St. Michael's Hall, the residence of the Longworths[1] during the seventeenth century, and probably of the Kirkbys before them, has since been rebuilt in an antique style, and converted into a farm house.
Tarnacre was claimed, amongst other places, by the abbot of Cockersand in 1292, during the reign of Edward I., and was, with Upper Rawcliffe, in early days, a feudal appendage of Garstang.
The township of Upper Rawcliffe-with-Tarnacre contains the ancient parish church of St. Michael's-on-Wyre, which occupies a prominent and picturesque station on the banks of the narrowed Bleasdale stream, in the midst of the rural village, to which its title has been extended. St. Michael's church, or Michelescherche, as it appears in the Survey of William the Conqueror, was obviously standing on the arrival of that warrior in 1066, being, with the exception of a similar structure at Kirkham, the only edifice of its kind existing in the Fylde at that time. There are no records amongst the meagre annals of Amounderness during the Saxon era, to assist us in establishing beyond question the antiquity of this church, but it may reasonably be supposed that its erection took place at no long interval after the year 627, when Paulinus was appointed bishop of the province of Northumbria, in which St. Michael's was situated. The zeal and piety displayed by Paulinus are said to have exercised an important influence in overcoming the pagan tendencies of the inhabitants of Lancashire, and although it is far from probable that the whole of the people of the Fylde at once became converts to Christianity, and renounced their heathenish and superstitious ritual, still it would be idle to deny that the ministrations of so earnest a prelate as Paulinus were fruitful to a considerable degree in our district, more especially when history proclaims the success of his efforts in other portions of his diocese. The small band of professed Christians would gradually extend their circle, and at no remote date a building would become necessary where divine worship could be conducted in a decent and orderly manner, according to the direction of the newly-adopted creed; and it was, we opine, at such an epoch that the church of St. Michael's-on-Wyre was
- ↑ See "Longworth of St. Michael's Hall" in Chapter VI.
