RUDYARD
Rudyard was formerly a township in Leek
parish and later a civil parish 1,435 a. (581 ha.)
in area. (fn. 52) It extends from a hill called Gun on
its east side to Rudyard Lake, a reservoir formed
in 1799 by damming the brook which marked
the western boundary with Horton. (fn. 53) A hamlet
on which the township centred in the 18th
century was gradually deserted in the 19th century. It was replaced by the present Rudyard
village in Horton, which grew up to cater for
tourists visiting Rudyard Lake. Rudyard township was amalgamated with Horton parish in
1934 to form Horton civil parish. (fn. 54) This article
deals with the former township.
The land lies at 600 ft. (183 m.) beside
Rudyard Lake and rises to 1,000 ft. (305 m.) on
Gun. The underlying rock is mostly Bunter
Pebble, with sandstone of the Millstone Grit
series in the north and west parts of the township. Boulder Clay overlies the Bunter Pebble,
and the soil is coarse loam, except on Gun where
it is clay and loam with some peat. (fn. 55)
Six people in Rudyard were assessed for tax in
1327 and eight in 1333, (fn. 56) and seventeen were
assessed for hearth tax in 1666. (fn. 57) The population
was 109 in 1801, rising to 117 by 1831 but then
falling to 72 by 1881. It was 81 in 1901 and 1911,
and 78 in 1921. It was 112 in 1931, the last
time that Rudyard's population was separately
recorded. (fn. 58)
Rudyard has been identified as an estate called
Rudegeard in the early 11th century. The name
is derived from Old English words meaning the
shrub rue and an enclosure. (fn. 59) The oldest surviving
building is the 17th-century Rudyard Hall. (fn. 60) By
the later 18th century there was a hamlet in the
south-west part of the township on the road
between Leek and Macclesfield. It declined after
the road was turnpiked in 1762 with a new line
to the east. (fn. 61) There are four farmhouses in the
area of the former hamlet, Rudyard Manor
(formerly called Green Farm) (fn. 62) and Rudyard
House (formerly called Greentree Farm), (fn. 63) both
of the 18th century, Highgate Farm on a site
occupied by 1677, (fn. 64) and Willgate Farm on a site
occupied by 1669. (fn. 65) Hunt House Farm to the
north of the hamlet was so called by 1636. The
road linking it to the hamlet, formerly part of
the Leek-Macclesfield road, was stopped up in
1827. (fn. 66) Barnswood Farm on the township's
northern boundary stands on or near a site
occupied by the early 17th century. (fn. 67)
The Leek-Macclesfield road was turnpiked in
1762, (fn. 68) taking a new line which ran through the
middle of the township east of Rudyard hamlet.
A tollgate was set up near a milepost at Packsaddle Cottage in 1764, and a tollhouse was built
in 1767. (fn. 69) Under the 1762 Act a share of the tolls
from the Packsaddle gate was paid to the trustees
of the Ashbourne-Congleton turnpike road
because of the joint use of part of the Macclesfield road through Rudyard. (fn. 70) In 1808 the
Macclesfield road was again rerouted, the new
line leaving the old one north of the tollhouse to
run west past Hunt House Farm and Barnswood
Farm and rejoining it in Rushton Spencer. (fn. 71) The
tollhouse at Packsaddle was replaced in 1824 by
one at Poolend, in Leekfrith. (fn. 72) The road was
disturnpiked in 1878. (fn. 73)
The North Staffordshire Railway Co.'s
Churnet Valley line between Leek and Macclesfield, opened in 1849, ran along the west side of
the township. Rudyard station south of Rudyard
Lake was opened in 1850. Renamed Rudyard
Lake station c. 1925, it was closed for passengers
and freight in 1960 and the building was demolished. (fn. 74) A miniature railway follows the old line
for nearly a mile north from the site of the station
along the side of Rudyard Lake. Its track was
laid in the later 1970s and remade in 1985. (fn. 75)
MANOR AND ANOTHER ESTATE.
Between 1002 and 1004 the thegn Wulfric Spot
devised to Burton abbey a place called Rudegeard, which has been identified as RUDYARD.
