ASHWORTH MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry record's Ashworth Manor in the Bury/Lancashire context matches the historical manor and township of Ashworth, historically in Middleton parish and Lancashire, now in Rochdale. The manor house was Ashworth Hall, the seat of the Holt family and later associated with the Egertons. The historical sources distinguish this Ashworth from other places of the same name.
Representative point: 53.615616, -2.228039
Basis: documented_manor_house — Ashworth Hall, Ashworth Road, is the documented historic hall associated with the manor. Historic England identifies the listed building at OS Grid Reference SD 85012 13251; the modern authoritative listed-building geometry gives the representative point 53.615616, -2.228039.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: medieval to early modern manor; later township extent documented in the nineteenth century
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The evidence establishes the manor's location and indicates that the manor was closely associated with the historical township of Ashworth, which covered approximately 1,021–1,022 acres and was held by one proprietor. However, no authoritative source located in this research supplies a sufficiently explicit mapped perimeter of the historical manorial land. The township, parish, modern district, and Ashworth Moor boundaries cannot safely be substituted for the manor boundary.
Sources:
- Ashworth Hall, Historic England National Heritage List for England, entry 1084283: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1084283 — Identifies Ashworth Hall on Ashworth Road, Rochdale, as a C17/C18 house possibly incorporating an earlier hall, and provides OS National Grid Reference SD 85012 13251.
- Ashworth, Lancashire: history, map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/22440 — Describes Ashworth as a township-chapelry in Middleton parish, Lancashire, about three miles northeast of Bury, with an area of 1,022 acres in 1870–72.
- Notitia Cestriensis, or Historical Notices of the Diocese of Chester, volume 19: https://www.deanechurch.co.uk/library/BooksDigital/RemainsHistorical/Vol_019.pdf — Gives a historical account of the Manor of Ashworth, tracing its tenure from the medieval period through the Holt family and recording the sale of the township and manor in 1700.
- Ashworth Hall, Planning Data listed-building outline: https://www.planning.data.gov.uk/entity/42175880 — Provides authoritative listed-building geometry and point data for Ashworth Hall, including POINT (-2.228039 53.615616).
- The National Archives Discovery record F244927: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F244927 — Registry record supplied for the exact manor identification: Ashworth Manor, associated with Bury, Lancashire, authority/reference GB/NNAF/M229872.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative point is suitable for locating the manor house/manorial centre, but it is not evidence that the modern Ashworth Hall curtilage equals the historical manor.
- No historically documented or reliably reconstructable perimeter for the manorial land was found; no boundary polygon is returned.
- The historical Ashworth manor and township are now located in the Rochdale area of Greater Manchester, although the manor was historically in Lancashire.