HARDHORN-WITH-NEWTON contains within the limits of its township the three hamlets or villages of Hardhorn, Newton, and Staining, of which the last only is alluded to in the Domesday Survey, where Staininghe is mentioned as comprising six carucates of land in service. The Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey furnishes much valuable and interesting information relating to the district of Staining, and from it we find that sometime between 1175 and 1296 John de Lascy, constable of Chester, “gave and by this charter confirms to God and the Blessed Mary, and to the abbot and monks of the Benedictine Monastery (Locus) of Stanlawe the _vill_ of Steyninges, with all things belonging to it, in the _vill_ itself, in the field, in roads, in footpaths, in meadows, in pastures, in waters, in mills, and in all other easements which are or can be there, for the safety of my soul and those of my antecessors and successors. To be held and possessed in pure and perpetual gift without any duty or exaction pertaining to me or my heirs, the monks themselves performing the service which the _vill_ owes to the lord King.” The monks of Stanlawe retained possession until 1296, when their monastic institution, with all its property, including Staining, was united to, or appropriated by, the abbey of Whalley, shortly after which, in 1298, an agreement was arrived at between the prior of Lancaster, who held Poulton church, and the abbot of Whalley, concerning the tithes of Staining, Hardhorn, and Newton. “At length,” says the record, “by the advice of common friends they submitted the matter to the arbitration of Robert de Pikeringe, Elbor. Official,” who decided that the abbot and convent of Whalley, formerly of Stanlawe, should receive in perpetuity the major tithes of every and all their lands within the boundaries of Staining, Hardhorn, and Newton, whether the harvests were cultivated by the monks themselves or by their tenants; but the minor tithes, personal and obligatory, whether of the abbey tenants or of the secular servants, were adjudged to the vicar of the church of Poulton and the prior and monks of Lancaster. The abbot of Whalley was also directed to pay to the prior of Lancaster at the parish church of Poulton an annual sum of eighteen marks, as an acknowledgment, half at the festival of St. Martin and the remainder at Pentecost. The Coucher Book contains several deeds of arrangement touching marsh-land in the vicinity of Staining. Cecilia de Laton, widow, gave to the abbot and convent of Stanlawe, all her marsh between certain land of Staining and a long ditch, so that the latter might mark the division between Staining and Little Layton, the witnesses to the transfer being William de Carleton, William de Syngleton, and Alan, his son, William de Merton, and Richard de Thornton; Cecilia de Laton also quitclaimed to the same monastery all her right to the mediety of a marsh between “Mattainsmure” and Little Carleton. William le Boteler exchanged with the Stanlawe