Oakenrod Hall was built by a family of farmers who found an
effective way of settling a quarrel over their land – they used
bows and arrows. James Gartsyde of Rachdayle, whose family built
the hall, once sent a pair of unwelcome visitors running with
the sound of arrows whistling around their ears. At the time of
Henry VIII, a row blew up between Gartsyde and one Thomas Holt
of Gizzlehurst, over who owed Oakenrod Hall and nearby land.
Gartsyde declared his family had farmed the land for more than a
century, paying an annual rent of 15s 6d to the Abbot of
Whalley, but Henry VIII took the land form the church and sold
it to Thomas Holt. The new owner wanted Gartsyde and his
labourers off the land and set a deadline for them to clear out.
Gartsyde does not seem to have been impressed, because next we
hear that he and a band of men armed with bows and arrows,
swords, pikes and staves, attacked Holt and his wife. They
“riotously entered” the disputed land and began shooting arrows
at the terrified couple. It seems