The abbey either failed to gain possession of the
estate or soon lost it. Before the Conquest
Rudyard was held by Wulfmaer. In 1086 it was
held by the king. (fn. 76)
By the mid 12th century the Verduns of Alton
were the overlords of Rudyard. About 1200 a
fee-farm rent of 22s. was owed to Norman
Pantun, son of Alice de Verdun. It was still paid
c. 1800 to the earl of Shrewsbury, the Verduns'
successor at Alton. (fn. 77)
Ulf held the manor in the mid 12th century,
and c. 1200 Norman Pantun confirmed Ulf's
grandson, Ranulph of Tittesworth, in possession
of the vill of Rudyard. Norman's mother, Alice
de Verdun, with the agreement of her other son
William Pantun, had earlier confirmed Rudyard
to Ranulph of Tittesworth with all its liberties
in return for a payment of 5 marks, together with
fines of 37s. for herself and 20s. for William. (fn. 78)
Ranulph was succeeded by his son, Thomas of
Rudyard, and Thomas by his son Richard. (fn. 79)
Richard was still alive in 1293-4. (fn. 80) Randal of
Rudyard, alive in 1302, was lord of Rudyard in
1315. (fn. 81) Ranulph of Rudyard, who headed the list
of those assessed for tax there in 1327, and
Richard of Rudyard, who headed a similar list
in 1333, were probably lords of the manor. (fn. 82) In
1366 the widow of the same or another Richard
of Rudyard claimed dower in the manor against
John of Rudyard, probably her son. John, lord
in 1370, was succeeded by his son Thomas, and
Thomas by his son Ralph, alive in 1411. Richard
Rudyard was evidently the lord in 1418. (fn. 83)
Thomas Rudyard was lord in 1507. (fn. 84) Still alive
c. 1530, (fn. 85) he was succeeded by his nephew Ralph
Rudyard, who was lord later in the 1530s and in
1564 or 1565. (fn. 86) He was succeeded by Thomas
Rudyard, probably his son, who died in 1572 or
1573 with his son, another Thomas, as his heir. (fn. 87)
He was succeded in 1626 by his son, also
Thomas. The younger Thomas was succeeded
in 1638 by his brother Ralph, and Ralph in 1653
by his son Thomas. (fn. 88) Thomas, sheriff of
Staffordshire in 1682, (fn. 89) was alive in 1683 but
dead by 1691. In 1695 his son, another Thomas,
settled the manor on trustees for the benefit of
his four daughters, Margaret, Mary, and Mercy
Rudyard and Elizabeth, wife of Charles Gibbons. (fn. 90) Thomas died probably soon afterwards
and certainly before 1709. (fn. 91) Elizabeth died in
1716 and Mary in 1717. (fn. 92)
In 1723 Margaret Rudyard and her sister
Mercy, by then the wife of William Trafford of
Swythamley, in Heaton, sold Rudyard with the
manor of Leek to Thomas Parker, earl of Macclesfield. (fn. 93) The earls of Macclesfield retained the
estate until it was broken up in 1919. A 418-a.
farm centred on Rudyard Hall was then bought
by the tenant, Nathan Buxton. (fn. 94) He sold it in
1927 to John Wain. In 1966 the farm was bought
by Frank Robinson. (fn. 95)
Rudyard Hall is mainly of the earlier 17th
century, and a stone with the date 1635 and the
initials TR and MR survives inside the house. The
house was assessed for tax on seven hearths in
1666. (fn. 96) A garden wall around the house, with an
imposing gateway on the north side, is probably
of the late 17th century. The farm buildings
include a stone barn dated 1657.
RUDYARD 1991
An estate centred on BARNSWOOD FARM
probably originated in the grant of land which the
lord of Rudyard, Thomas son of Ranulph of
Tittesworth, gave to William son of Richard of
Rushton in the early 13th century. (fn. 97) William later
gave the land to his brother Ranulph, who by 1246
had given it to Dieulacres abbey. (fn. 98) After the
Dissolution it became part of Rudyard manor: in
1606 the Rudyard family owned a house called
Barnswood and adjoining land in Rudyard. (fn. 99) The
farm was sold in 1919 to the tenants, J. and J. S.
Fletcher. In the later 1920s it was bought by the
family of the present owner, Mr. F. A. Brown. (fn. 1)
Nothing remains of the house at Barnswood which
was assessed for tax on four hearths in 1666. (fn. 2)
It may have been demolished when the new line
of the Leek-Macclesfield road was constructed
in 1808: the present house, which lies on the
west side of the road, dates from that time.
ECONOMIC HISTORY.
In 1086 the area
known as Rudyard had land for one or two
ploughteams. (fn. 3)
When the earl of Macclesfield's Rudyard estate
was broken up in 1919 there were six farms:
Rudyard Hall (418 a.), Greentree (208 a.),
Green, later Rudyard Manor (181 a.),
Barnswood (178 a.), Willgate (158 a.), and Hunt
House (143 a.). They were principally dairy
farms and included 808 a. of pasture and 306 a.
of arable. There were also 132 a. of woodland in
the township, the main area being 55 a. at
Barnswood, still a wood in 1991. (fn. 4)
Fields called Near and Far Rabbit Bank on
the east and south-east sides of Rudyard Hall
in 1731 (fn. 5) may indicate the site of a rabbit
warren.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
Rudyard was subject to the overlord's manor court at Alton,
where a headborough for Rudyard tithing was
sworn at least between 1732 and 1823. (fn. 6) Rudyard
remained part of Alton constablewick in 1851. (fn. 7)
In 1507 the lord of Rudyard claimed to hold a
small court of his own at Rudyard. (fn. 8)
The township was part of the Leekfrith quarter
of Leek parish, and in the 1660s its poor were
relieved by the quarter's overseer. The township
had its own overseer from 1713. (fn. 9) It became part
of Leek poor-law union in 1837. (fn. 10)
CHURCH.
From the 17th century and presumably earlier people from Rudyard attended the
parish church at Leek. (fn. 11)
NONCONFORMITY.
The Jane Rudyard who
was recorded as a recusant in the mid 1590s was
possibly the mother of the lord of the manor
Thomas Rudyard (d. 1638), who was himself
returned as a recusant in 1616. (fn. 12)
Matthew Dale of Rudyard was converted by
the Quaker missionary Richard Hickock in
1654, and he established a meeting at his
home. The Richard Dale who suffered imprisonment in 1655 for his beliefs as a Quaker may
also have lived in Rudyard. (fn. 13) Joshua and Mary
Dale of Rudyard were recorded as Quakers in
1708, as was Thomas Finney of Rudyard in
1709 and 1716. (fn. 14) Another Thomas Finney of
Rudyard and two members of the Dale family
attended the Leek meeting of Friends in
1735. (fn. 15)
Methodist preachers held regular services in
the 19th century at Rudyard Hall, the home of
a class leader, Robert Needham (d. 1887). (fn. 16)
EDUCATION.
No evidence.
CHARITIES FOR THE POOR.
None known
expressly for the township.