Nicholas de Radeclive built a manor house in the late 11th or early 12th century near a crossing point of the River Irwell on the Roman road from Manchester to Ribchester. Radcliffe Tower is all that remains of this manor house, after being rebuilt by Richard De Radcliffe in the fifteenth century (1403), at twenty feet tall, the ruin remnant remained until the demolition of the timber hall and house attached to the stone pele tower in the nineteenth century.
When James de Radcliffe planned the rebuilding of his manor house, his intention was that it should be fortified. This would mean gaining permission from the King. A 'licence to crenellate' was granted to James on the 15th of August 1403 by King Henry IV. Under its terms James was allowed to construct a new great hall and two towers and to enclose these with an outer wall. In 1561, the manor was sold by Robert Radcliffe a distant relative of James, to the Assheton family, and by the 1670s the manor house and lands were being leased to local farmers. The Tower and great hall were used as farm buildings until the 1950s.
Even in its present ruined condition, the Tower stands as an impressive reminder of a time when Radcliffe was a medieval manor, governed by a family who ranked amongst the most important in Lancashire.
I went down to the site and took some pictures:
No comments:
Post a Comment