Chatterton is a small village in the southern part of the

Rossendale Valley The Rossendale Valley is in the Rossendale area of Lancashire, England, between the West Pennine Moors and the main range of the Pennines. The area includes the steep-sided valleys of the River Irwell and its tributaries (between Rawtenstall an ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. It is half a mile north of

Ramsbottom Ramsbottom is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 census was 17,872. Historically in Lancashire, it lies on the River Irwell in the West Pennine Moors, north-west of Bur ...

town centre on the A676 between

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

and

Edenfield Edenfield is a village within the Rossendale borough of Lancashire, England. Lying on the River Irwell, it is around north of Ramsbottom, south of Rawtenstall, and west of Norden, and has a total population of 2,080, reducing to 2,053 at ...

. For local government purposes, it receives services from Rossendale Borough Council and

Lancashire County Council Lancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashire is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes Blackburn with Dar ...

. Nearby are the village of

Stubbins Stubbins is an industrial village in the southern part of the Rossendale Valley, in Lancashire, England. Etymology ''Stubbing'' 1563. Old English meaning 'a place with tree stumps', implying a place from which many trees have been cleared. ...

and the hamlet of Strongstry. Running alongside the village separating it from Strongstry is the

River Irwell The River Irwell ( ) is a tributary of the River Mersey in north-west England. It rises at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup and flows southwards for to meet the Mersey near Irlam Locks. The Irwell marks the bound ...

. Much of the land to the west of the village is in the care of the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

and consists of hillside pasture and woodland leading up to

Holcombe Moor Holcombe is a village in Ramsbottom ward, Metropolitan Borough of Bury, in Greater Manchester, England. It is situated south of Haslingden, east of Edgworth, Lancashire, Edgworth, west of Ramsbottom, and north of Tottington, Greater Manchester, ...

and

Peel Monument The Peel Monument at Ramsbottom, Greater Manchester, England, is one of two monuments in the area erected in memory of Prime Minister and founder of the police force Robert Peel, who was born in Bury. It is on Holcombe Moor near Ramsbottom, ...

. Parkland at Chatterton was given to the people of the district of Ramsbottom as a peace memorial by the Porritt family.

Toponymy

Like Catterton in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

and

Chadderton Chadderton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irk and Rochdale Canal. It is located in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Oldham, south of Rochdale and north-east of Manchester. The ...

near

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

, the name ''Chatterton'' is formed from the Brittonic ''cadeir'', meaning "chair, throne" (

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

''cadair'', see

Blencathra Blencathra, also known as Saddleback, is one of the most northerly of the Cumbrian Mountains, in the English Lake District. It has six separate fell tops, of which the highest is the Hallsfell Top at . Name For many years, Ordnance Surv ...

and

Catterlen Catterlen is a small village and civil parish north west of Penrith, Cumbria. At the 2001 census the civil parish had a population of 471, increasing to 605 at the 2011 Census. The village is a linear one with the B5305 road dividing it into ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

), suffixed with

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''–tūn'', "farm".

Lancashire machine-breaking riots

On 26 April 1826, rioting

Luddite The Luddites were members of a 19th-century movement of English textile workers who opposed the use of certain types of automated machinery due to concerns relating to worker pay and output quality. They often destroyed the machines in organ ...

s were read the

Riot Act The Riot Act (1 Geo. 1. St. 2. c. 5), sometimes called the Riot Act 1714 or the Riot Act 1715, was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain which authorised local authorities to declare any group of 12 or more people to be unlawfully assembled ...

at Chatterton by the 60th Rifle Corps (later to become known as the

King's Royal Rifle Corps The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United Sta ...

). Ignoring the reading of the act, the mob attempted to destroy looms at Aitken and Lord's factory whereupon the soldiers eventually opened fire, killing 4 men and wounding many others.

References

* Peacock, Dou
"The 1826 machine-breaking riots"
Retrieved 23 September 2009. *

External links

Villages in Lancashire Geography of the Borough of Rossendale {{Lancashire-geo-stub