Following info. gathered from excerpts from Crooke Hall to Lisieux Hall (Whittle-le-Woods). By B.D. Kelly

The Brothers of Charity bought the Crooke Hall Estate in August 1931 and renamed it Lisieux Hall. For 700 years prior to the purchase by the Brothers, the estate had been owned by only 3 families.
This property first belonged to Thomas D. Whittle who made a grant of land to his brother Hugh at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Hugh’s family took the name of de Crook and they lived on the estate until 1569, when Catherine and Mary Crook sold the property to the Clayton family of Leyland. They eventually sold the estate in 1666 to William Crooke of Coppull. William Crooke was a man of enormous wealth with numerous estates in Lancashire.
His son Samuel built New Crooke Hall at the end of the 17th century, this became the family home of the Crooke family. Samuel became Lord High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1717, and later married Ann Hoghton of Hoghton Towers, one of the most prominent families in Lancashire.
The Brothers of Charity bought the Crooke Hall estate in response to a request from the Archbishop of Liverpool. The Brothers of Charity paid 6,000pounds for the new Crooke Hall estate, with stables, outbuildings, gardens, grounds, cottages and fields totaling 73 acres.
In order to extend the work of the farm, the Brothers bought Old Crooke Hall farm in May 1934 for 2,500pounds. “
The following information is taken from Notes on the early Crooks of Crook, Whittle-le-Woods
By Frederick Crooks.
“The Manor, or estate of Crook in the township of Whittle-le-Woods, may therefore owe its name to some early owner bearing the personal name Croc. It was from this estate that the Crook family adopted the place name “de Crook” as their surname in the 13th century and from this period onwards the surname was hereditary.
According to Victorian History of Lancashire the first known ancestor of the Crooks of Crook was apparently Gilbert de Whittle. Gilbert de Whittle had a son Henry de Whittle in the 12 c who made a grant of land in Whittle to the Knights Hospitallers.
William Croke of “Whytthull in the Woddes” died in November 1506. Anthony Crook the son, died in 1525. He divided his Manor of Crook between his daughters Catherine and Mary who in 1569/70 sold their moieties [each of two social or ritual groups into which a people is divided] to John and Thomas Clayton of Ulnes Walton and Leyland.
Samuel Crook of Crook esquire, named in his father’s will as his eldest son and to whom his father willed his ancient lands. He was High Sheriff of Lancaster in 1717.
Having regard to the probability that some of the early Claytons had a common origin with the Whittles and the Crooks. It is of interest to note that the Claytons of Chorley in the 16 C bore the same arms as did the 17C Crooks of Crook.
In Leyland Parish Church are the following monuments : Tablet on the South wall of the Chancel bears the following inscription “ to the memory of Samuel Crook late of Leyland, Gentleman. Gratefully to be respected for his extensive and well directed Charities, yearly distributed within this Parish and that of Croston, He died 10th February 1776 aged 82 years.
The present house known as Old Crook Hall is now a farmhouse and nothing remains of the original building except probably some foundations . New Crook Hall was first built in 1590.
When the last representative of the later Crooks of Crook died in 1861 this estate had been in the hands of descendants of the same stock for approximately 600 years.

extracts by Alice Smalley