty-men" that 40s. taken out of the clerk's wages should be paid to the schoolmaster, and that 4 of the 30-men in the name of the rest should take possession of the school-house in right of the whole parish, to be kept in repair by it and used as a school-house;" also that "Richard Wilkins, now schoolmaster," should be retained in his office for a year or longer. In 1589 the above assembly "agreed that the 10s. a year p^d by Goosnargh to the church sh^d in future be paid to the schoolmaster, and for every burial (except one dying in childbed) he sh^d have such sum as was agreed by the 30-men, and also such sum as hath heretofore been paid for the holy loaf, which is of every house 3d., every Sunday successively towards repairs of the schoolhouse and help of his wages." In 1592 this order, as far as regards the holy-loaf contributions, was rescinded, the money as in former times going to the vicar.
The following is from the copy of an ancient manuscript
