page_title: Buckley, Greater Manchester
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Buckley, Greater Manchester / History
caption_attribution_description: A map of Buckley, then in the Rochdale borough of Lancashire (now Greater Manchester), in North West England.
context_page_description: Buckley is a suburban area within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies at the northern fringe of Rochdale, along the course of Buckley Brook, "upon an eminence of ground" by the South Pennines. It is 1.2 miles south-southwest of the village of Wardle and 1.3 miles north-northeast of Rochdale's town centre. Buckley spans a watercourse, a prison, farmland and residential properties.
  Buckley emerged as a constituent community of the manor of Hundersfield following the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. Although the name Buckley is of Old English derivation, the settlement's medieval history is tied closely to a Norman family who were granted the estate as a gift for their services given in the Norman conquest of England; they subsequently adopted the surname 'de Buckley'. Members of the Buckleys of Buckley family appear throughout the High Middle Ages in legal charters related to Buckley, the surrounding area, and its manor house Buckley Hall.
  Throughout the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, Buckley was the principal estate of the township of Wardleworth.
context_section_description: Buckley emerged as a settlement following the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the Early Middle Ages. The name Buckley is derived from the Old English term æblæc hlæw, which translates as "bleak hill". This Old English term became corrupted to "Blakelow", and then into the variants of "Bucklegh", "Bulkey", "Bukklegh", and "Bucley" before settling on "Buckley".
  The medieval hamlet of Buckley lay within the Anglo-Saxon manor of Hundersfield, in the parish of Rochdale. It remained in obscurity until the 11th century, when it is believed that Normans loyal to William the Conqueror were given the estate as a reward for their services given during the Norman conquest of England. It is from this exchange that the "ancient" and "local" family of Buckley — the progenitors of the Buckley surname in North West England — was founded. "Geoffrey de Buckley" is the earliest known member of the Buckley family, who appeared during the 12th century in charters relating to Stanlow Abbey, Whalley Abbey and land exchange in and around the hamlet of Buckley. Although Buckley is a term of Old English derivation, the given name Geoffrey is of Old French origin, and the use of the nobiliary particle 'de' indicates the Norman origins of the Buckley family. Geoffrey de Buckley served as the Dean of Whalley, and his nephew, also called Geoffrey de Buckley, was killed at the Battle of Evesham in 1265 and is commemorated in windows at Worcester Cathedral and Lichfield Cathedral.
  At the centre of the Buckley estate was a watermill used for grinding grain, which existed at least as early as 1335, and Buckley Hall, which first appears in written records in a description dated 1626. Buckley Hall was noted as a "faire mansion house", and was owned by a family or families surnamed Buckley, after the locality. The Buckleys of Buckley used Buckley Hall as a chapel and residence and continued to have influence over local and regional affairs as priests, yeomen, esquires and other gentry into the Early Modern Period; Geoffrey Buckley of Buckley was the Rector of St Alban's Church in London during the 1470s, and John Buckley of Buckley, son of Abel, was a Lieutenant Colonel with the Roundheads at the Siege of Lathom House during the English Civil War.  When the manor of Hundersfield was abolished and its territory subdivided amongst new townships, Buckley Hall and its surrounding area fell within the bounds of Wardleworth. Buckley appears to have been the "principal estate" of Wardleworth and encompassed land in the outlying areas of Foxholes and Fieldhouse. The main line of the Buckley family continued to own Buckley Hall and its estates, while other members founded new families in Saddleworth, and Shaw and Crompton.  The lineal descendants of the Buckleys of Buckley gradually diminished in number and influence through death and migration; the last member of the main branch of the Buckleys of Buckley was a Captain William Buckley. In 1722, Captain Buckley had a lethal dispute with Major Samuel Crooke, the High Sheriff of Lancashire, regarding a right of way in Higher Walton, Lancashire. Buckley and Cooke entered a duel at Rochdale in which Cooke was killed. Buckley was tried at the assizes in Lancaster and found guilty of manslaughter, but received "only a light sentence". He died in 1730.
  The demise of the Buckleys of Buckley, combined with the urbanisation of the expanding market town of Rochdale, brought about the gradual obsolescence of the Buckley estate. Buckley Hall passed from Captain William Buckley to his nephew Thomas Foster (who assumed the surname of Buckley), and his son, Edward Buckley, who in 1786 sold the hall and estate to Robert Entwisle. Although by 1626 a "considerable part of the town of Rochdale was built on the southern side of Wardleworth", the industrialisation of Rochdale advanced its encroachment upon the bounds of Buckley. In 1825 part of Wardleworth was included in the area of the commissioners for the improvement of the town of Rochdale, and an act of parliament in 1839 allowed Rochdale's Water Works Company to construct a re
caption: Buckley, as mapped by the Ordnance Survey between 1888 and 1947.
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