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Welcome! This website was created on 10 Oct 2004 and last updated on 20 Jan 2024. The family trees on this site contain 12014 relatives and 757 photos. If you have any questions or comments you may send a message to the Administrator of this site.
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About The Ratcliffe/Radcliffe/Lockeys and their extended families
The Ratcliffe Coat of Arms

Blazon of Arms:Argent two Bendlets engrales Sable (Silver or White)                  Indicates Sincerity.
            Crest: A Bulls head erased sable ducally gored and lined.           Origin: England.

                          The Ratcliffe name meaning.

Ivor De Tailbois or John Talbot in English the first Earl of Holland and Baron  of Kendal was born in Anjou Normandy between the years 1020/30 his brother was  the Earl of Normandy,he died in the year 1094 in England,Ivor is claimed to be  the proginator of the Radclyff,Radcliff,Ratcliffe family name. Ivor fought alonside William the Conqueror in Norman conquest and the Battle  of Hastings in 1066, and in the year 1068 as a reward for his loyalty from now  King William of England, he was given estates taken from the Saxon Hereward  the Wake in Lincolnshire and Norfolk.
 Ivor married Lucia Ap Gruffyed Mallet,daughter of Earl Aelfgar,she was of  royal line been the grandaughter of Gruffyed King of Wales.
 Ivor had three children,Lucia De Tailbois,Nicholas Fitzgilbert and Aelftred  Tailbois born 1045 know as the "Englishman" in Mercia England. Aelftred marries Adgitha of Northumberland and they have a son Gilbert De  Frunesco
  De Tailbois born about the year 1070, he marries Goditha "Lady Goditha" and  they have a son called
 Nicholas Fitz Gilbert De tailbois born about 1097 he was 
 given the Manor 
 of Radeclive from his Lord,named so because of it's position next to the river  Irwell in now Lancashire and renown for it's red clay.
 On this site he built Radcliffe Tower,the ruins still stand to this day in the  town of Radcliffe in Lancashire.The De Radclyff's ranked amongst the most  important families in Lancashire including been Knights of the  Shire.Eventually the name Tailbois was dropped and 
 the family took on the name De Radclyff,meaning of the RED Cliff who's name  variants now take place in the family lineage.

Radcliffe Tower
 Radcliffe Tower stands close to Radcliffe Parish Church and is surrounded on  three sides by the River Irwell, on the opposite bank of which is the 'red  cliff', which is said to have given Radcliffe its name.

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. These were the de  Radcliffes and it was a member of this family, James de Radcliffe, who in 1403  ordered the construction of the Tower as part of an ambitious rebuilding of  his manor house.

Little is know about the manor house of Radcliffe prior to that date, although  excavations in 1979-80 by the Bury Archaeology Group suggest that it stood on  the site of the later buildings. Its focal point was probably a great hall,  built in timber. That the pre-1403 manor house also included a stone tower, as  has sometimes been supposed, remains unproven.



 

The 'licence to crenellate'
 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. It has  been a continuing debate as to whether one or two towers were built. Sketches  do exist showing two, but no present or archaeological evidence exists to  support the argument for two towers.

The Tower
 It was built in the local red sandstone and is of a type known as a 'pele  tower'. This type of medieval fortification is to be found mainly in the north  of England, and were typically rectangular in plan, three stories in height,  with a single room on each floor. The ground floor was usually roofed with  stone vaulting. All these features are found at Radcliffe Tower but the Tower  also includes some more unusual details.
 The Tower internally measured 12.2 metres thick from north to south by 5.5  metres from east to west, with the walls 1.5 metres thick. In the south-west  corner this width increased to 1.8 metres to accomodate a staircase which was  built into the thickness of the wall. Elsewhere a double plinth ran along the  base of the outside walls and increased the wall thickness to 1.9 metres. The ground floor of the Tower was entered by a doorway in the centre of the  west wall.

Later history
 The manor house was occupied for more than a hundred years. In 1517, however,  the manor passed to a distant relative Rober Radcliffe, Lord Fitz Walter, who  in 1529 was made the Earl of Sussex. In 1561 the third Earl sold the manor to  the Assheton family who lived at Middleton Hall, and by the 1670s the manor  house and lands were being leased to local farmers.

Today the Tower is protected under law as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.  Purchased from Wimpey by Bury Council in 1988 for a nominal fee of £5, it lies  approximately 1km east of Radcliffe town centre off the A6053 (Bury Street).  At present there is no public access to the Tower but the building can be  viewed from the south end of Sandiford Street.

RESEARCH SOURCES:

This ever growing family tree is down to the input from my Cousins distant and  close,without the help of these  people a lot of this research would not have  been found,My Second Cousin Colleen O'Grady who now lives in Australia is now  helping me to put this site together,here are a few names of other cousins and  relations to who credit must be given for there research and input:

Bernard Arundel(UK Yorkshire),Richelle Trerice Arundel(UK Yorkshire),Kristel Arundel (UK  Yorkshire/Australia),Graham 
 Bate (UK Staffordshire),Paul Brown (UK 
 Yorkshire)Tom Cockeram (UK Doncaster Yorkshire )Tony Carroll (UK Yorkshire,)Sarah  Eaton (Uk Yorkshire)Patricia Forbes (UK 
 Yorkshire),Audrey Foster(UK 
 Staffordshire),Cedric 
 Fletcher(UK 
 Staffs/W Mids),Wayne Fletcher (Uk Staffs/W Mids),Rhonda Ferntorp  (Australia) Jill Hardy (UK Durham/Yorkshire),Roger Hill (UK Yorkshire),Laurence  Johnson(UK Yorkshire)
 Colleen O'Grady(Uk Yorkshire & 
 Australia),Colleen 
 Taylor(USA Pennsylvania)
 Terry 
 Langhorne(UK Yorkshire),Emma Lee(UK Yorkshire),Carol Loxton(UK Yorkshire)Ian  Trippick(UK Somerset)Geoffrey Stewart Nebel (UK Somerset) Shilrley Valente (UK Yorkshire)and  Corinne Spencer-
 McDonnell(USA Alaska) who's work with the Latter- 
 day Saints is of great value to this site.
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Getting Around
There are several ways to browse the family tree. The Tree View graphically shows the relationship of selected person to their kin. The Family View shows the person you have selected in the center, with his/her photo on the left and notes on the right. Above are the father and mother and below are the children. The Ancestor Chart shows the person you have selected in the left, with the photograph above and children below. On the right are the parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. The Descendant Chart shows the person you have selected in the left, with the photograph and parents below. On the right are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Do you know who your second cousins are? Try the Kinship Relationships Tool. Your site can generate various Reports for each name in your family tree. You can select a name from the list on the top-right menu bar.

In addition to the charts and reports you have Photo Albums, the Events list and the Relationships tool. Family photographs are organized in the Photo Index. Each Album's photographs are accompanied by a caption. To enlarge a photograph just click on it. Keep up with the family birthdays and anniversaries in the Events list. Birthdays and Anniversaries of living persons are listed by month. Want to know how you are related to anybody ? Check out the Relationships tool.

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