Great Eccleston
Eccleston means "farmstead by a Romano-British Christian Church". Great Eccleston is recorded as "Eglestun" in the Doomsday Book and "Great Ecleston" in 1285. The Leckonby House was originally the stable to the home of the Leckonby family who were the major landowners in Great Eccleston for five generations up to the 18th century. A fire destroyed the original Leckonby House in 1766 after Richard Leckonby had been imprisoned in Lancaster Castle for a debt.
On a small hill (Copp) half a mile south of Great Eccleston is a chapel that was built 250 years ago for members of St. Michael's-on-Wyre and Kirkham churches who found it difficult to attend their parish churches. In 1723 St. Anne's Chapel was built at Copp. The name sop or copp comes from an old Saxon word "Kopff", meaning the head or top of anything.
