SOURCE - what seems like a newspaper cutting from Radcliffe Library, no date or newspaper name visible
There are few older buildings in the North of England than Radcliffe Tower.
For centuries before the Norman Conquest, Radcliffe, Redcleeve, or Redcliffe Tower, was known and the Radcliffe family were the leading force in this country. In the Domesday Survey only three other places are named in the Hundred of Salford - Manchester, Ordsall, and Rochdale.
Radcliffe originally included Bury, Elton, and Lower Tottington. It was a scattreed manor - Radcliffe, Brieghtmet, Little Bolton, Hermston. The Lord of the Manor was the direct vassal of the King. In 1189 Henry de Radcliffe was witness to a deed of gift of land to the priory of Burscough.
The original Radcliffe Tower was built long before the structure, the ruins of which are in our midst today. The Tower was standing in 1189 and King Henry IV gave a subsequent lord of the manor James de Radcliffe permission to rebuild it in 1403. If he was of the same race as his forebears, he was a Saxon or a Dane.
In addition to the Manor of Radcliffe, he held land in Edgeworth and Little Lever. The estate included Edgeworth, Entwistle, and Quarlton, all in the parish of Bolton-le-Moors.
Richard, the son of Robert de Radcliffe, succeeded his father in 1282, holding the eighth of a "fee" in Radcliffe of the Earl of Lancaster. He accompanied Edward I on his conquest of Scotland. The King gave to him a "grant of free warren in his demesne lands in Radcliffe and Quarandon (i.e. Quarrlton), situate on the south-west of the Parish of Holcombe". This grant is dated from Strevelin 32nd, Edward First, 1304. We may assume this was a reward for his services.
The Royal demesne lands were considerable and the shooting rights were not confined to the hare, pheasant, or partridge, but the larger game, the red deer and the boar, not ommitting the fox and wolf.
These rights extended to Little Bolton, Turton, Edgeworth, and Entwistle, which embrace the district now covered by the Holcombe Harriers, the oldest hunt in England.
The Hall of Radcliffe Tower is the reputed scene of Lady Isabella's Tragedy. Fair Isabella was the only daughter and child of Lord Thoams, whose figurea are graven on the chancel tomb in the old church near by.
Adam de Radcliffe (lord of the manor 1223 to 1269) in 1246, was summoned for digging for minerals, "minera", eight years after the licence was given to the people of Newcastle to dig for coal.
This endeavour to discover coal is the most interesting fact, not only in the history of Radcliffe, but of Lancashire, in view of what a motive power coal has since become to industry. Little did Adam de Radcliffe dream of the power that lay in that black mineral.
He began his search by digging on land in Little Lever, which bordered on that of his kinsman. This caused a dispute in law.
In 1333 Richard succeded his father, William, and for a short period was patron of the livings of Radcliffe and Prestwich. In 1358 Richard was High Sheriff of Lancashire.
The tower was then a hall of stone (reputedly with two towers). The Hall and Tower were apparently well maintained till the sixteenth century, when, the Radcliffe family (now the Earls of Sussex) sold the manor and its estates to Richard Ashton in 1561. he was Lord of the Manor of Middleton. The Tower was occupied by members of the Ashton family for the next two hundred years.
In 1765, the Ashton estates were divided between two daughters. One married Sir Thomas de Egerton, of Heaton Park, who became Lord Grey de Wilton, and the manor of Radcliffe was her share. The family resided at Prestwich, and the Tower became neglected.
Sir Alexander Radcliffe of Ordsall, was an active Roayalist at the seige of Manchester. He was decended from Sir John Radcliffe of radcliffe Tower, who married Joan, daughter of Sir Robert Holland, and sister of Thomas, Earl of Kent, the husband of Joan Plantagenet, who afterwards became the wife of Edward the Black Prince.
Thus Sir John was seated at Ordsall as early as 1302, and his decendants continued there for more than three and a half centuries.
The last of the family who occupied the ancestral home was Sir Alexander, who died at Stoke in 1669, when the Ordsall line became extinct, and the whole estate passed into the hands of the Birch's of Ardwick.
In the year 1800 the ruin was visited by Dr.Whittaker, the historian.
The hall was then intact, and judging from an engraving, the roof was in good condition. It shows Radcliffe Hall as he saw it. The noble hall was 43 feet in length by 26 to 28 feet in width.
The principals which supported the roof were the most curious specimens of woodwork he had ever seen.
The broadest timbers were 2ft 7in by 10in. The walls were finished at the square by a moulded cornice of oak. The Tower is of early Norman architecture. A massive plinth encircles the tower. The walls are 5ft 3in thick and the internal measurements are 40ft by 18ft.