Monument record 79/1 - Peel House, Appleton

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ58NW6/1956 (Index). SCH2487.

Reported as being entirely surrounded by a moat, but with an unremarkable building in 1835. Birth place of Bishop Smith (born c.1460), founder of Brazenose College,Oxford

<2> Baines E, 1835, The History of Lancashire, 3/724 (Book). SCH3145.

<3> Lewis J, 2000, The Medieval Earthworks of the Hundred of West Derby, /165 (Monograph). SCH3778.

Almost nothing is known of the early history of Peel House although its central location and adjacent field pattern suggest that it may have lain within a park beyond the bounds of which were the villages of Appleton and Farnworth. Its role might have been as grange or the house of the keeper in the 13th and early 14th centuries. However, the accounts for this period are vague and the park and supposed vaccary may have been at Halton. The area of the moat platform is among the smallest in the region. The house was occupied by Robert Smyth whose fourth son Willima was born there c.1460 (d 1513). He became bishop of Lincoln and Lord President of Wales, co founder of Brazennose college, Oxford etc. In 1582 Richard Smith lived at the Peel House, Farnworth; in 1592 there was a dispute respecting the Peel House in Appleton, which was also known as Denton's House. The Gregson family lived at Peel Hall in 1669. In the early 19th century Mr Matthew Gregson Lancashire's Historian lived there. By 1819 it was occupied by Mr Samuel Woolrich