VCH Lancs. 2.610. The school was in existence by 1610, when an inquisition found that Henry As[h]croft and others had given £136/11/8 for the use and maintenance of a free grammar school. Ashcroft had died in 1601. For details of the founation and school, see W.K. Jordan, The Social Institutions of Lancashire, Chetham Soc., 3rd. ser., vol. 9 (1962), 53-4.