Cuerdale

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Cuerdale is a civil parish in the South Ribble district of Lancashire, England. It includes Cuerdale Hall and has no substantive settlements. It originated as a township in the parish of Blackburn, and became a separate civil parish in 1866. From 1894 it formed part of the Preston Rural District, and under the Local Government Act 1972 became part of the South Ribble district in 1974.

Cuerdale,was a township, in the parish, and Lower division of the hundred, of Blackburn, union of Preston, N. division of the county of Lancaster, 2.5 miles (E.) from Preston; containing 106 inhabitants in the 18th century. This place belonged to a family of the same name from the earliest times. About the reign of Richard II. it passed by marriage to the Molyneuxs,then Osbaldestons and since 1582 it has been the property of the Asshetons, of Downham, who formerly resided at Cuerdale Hall, a building of red brick with stone dressings, erected in a beautiful situation by William Assheton, in 1700 near the site of earlier buildings.

The Cuerdale Hoard was found in the parish.

Cuerdale is the name of an area of land on the south bank of the River Ribble about 2.5 miles east of Preston and one mile east of Walton le Dale. Cuerdale was the name of a Norman Manor, part of the Blackburn Hundred. The location of the ancient town of Cuerdale is not known to this author. One document refers to the location as being along a ridge above the flood plain of the river. The town no longer exists. There was a town and church in the area since Norman times possibly located on the site of Cuerdale Cross, an ancient stone cross located south east of Cuerdale Hall. Another possible location of the town is just west of the present site of Cuerdale Hall where satellite images may indicate the remains of foundations of some stone buildings. Cuerdale cross was converted into a war memorial about 1921.

Cuerdale is known for the discovery of a large hoard of Viking silver called the Cuerdale Hoard. Part of this treasure is now in the British Museum in London.[1] In about 905 the Cuerdale Hoard was buried slightly west of the site of present Cuerdale Hall on the South Bank of the River Ribble. This treasure rediscovered in 1840 comprising of 7,000 silver coins and silver ornamanets remains the largest Viking treasure found in Western Europe. One theory suggests that Cuerdale was chosen as the site to bury the hoard because it was the limit of the river that was navigable. The river could be navigated up to Ribchester in Roman times.

The original size of Cuerdale Manor and Cuerdale town and Church in the Middle ages has not been established. Some historians believe that Cuerdale Manor could have been larger than 8,000 acres. By 1805 the estates attached to Cuerdale Hall were around 250 acres. Cuerdale Manor contributed one fifteen of the total levy charged on the Blackburn one hundred. Satellite images of Cuerdale Hall seem to show show foundations of perhaps a dozen buildings slightly west of the current site of Cuerdale Hall and farm Buildings. These images also suggest that the access road which terminates at the Hall today once continued North to meet the river just west of the modern expressway bridge. There are a number of contemporary references to leather tanning and tailoring including glove making in the Cuerdale area dating to at least the 14th century. The Cuerdale family were involved in the manufacture of linen then cotton from the 14th century.

The remains of defensive ditches on the site of Cuerdale Hall were surveyed in the early 1990s. The hall is contained within a semi-rectangular area about 150 metres in extent formed by a deep ditch about 12 meters in width. There is a V shaped ditch about 7 metres wide and two meters deep on the southern side of the Hall. Parallel and a little further south there is a scarp which suggests that the 7 metre ditch may have been cut from an earlier and wider ditch that silted up. The evidence suggests that a fortified enclosure existed on the site that was large for a manorial enclosure in the area. Close to a ford in the River Ribble the site is of strategic significance. The fortifications have not been dated. Some moated enclosures around halls in Lancashire served a decorative rather than protective purpose.

Ekwall's The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names (Oxford, 1960). Ekwall defines the origin of Cuerdale and Curedale as "Cynferth's valley". Cynferth is a Saxon personal name.

But Cuerden, a few miles away and just south of Preston, is probably Celtic. Richard Coates and Andrew Breeze, Celtic Voices, English Places (Stamford, 2000), corrects Ekwall and gives the origin as 'rowan, mountain ash' (compare Welsh cerddinen 'mountain ash'). Reference Andrew Breeze.

An alternative explanation of the relationship of the two names is "Den" is the Saxon suffix meaning long valley. "Dalr" is the Scandinavian suffix meaning long narrow valley.

