The Domesday Book

Walton le Dale in The Domesday Book

Walton [-le-Dale] was recorded as a settlement in Domesday Book. It was in the hundred of Blackburn and the county of Cheshire.

It had no recorded population.

Summary Domesday Entry: Walton[-le-Dale] 🏰

• Hundred: Blackburn
• County: Cheshire
• Tenant-in-chief (1086): Roger of Poitou
• Lords (1086): Albert Grelley and Roger of Bully
• Lord (1066): King Edward the Confessor
• Ploughland: 11.5 men’s plough teams — indicating substantial arable land
• Annual value to lord (1066): £32 2s — a high valuation for its time
• Recorded population: None explicitly noted (no breakdown of households)
• Other notes: Entry grouped with nearby holdings—Huncoat, Pendleton, and Walton

The Name for Walton-le-Dale

This entry gives one of the earliest written records of Walton-le-Dale’s name. The variations all point to the same root:

• Walh-tūn – the farmstead or settlement of the Britons,
• “Wal-” indicating native Britons (non-Anglo-Saxon) or foreigners,
• “-ton”/”-tune” for a settlement.

Over time, this evolved to Walton. The “-le-Dale” part was a later medieval addition to distinguish it from other Waltons (like Walton-le-Height, Walton-on-the-Hill, etc.), denoting its location in the valley of the Ribble.

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The Land between the Ribble and Mersey

THE DOMESDAY RECORD OF THE LAND BETWEEN RIBBLE AND MERSEY.
By Andrew E. P. Gray, M.A., F.S.A., – RECTOR OF WALLASEY.
(Read 1^st December, 1887.)

As to the Townships mentioned in South Lancashire. It is well known that Domesday is here much more meagre than in most parts of England. Newton and Warrington are the only places spoken of by name in their respective Hundreds. In Blackburn Hundred we have the names of Blackburn, Whalley, Huncoat near Accrington, Walton-le-Dale, and Pendleton near Clitheroe ; in Salford Hundred those of Salford, Ratcliff, Manchester, and Rochdale ; whilst Leyland and Penwortham are the only names given in Leyland Hundred. On the other hand, in Derby Hundred we have the names of more than 40 townships
or hamlets ; but this is all out of the 188 manors which Domesday itself says existed between Ribble and Mersey.

The Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire:
https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/39-4-Gray.pdf

Roger of Poitou

Roger the Poitevin or Roger de Poitou (mid-1060s – before 1140) was an Anglo-Norman aristocrat who held extensive estates in England in the late 11th century and acquired further holdings in France through marriage. He lost most of his English lands in the early 12th century.

Roger acquired a great lordship in England, with lands across the country. The principal part of the lordship was in what was then called inter Mersam et Ripam, that is, “between the Mersey and the Ribble”. This land is now divided between Lancashire, Merseyside, and Greater Manchester. After 1090, he also assumed the title 1st Lord of Bowland.