Mawdesley, Lancashire

Description
Mawdesley, a township and an ecclesiastical parish in Croston parish, Lancashire. The township lies on a branch of the river Douglas, 1 1/2 mile E by S of Enfford station on the L. & Y. R., and 7 miles WSW of Chorley. It has a post office under Ormskirk; money order and telegraph office, Eufford. Acreage, 2959; population, 956. The parish council, under the Local Government Act, 1894, consists of six members. The manor belongs to the Hesketh and De Trafford families. Mawdesley Hall is an ancient mansion on a sandstone rock, was formerly the seat of the Mawdesley family, and is now a farmhouse. The ecclesiastical parish consists of the townships of Mawdesley and Bispham, and was constituted in 1843. Population, 1215. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Manchester; gross value, £200 with residence. Patron, the Eector of Croston. The church was built in 1840, is in the Early English style, and consists of chancel and nave, with tower and small spire. There are Wesleyan and Roman Catholic chapels. The Roman Catholic chapel was built in 1830, is a handsome edifice, and has attached to it a large burying-ground.