LEMON HOUSE was the seat of an ancient family who were probably hereditary judges or law men of the court baron of Walton. Thurstan Banastre gave land here in the time of John or early Henry III to Kandelan son of Robert, and it afterwards passed to Adam son of the Laghmon who occurs in 1246. Others of the line are Henry (1278 and 1292), Henry son of Henry Laghmon or Laweman (1332), Robert son of Henry (1347), Robert and Ralph sons of Richard son of Robert (1415-23). Robert Lemon had Ralph, and in 1504 John Lemon and Robert his brother occur. James Lemon of Walton, brother of Edmund of Preston, was father of William, an alderman at Preston gild in 1622; Henry his son was an in-burgess in 1642, and William son of Henry a councillor of the gild in 1662 and alderman in 1682. As William Lemon, gent., he sold the Lemon House estate in 1663 to John Woodcock the elder, descended from the family of Woodcock of Cuerden Green. His grandson John Woodcock alienated the estate before 1742.
The previous text is an excerpt from A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6 (part of the Victoria County History series), specifically from the section covering the township of Walton-le-Dale.
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Based on the Victoria County History (above), Lemon House appears to have been the home of an ancient local family who may have held the hereditary role of judges or lawmen for the court baron of Walton. The earliest known connection dates from the reign of King John or the early years of Henry III, when Thurstan Banastre granted land here to Kandelan, son of Robert. The property subsequently passed through several generations of the family, whose members appear in records from the 13th to the 15th centuries under names including Laghmon, Laweman and Lemon.
By the early 16th century the family was established as the Lemons of Walton. James Lemon was the brother of Edmund Lemon of Preston and the father of William Lemon, who became an alderman of Preston in 1622. William’s son Henry was admitted as an in-burgess in 1642, while his grandson, another William Lemon, became a councillor of the Preston Guild in 1662 and an alderman in 1682.
In 1663 William Lemon, described as a gentleman, sold the Lemon House estate to John Woodcock the elder, a member of the Woodcock family of Cuerden Green. The estate remained with the Woodcocks for a time, but his grandson, John Woodcock, had disposed of it by 1742.
Preston Guild Merchant records of 1722 has Woodcock of Lemon House recorded within the Burgesses on the Roll of 1722.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, Lemon House has become a farmhouse and, as much the same as other properties in the Walton le Dale area, it was owned by the de Hoghton family. The landscape had already changed considerably by then, with the Lancaster Canal Tram Road passing through the fields that would have been associated with the farm.
By the 1960s the Old Tram Road was just a dirt road. Whilst this section of the Lancaster Canal’s infrastructure had continued in use longer than the sections closer to the River Ribble, bringing coal from Walton Summit to Bamber Bridge, it had still been inactive for much of the twentieth century. It is interesting to note the names of the building change over time. The original Lemon House has become known as Old Lemon House and what was once called West House is shown as Lemon House. There were already buildings to the north of this, right next to the Old Tram Road. They are shown as New Lemon House on the 1960s map.
Lemon House Farm in Bamber Bridge, which was within the boundaries of the Walton le Dale district, would have either been Lemon House or New Lemon House, as indicated on the map. It is hard to say for sure which one. Both have since been demolished. They would have been destroyed as the later Walton Summit Industrial Estate was established in the area. The Old Lemon House and some of the accompanying farm buildings still exist within the Industrial Estate. Most people don’t even realise that there’s an early seventeenth century house stuck in the middle of all the factories and warehouses. The property itself is currently owned by a local cement company.
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Further reading and sources of information
Old Lemon House on Seed Lee Road, as listed on the National Heritage List for England.
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1074108
British History Online – ‘Townships: Walton-le-Dale’, in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6, ed. William Farrer, J. Brownbill (London, 1911):
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol6/pp289-300
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