at Rivington Hall. The Pilkingtons held the Manor of Rivington until the death of Robert Pilkington in 1605 and his share of the manor was sold on 30 March 1611 to relatives Robert Lever and Thomas Breres for £1730 retaining New Hall, along with the other lands for the benefit of Katherine Pilkington and her heirs. The most notable of the Pilkingtons of Rivington was James Pilkington, first Protestant Bishop of Durham, born about 1518, the son of Richard Pilkington of Rivington Hall and Alice Asshawe, he founded the free Grammar school at Rivington, in 1566 on a charter being granted by Queen Elizabeth I. The land was leased to the school from 1587 by George Pilkington on its original site in Rivington village. Another school was built on the border with Horwich now known as Rivington and Blackrod High School after amalgamation in 1875 with the nearby Blackrod Grammar School, the charter also granted the rights of an Anglican Church on the village Chapel, built by his father Richard Pilkington. The family are recorded in the Pilkington painting. The original picture measured 53 by 35 inches and damaged by a fire in 1834. A copy was created in 1821 and from that another made in 1835 which is on display at Rivington Church. References Notes Bibliography . . . History of Lancashire Rivington