Hapton Tower

Description

"Hapton Tower was sold to Gibert de la Legh in the 3rd Edward III. He was son of John de la Legh who married Cecilia daughter and coheiress of Richard de Towneley, and his grandson is styled Richard de Towneley, alias de la Legh Sheriff of Lancashire in the year 1375. In the 12th Henry VII his descendant Sir John Towneley had a License for making a Park at Hapton, and in the 6th Henry VIII he emparked or enclosed all the wastes and open fields, being one thousand Lancashire arces. Hapton was sequestered after the Battle of Maiston Moor, and the Tower ...... fell into decay after the Restoration." (Gastrell and Raines).
Similar information - Baines quotes Dr Whitaker who says:- "I have conversed with two aged persons who describe the ruin of Hapton Tower, as it stood about the year 1725, to have been about six yards high. It appeared to have been a large square building and had on one side the remains of three cylindrical towers with conical basements. There were then several dwellings, pitched up out of the out-buildings etc., It also appeared to have had two principal entrances, opposite to each other, with a thorough lobby between, and not to have surrounded a quadrangle. Rounders were certainly in use as late as the time of Sir John Towneley as ex. gr. in Henry VIII's clumsy fortifications on the south coast of England' (Whitaker) Hapton Park was formerly abundantly stocked with deer, and there are remains of pitfalls dug for impounding stray deer when the two neighbouring families of the Towneleys and the Haverghams were upon bad terms with each other." (Baines).
"The Parcus de Hapton is mentioned in a document of 1329-30 ..... The deer in this park had been destroyed before 1615, though it was not divided into tenements before the beginning of the 18th century" (Whitaker). (PastScape)

Comments

PastScape record this as a 'Pele Tower' of 1320-1340 but the reference of that date may well have applied to Hapton Castle. The building described in Whitaker sounds more like a late medieval hunting lodge in the form of a tower house. However this would not exclude an earlier hunting lodge, of unknown form, at this site. Hapton Tower may have been a hunting lodge and possibly at times the chief family residence but it would seem likely the administrative and legal functions of the manor court were generally carried out at the castle as this would be more convenient for the township.