SHIRBURNS of Stoneyhurst.pdf - Ingilby History

probably dispensed with a similar, grudging, ill grace 43 . Such stringent provisions were not,
however, only confined to the Anglican clergy. Money was to be allocated to the Jesuit chaplains at
the Hall on the understanding that they prayed, three times a week for 16 named members of the
Shireburne clan, both alive and dead, and that they would regularly travel around the family estates
in order to minister to the needs of their tenants 44 .
The earlier, much smaller almshouse at Hurst Green, was supplanted in 1706 by a much
larger building at the nearby sight of Kemple End. From its commanding position on Longridge, the
new almshouse, set “towards the High Way”, contained a central court and ten double-rooms, which
provided accommodation for up to twenty elderly people 45 . Time and money were lavished upon it,
with building work continuing on into 1710, as stone masons were hired in order “for the hewing
and setting [of] the [exterior] rails and banister” and to ensure that the “staires [were] to be set firme
without shrinking” 46 . Trees were planted outside and, underneath the gables, the names of the six
local townships that had benefited from his charity were inscribed above the door lintels. On the
pediment, Sir Nicholas’ leaden coat of arms proudly announced his continuing patronage and
enduring presence as benefactor. A similar pattern for the building and endowing of almshouses
would be followed, a generation later, by his daughter, in her dedication of homes for the poor at
Stydd, near Ribchester, confirming the family as the leading charitable benefactors in the entire
locality.
43 Chadwick, op.cit. p.286.
44 Muir, op.cit. p.51.
45 The building was moved, stone-by-stone, to its present position on the High Street at Hurst Green, from 1945- 48. It
had lain unoccupied since 1910, on account of its in sanitary position next to a pool of copper sulphate.
DDSt Box 95, item 29.
46 Ibid.