Cuerdale is not mentioned in the Domesday book. Earlier spellings were Kieurdale,Kiuerdale(1190),Kyuerdeleg(1246,1275),Kouirdale(1260),Keuirdale(1279),Keurdale(1284),Keuyrdale,Kyverdale(about 1300, may be related to Kyverdale Road in London), Keuerdale(1293,1296,1305),Kyerlay, Kiuerdale,Kiurdale, Kerdale(1337),Keuirdale(1341),Cunercheleg, Kyuerdeleg, Kynerdele(1301,1310), Keuresdale(1311), Keuresdeale (1329-1346),Keu'dale(1332),Kuredall (15th century), Kurdowe(1591),Curdowe(1612),Curedowe(1612,1614,1616),Couerdale(1484 to present- this name is found in Yorkshire and may not be from the same origin as Cuerdale variants found in Lancashire), Keverdale(1248,1274,1515,1613),Kewerdale,Kewerdall(1562),Curdall(1616),Couerdale, Kieurdale(1107), Curedall(1463,1607,1622,1643), Cuardall(1630), Curdall(1616,1621,1645,1702,1820,1885), Curdell(1616,1738,1843), Cuaredall(1615,1631), Couerdayle(1642),Kurdall(1703), Curodale(1742), Kuerdale, Curidale(1862),Cuerdale,Curedale (1463 to present).

Another theory for the origin of the name Cuerdale is that early variants of the name Cuerdale such as Keuerdale (10th century) and Keverdale (14th century map) share derivation with the Yorkshire Saxon place name Coverdale. A variant of the name Coverdale is Couerdale. Early medieval forms of the word "cover" include Keuere; Keure; Kouere; Kyuer; Kyuere. In the case of a pie, it means to put on the top crust. Same as the word ceuere. The origin of the word Coverdale is thought by some historians to be an area of a rivercourse covered by vegetation. Ceuerdale could have been a forested area of the River Ribble during Saxon times or may share some connection with the Coverdale area in Yorkshire. There are still wooded areas including Cuerdale Wood near the river at Cuerdale.

From: 'Cuerdale - Cumberland', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 746-51. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=50910. Date accessed: 12 December 2006.

One of the earliest known references to the area was Warine or Swain de Keuerdale born abt 1112 (may be the same person as Swain De Salmesbury Lord Of Hindley) and occupied site on or near location of present Cuerdale Hall. When Warine died Gilbert received half of the Manor. The rest was dividedbetween the other sons.ref Victorian History of Lancashire v7 pp 301-303 Gilbert was the oldest son of Warine died Gilbert received half of the Manor. The rest was divided between the other sons. ref Victorian History of Lancashire v7 pp 301-303. Alexander de Keuerdale son of Gilbert died before 1246 and was father of another Gilbert who was one of the jurors from this hundred at a special county court held in Lancaster that year. In 1322 the Scots army of Robert the Bruce set fire to Preston. Occupants of Samlesbury took refuge in the Church. What happened at Cuerdale is unknown. Robert de Keuerdale held the Manor in 1327 but died soon afterwards without issue. John de Keuerdale succeeded his grandfather John before 1356. His wife Denise or Dionesia was widow of John of Cuerdale, who died 15 October 1345, and as her dower they held part of the manor of Cuerdale and lands in Preston.

Nearby Samlesbury Hall was the home of the infamous Samlesbury witches. It s likely that the occupants of Cuerdale at that time were involved in the struggle between the Catholic and Protestant faiths and institutions in Lancashire. On 30 July 1837 The first Baptisms of the Mormon or Latter Day Saint Church were undertaken in the River Ribble west of Cuerdale on the south side of the river, upstream from the bridge near the end of Ribblesdale Road.

Around 1150, the area was a hundred division of the Blackburn Hundred and was a Norman Manor. The De Keuerdale family including Swain and his sons Gospatric and Gilbert lived in manorhouse near the present site of Kuerdale hall around 1145. An unusual name Cospatric is recorded in Scotland from the 11th century or perhaps earlier. The element Cos- is cognate to Welsh gwas "servant", and is thus equivalent to the Gaelic Giolla. The name appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Gospatric, in 10th to 12th century Latin documents as Cospatricius, Gospatlicus, Caius Patricius, and Gaius Patricius. Later we find Cospatric MacMadethyn 1220, also recorded as Cospatrick filius Madad 1224 The date of this construction appears to be similar to nearby Samlesbury Hall. It seems possible that Gospatric de Samlesbury who constructed Samlesbury Hall and Chapel was the same individual as Gospatric De Keuerdale.

About 6 months after John's de Keuerdale's on 15 or 20 Oct 1345 death the Manorhouse of Cuerdale was totally destroyed by fire.

The remains of a moated enclosure on the site today of uncertain date suggest that there was once a larger structure on the site than exists today.

Ownership of the Manor passed to the Molyneux family (Earl of Sefton) when the De Keuerdale family line had no male heir and Thomas Molyneux, Constable of Chester Castle married Joan De Keuerdale around 1343.

Thomas was slain at the Battle of Radcot Bridge in Oxfordshire on 20 December 1387.

