RADCLIFFE, Lancashire

Radcliffe is an industrial town located about 12 mi to the north of Manchester. It is one of the 5 boroughs that were brought together to form the Metropolitan Borough of Bury in 1974.

The town centres on the confluence of the rivers Roach and Irwell just upstream of where the Irwell had forced a gorge through glacial debris in around 10000 BC.

The town's history dates back to the stone ages. Evidence (worked flints and microliths etc) possibly dating back to 6000 BC has been uncovered at Radcliffe Ees by the confluence of the rivers.

No more evidence of settlement is available until that of the Roman times. In the first century AD the Roman conqueror Agricola started to build military roads and settlements in the area. Starting from Mamcunium (Manchester), he had built a supply road to Brematonicum (Ribchester), and remains of this road have been uncovered in various places in Radcliffe. It formed the boundary between the manors of Radcliffe and Bury for centuries, and until the 1974 re-organisation of local government the line of the road acted as the boundary between the two boroughs. There is tell of a Roman way station Coccium and one of the suspected locations is Cockey Moor (Ainsworth) which overlooks the town about 2 miles northward on the Roman road.

Radcliffe, or Radecliue is mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086). It is one of four manors in the district that are mentioned - the others are Salford, Rochdale and Manchester. This may be because the manor was owned by the former King Edward the Confessor as part of the boundary between the Saxon Mercia and the Viking controlled wilds. The manor was given away in one the many grants the Norman kings made, and the dynasty known as the 'Radclyffes of the Tower' was formed.

In 1249, the lord of the manor was sued for the theft of common land on which he dug for coal. This is the first recorded coal-mining in England.

During the English Civil War (1640s), Bury was pro-crown, and Bolton and Radcliffe were for parliament. There were numerous skirmishes, including the siege and massacre of Bolton in 1644. There are numerous stories of battles, and field burial grounds in the area, including a great burial ground at Coggra Fold Farm. This farm is, today, the centre of a dispute between the landlord (Lord Wilton) and the residents over the landlord's desire to create a large open-cast coal mine at the farm.

In the eighteenth century, industry arrived in earnest...
To be continued