Enclosure

This was perhaps one of the most dramatic events determining the shape of Coppull as we know it today. The commons – where inhabitants of the village had grazed their animals,- and the wastes – where they had taken gorse to make fires, clay to make bricks and sundry other materials, were divided into parcels and shared amongst a small number of the richest landowners in the village.

The Coppull Chapel Case refers to the enclosure agreement between John Pearson, the new Lord of the Manor, Richard Clayton, Lord of the neighbouring Manor of Worthington and the freeholders of the village of Coppull.

There was an agreement to sell land in 1785 between Lady Isabela Dorothea Stanley and Joseph Haydock Boardman, which sold the lands of the latter, some of which had been bought as part of the bankruptcy land sale of Alexander Rigby around 1720 by Boardman,s grandfather Joseph Haydock. The sale makes reference to the inclosure of the wastes and commons of Coppull in 1736, and also to a map made as part of the enclosure, which numbered the newly enclosed plots of land.