"In 1387, King Richard II. sent secretly to Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland, who was levying troops in Wales, to come to him with allspeed, to aid him with the Duke of Gloucester and his friends; and commissioned at the same time Sir Thomas Molineux, Constable of Chester, a man of great influence in Cheshire and Lancashire, and the Sheriff of Chester, to raise troops, and to accompany and safe conduct the Duke of Ireland to the Kings presence. Molineux executed his commission with great zeal, imprisoning all who would not join him. Thus was raised anarmy of 5,000 men. The Duke of Ireland, having with him Molineux, Vernon, and Ratcliffe, rode forward "in statelie and glorious arraie." Supposing that none durst come forth to withstand him. Nevertheless, when he came to Radcot Bridge, four miles from Chipping Norton, he suddenly espied the army of the lords; and finding that some of his troops refused to fight, he began to wax faint hearted, and to prepare to escape by flight, in which he succeeded ; but Thomas Molineux determined to fight it out. Nevertheless, when he had fought a little , and perceived it would not avail him to tarry longer, he likewise, as one dispairing of the victory, betook himself to flight ; and plunging into the river, itchanced that Sir Roger Mortimer, being present, amongst others, called him to come out of the water to him, threatening to shoot him through with arrows, in the river, if he did not. "If I come," said Molineux,"will ye save my life?" "I will make ye no such promise," replied Sir Roger Mortimer, "but, notwithstanding, either come up, or thou shalt presently die for it." "Well then," said Molineux, "if there be no other remedy, suffer me to come up, and let me try with hand blows, either with you or some other, and so die like a man." But as he came up, the knight caught him by the helmet, plucked it off his head, and straightways drawing his dagger, stroke him into the brains, and so dispatched him. Molineux, a varlet, and a boy were the only slain in the engagement; 800 men fled into the marsh, and were drowned ; the rest were surrounded, stript, and sent home. The Duke of Ireland made his escape to the Continent ; and the King returned to London. Vide" Holinshedand, The History and Antiquities of Pleshy. Ref Raphael Hollinshed (1520-80) chronicles

In 1387 Thomas Osbaldeston inherited the manor and estate of Cuerdale. The relationship to Thomas Molineux is uncertain. He may have been married to Katherine, Thomas Molineux's daughter.

Cuerdale Hall passed into the ownership of the Osbaldeston family and then the Asheton Family and the presentday owner is a member of the Asheton family, Lord Clitheroe who sublets Cuerdale Hall Farm.

22 October 1602 "Commission: Elizabeth I to the sheriff and his deputies - delivery of peaceable possession to Alexander Barlowe and Anthony Parker, executors of the will of Edward Scaresbrecke, esquire, dec'd, of the manor of Osbaldeston, the manor of Cuerdalle alias Keuerdale, fishing in the Ribble, the manor of Over darwen, and property in Walton-in-le-dale, Preston and Ribchester, in payment of John Osbaldeston's debt of £1400"

Cromwell's army camped in the area before the Battle of Preston in 1648.

Richard Kuerden was a lecturer at Oxford University and an antiquarian in the 1600s. He compiled a history of Lancashire in 11 volumes that was not published. Several of the hand written volumes exist in the College of Arms in London. He claimed that the Kuerden family were descended from the Keuerdale family though records to substantiate this claime have not been found.

The Cuerdale family were members of the Preston Guild through the fifteen and sixteenth centuries. Richard Cuerdale was an alderman of the Guild.

[edit] Current status

No known members of the family now use the spelling Cuerdale. There were about 20 individuals in 1900 who used the spelling Cuerdale and another approximately 20 who used the spelling Curedale. The last known member was married in Lancashire around 1943. The Curedale family who take their name from the area today consist of about 30 individuals living in Dublin, Ireland, Hertfordshire England, Western Australia and the US. The Irish members of the family are descendants of John Standish Curedale who moved to Ireland in the late 1800s and was a designer and craftsman of stained glass windows. He won an international competition to design the circular stained glass windows in St Georges Hall Liverpool. His some Jackie or Sean Curedale was a member of the Irish Republican Army during the unrest in the early twentieth century.

The Australian branch of the family are descendants of George Ward Boustead Curedale who was transported from England to Fremantle around 1860 on the convict ship Nile for uttering forged promisary notes. George was the owner of a cotton mill in Lancashire and was arrested using a false name in Hamburg Germany. He later established one of the first wineries in Western Australia and was a pioneer of the wine industry. He had at least seventeen children.

From the 1700s members of the family adopted the spelling Curedale though this had been used occasionally interchangeably with Cuerdale since the fifteenth century.

There was a branch of the Curedale family living in Brooklyn, New York from 1873. Mary Curedale wife of William Henry Curedale and her son David, arrived New York 5 Jul 1871 aboard ship City of Limerick from Liverpool England. The last known member of that branch of the family is Jonathan Curedale Calvert living in Texas.