Chadderton, United Kingdom

The study of place names in Chadderton suggests that the ancient Britons once inhabited the area. Remains of Roman roads have been discovered running through the town, and the local road name Streetbridge suggests that the Romans once marched along it on a path which may have led to Blackstone Edge. Relics found at a tumulus in Chadderton Fold date from the Early Middle Ages, probably from the early period of Anglo-Saxon England, when Angles settled in the area and Chadderton emerged as a manor of the hundred of Salford.

Chadderton is not recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Its first appearance in a written record is in a legal document from around 1220, which states that Robert, Rector of Prestwich, gave land to Richard, son of Gilbert, in exchange for an annual fee of one silver penny. Following the Norman conquest, Chadderton was made a constituent manor of the wider Royal Estate of Tottington, an extensive fee held by the Norman overlord, Roger de Montbegon. Taxation and governance continued on this basis throughout the Middle Ages, with the Barons Montbegon of Hornby Castle holding the estate, until it passed to the Barons Lacy of Clitheroe Castle, and then onto local families. In about 1235, the sub-manor of Chadderton and Foxdenton passed from Richard de Trafford of Trafford Park to Geoffrey de Trafford, who adopted the surname of Chadderton, thus founding the Chadderton family. During the High Middle Ages, pieces of land in Chadderton were granted to religious orders and institutions, including Cockersand Abbey and the Knights Hospitaller.

The manorial system was strong in Chadderton, and this lent distinction to the township, in a region which otherwise had weak local lordship. Throughout the Middle Ages, the manor of Chadderton constituted a township, centred on the hill by the banks of the River Irk, known as Chadderton Fold. The fold consisted of a cluster of cottages centred on Chadderton Hall manor house, and a water-powered corn mill. Chadderton Hall was owned and occupied by the de Chaddertons. Geoffrey de Chadderton became the Lord of the manor of Tottington in the 13th century. The de Chaddertons' involvement in regional and national affairs gave prestige to what was otherwise an obscure and rural township. William Chaderton was Bishop of Chester from 1579 to 1595 and held distinguished academic posts such as Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity. Laurence Chaderton was the first Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and among the first translators of the King James Version of the Bible. Tottington was dissolved in the mid-15th century and there came a succession of distinguished families, each headed by an esquire with links to the monarchs of England. The Radclyffe, Assheton, and Horton families provided six High Sheriffs of Lancashire and a Governor of the Isle of Man.

Apart from the dignitaries who lived in Chadderton's manor houses, Chadderton's population during the Middle Ages comprised a small community of retainers, most of whom were occupied in farming, either growing and milling of grain and cereal or raising cattle, sheep, pigs and domestic fowl. Workers supplemented their incomes by hand-loom spinning and weaving of wool at home. The community was ravaged by an outbreak of the Black Death in 1646.