Kersal

Kersal has been variously known as Kereshale, Kershal, Kereshole, Carshall and Kersall. The name incorporates the Old English word halh, meaning "a piece of flat alluvial land by the side of a river". "Kersal" indicates that this was land where cress grew. In 1142, Kereshale was given to the Priory of Lenton, an order of Cluniac monks, who established an early cell there named St Leonard's. On the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540 Henry VIII sold the priory and its lands to one Baldwin Willoughby. It was sold eight years later to Ralph Kenyon, who was acting on behalf of himself, James Chetham of Crumpsall and Richard Siddall of Withington. The Kenyon third was sold about the year 1660…