ACCRINGTON - Lancashire County Council

Lancashire Historic Town Survey
Accrington
4. HISTORICAL AND TOPOGRAPHICAL
DEVELOPMENT
4.1 Prehistoric
There are no known prehistoric sites within the urban area defined for Accrington.
4.2 Romano-British
There are references in the Sites and Monuments Record to Roman coins found in and to
the north of Oak Hill Park (LSMR 2075, 2688), and a Roman lamp is reputed to have been
found in Baxenden (LSMR 18873). Of a possible contemporary date to these artefacts is a
beehive quernstone found at the Hollins, a former farm close to Oak Hill Park (Broughton
1917, 13). In 1917 this was housed at Oak Hill Museum. The concentration of Romano-
British finds in this area is suggestive of some form of Roman settlement in the vicinity.
Stray finds are very unreliable as indicators of particular past activities, but the putative
Roman lamp from Baxenden may nonetheless be indicative of another area of Romano-
British settlement. There are no sources which might suggest that the Romano-British
activity in the Accrington area was military, and it is most likely that the noted finds relate to
dispersed farmsteads.
4.3 Post-Roman and early medieval
The name ‘Accrington’ is generally considered to derive from the Old English word aecern,
meaning acorn, applied in combination with the suffix tun, meaning farmstead (West 1983,
45; Mills 1976, 53). The first known occurrence of the name is before 1194 when it is given
as Akarinton. If this derivation is correct it is very unusual since it is the only example of a
major English name containing the element aecern (Mills 1976, 53). The place name
would appear to be Anglo-Saxon in origin, and suggestive of there having been some form
of settlement at Accrington before the Norman Conquest, although no documentary or
archaeological evidence for a settlement in the vicinity exists until the twelfth century. The
other older and historically significant place name contained within the Accrington urban
area is Milnshaw. This is derived from Old English myln, meaning mill, and sceaga,
meaning a small wood or copse. This form of derivation is likely to be pre-twelfth century,
and thus suggests that there was a mill at Accrington by the twelfth century.
It is likely that any early medieval settlement that was present consisted, as in the Roman
period, of dispersed farmsteads. It is unclear when Accrington acquired manorial status,
although it has been suggested that this may have pre-dated the Norman Conquest, but it
is very likely that some form of settlement existed in the vicinity of the confluence of the
Hyndburn/Accrington Brook, Pleck Brook and Woodnook Water.
The regular occurrence of place name elements such as shaw, heys, hurst, ley and laund
is typical of areas with a high proportion of woodland during the early medieval period.
Here, their attribution to farmsteads may be suggestive of progressive reclamation from the
waste and colonisation later in the Middle Ages.
4.4 Medieval
During the Middle Ages, Accrington was the manorial centre of a large estate, the nature
and size of which altered through time. Accrington entered the historical record in the
twelfth century when it was a township in the chapelry of Altham, itself part of the extensive
and ancient parish of Whalley (Croston 1889, 410). It lay within the Hundred of Blackburn
and by the twelfth century formed part of the de Lacy family’s Honor of Clitheroe. At some
© Lancashire County Council 2005 15