History of the Fylde of LancashirePorter, John (Writer on the Fylde of Lancashire)
History
History of the Fylde of Lancashire
Porter, John (Writer on the Fylde of Lancashire)
Lancashire (England) -- History
The best kind of husbandry labourer 12d. without, and 6d. with board.
An ordinary labourer 10d. ” and 5d. ”
A male haymaker 10d. ” and 6d. ”
A woman haymaker 7d. ” and 3d. ”
A mower 15d. ” and 9d. ”
A man shearer 12d. ” and 6d. ”
A woman shearer 10d. ” and 6d. ”
Hedgers, Ditchers, Threshers, and
persons employed in task work 10d. ” and 6d. ”
Masons, Joiners, Plumbers, Tilers,
Slaters, Coopers, and Turners 12d. ” and 6d. ”
Master workman, acting as foreman 14d. without board.
From 1660 to 1690, the average price of mutton was 2d. per pound; from
1706 to 1730, 2½d.; and from 1730 to 1760, 3d. per pound. The prices of
beef, veal, and lamb in 1710, were respectively 1⅒d., 2⅗d., and 2⁹⁄₁₀d.,
per pound.
During the eighteenth and earlier part of the nineteenth centuries
there was perhaps no pastime more popular amongst the adult members of
all classes than the callous sport of cock-fighting; every village and
hamlet in the Fylde had its pit, where mains were held at all times and
seasons. The following were the rules pretty generally adopted in this
neighbourhood for the regulation of the contests:—
“1.—To begin the main by fighting the lighter pair of cocks which
fall in match first, proceeding upwards towards the end, that
every lighter pair may fight earlier than those that are heavier.
“2.—In matching, with relation to the battles, after the cocks of
the main are weighed, the match bills are to be compared.
“3.—That every pair of equal weight are separated, and fight
against others; provided it appears that the main can be enlarged
by adding thereto.”
Skippool was one of the favourite resorts for the gentry of our district
when wishful to indulge in their favourite amusement, and frequent
allusions to the cockpit there are to be found in the journal of Thomas
Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, as—“June 9, 1714, ... thence to Skipall, where
at a cockin I meet with a deal of gentlemen. Gave Ned M⸺y 1s. for his
expenses; spent 1s., and won 2s. 6d. of Dr. Hesketh’s cockes.” In 1790 a
notice appeared in Liverpool that “The great main of cocks between John
Clifton, Esq., of Lytham, and Thomas Townley Parker, Esq., of Cuerden,
would be fought on Easter Monday, the 5th of April, and the three
following days, at the new cockpit in Cockspur Street—to show forty-one
cocks each. Ten guineas each battle, and two hundred guineas the main.”
The great-grandfather of the present Lord Derby compelled each of his
tenants to maintain a game-cock for his benefit, and many were the birds
supplied from the Fylde to uphold his great reputation as a successful
cock-fighter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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