suggest that at one time it was something different and that the brook from Birkdale discharged itself into a real pool or arm of the lake. Wyke-lane would thus become a lane across the Wyke as well as a lane leading to Wyke House.

It is significant that what, if this argument is accepted, would have been the head of the creek, as shown on the 1845-6 map by the angle formed by the Old Pool and the sluice, is there named The Intake, evidently a piece of land taken1 in at some time or other from the moss, or marshy land formerly covered by the waters of the bay. How far this name goes back I have been unable to ascertain, but it was in use in 1736 as shown by Bankes's map; the area is given as 15a. Ir. 18p. The whole of this creek, or bay, was thus in North Meols parish and township, though its south shore lay close to the Scarisbrick boundary. This then was "le Wyk in Northmeles" which in 1353 was "a certain water, parcel of Martin Mere."2

The name Blowick would, of course, be applied to the creek long before any houses rose on or near its shore,3 and when later they appeared the name came to be used to designate them also. Thus we get "the hamlet on the dark bay."

If, however, we care to argue that Wyke, when used alone, as in Wyke House, comes to us through a Middle English development, quite a good case might be made out, seeing that Wyke then would stand for "corner or

angle," "4 and Wyke House stood near the corner or angle of land at the lower end of the bay or creek, but on the shore of the lake proper.

1 The N.E.D. gives Intake in this sense as "chiefly Northern dialect," and quotes an example of its use (" yntank ") as early as c. 1330.

2 Farrer, North Meols, 116: cited below (p. 198).

3 There is only one house to-day on the Ullswater Blowick.

4

According to Dr. Sedgefield this is the "usual meaning" of the dialect word in Cumberland (Place Names of Cumbld. and Westmld., 204). O.N. Vik gives M. E. wike, a corner.

Our Lancashire place-name in either case falls into line with Lerwick (the town on) the muddy bay, Brodick in Arran (the town on) the broad bay, and Reikjavik in Iceland (the town on) the reeky or smoky bay.

VI.

Several references to Blowick, or Blowyke, in the 16th and 17th centuries have been cited above. I am not aware that the name has been found written before the 16th century, but le Wyk in North Meols occurs as early as 1354. A presentment was made in February of that year at the assizes at Preston

that Roger Bondesson and John Stelle, of Rughford (Rufford) on Monday in the week of Pentecost (May 13, 1353) took certain fish of Richard de Aghton at 'le Wyk' in Northmeles, viz. bremos (bream) to the value of twenty shillings.1

The two men charged with stealing Richard Aghton's fish stated that the place called Le Wyk was

a certain water which is parcel of Martin Mere, which is held pro indiviso between William de Heskayth, chivaler, Thomas de Litherlond, prior of Burscough, the abbot of Cokersand, Richard de Aghton and Katharine his wife, as in the right of the said Katharine, and others, and they took those fish at the command of the said William de Heskayth as his fishers and in his right."

The jurors found their plea a good one, and the defendants were acquitted.

Now this statement of Sir William Hesketh's fishers proves that in the middle of the 14th century Martin Mere extended into North Meols parish. It is expressly stated that Le Wyk was a certain water which is part of Martin Mere," and that can mean nothing else but that it was a creek, or inlet, opening from the lake. The riparian

1 Farrer, North Meols, 116.

2 Ibid., Sir William Hesketh was lord of the manor of Rufford c. 1347-60. Richard de Aghton had married, as her second husband, Katharine, daughter and co-heir of Robert de Coudray, lord of the manor of North Meols, about the year 1350.

owners had equal fishing rights in the mere, but Richard de Aghton of North Meols evidently considered for some reason or other that the fish in the Wyke were his. Had the Wyke been a wide and open bay he would hardly have dared to put forward such a claim. That he did so seems to suggest that the Wyke was a narrow arm of the mere penetrating into the moss-land of North Meols. The fishermen declared it to be part of the mere, and the jurors evidently agreed with them. The two two men appear to have rowed over from Rufford and to have had no suspicion that they could be regarded as trespassers.

More than a century later, in 1460 to be exact, there is mention in a deed of " le Wike " in North Meols. But the Wyke is no longer a "certain water" but a "certain parcel of land." The same transference of name that we have noticed before has again obtained. Hugh de Aghton in this year was seised of

a certain parcel of land (in North Meols) called 'le Wike' containing 60 acres,1

and on his death in 1464 it was found that this

parcel of land in North Meols called le Wike' was held of the lord King by the service of the twelfth part of a knight's fee.2

Hugh de Aghton was succeeded by his brother Nicholas, who died in 1488, seised of the same

parcel of land in North Meols called 'le Wicke,' containing 60 acres, which he held of the King as of his Duchy of Lancaster, by the service of the twelfth part of a knight's fee worth forty shillings yearly.3

We have thus, first a piece of water and then a piece of land known as The Wyke in North Meols parish and township in the Middle Ages. The place now known as The Wyke, or Wyke House, is, as we have seeen, in Scarisbrick township and Ormskirk parish, though very

1 Farrer, op. cit., 22.

2 Ibid., 23.

3 Ibid., 24.