Cockerham, ENG - Postcode - LA2 0EB

Cockerham, England

Cockerham is a civil parish in the City of Lancaster area of Lancashire, England, and a small settlement. It is located 15 miles (24 km) north-northwest of Preston and 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Lancaster. There were 671 people living in the parish in 2011, and it was located on the estuary of the rivers Cocker and Lune. Cockerham, which was a township and parish in the hundred of Lonsdale in the Middle Ages [citation needed], has been a part of the county of Lancashire ever since.

The Custumal of the Manor of Cockerham, first written in 1326-1327 and later amended in 1463, provides a glimpse into life in the medieval manor. The custumal combines a local set of rules with an inventory of the resources of the land, from peat fuel to livestock and sheep to coastal mussels, in order to keep track of rents and services owed by tenants to their landlord. Tenants weren't allowed to barter with "strangers" who gathered mussels from the shore for local fuel.

St. Michael's Cathedral is the local parish. The community's parish church had to be relocated from its original location in the centre of the village to a more secure spot on higher ground because of the constant threat of flooding.

About half a mile to the north-west of Cocker House Bridge is the small, peaceful-looking settlement of Cockerham, comprised of a few small, plain cottages etc. bordering part of a flat, meandering path. Named for its proximity to the Cocker, "Cockerham" refers to a residential area. In terms of human habitation, Cockerham has been around for quite some time. Cocreham, listed as Roger de Poictou's property in the Doomsday Book, is the name of the village. Shortly after the Norman Conquest, Cockerham was owned by the Lancastres, barons of Kendal. William de Lancastre, in the second half of the 12th century, donated the manor and church of Cockerham to the canons of Leicester. It was on the 29th of June, 1369, that John de Derby (Canon and Warden of Cockerham), John de Chacoumbe, and numerous men of Cockerham came to the fair with force and arms to seek a certain Thomas and maltreat him, much to the horror of the people and disturbance of the peace.

At the start of the 14th century, the Abbot of St. Mary, Leicester, was granted "free warren" in the manor. The manor was donated to the Abbot of Cockerham perhaps in the same century. At some point in the 15th century, a release of claim in the manor was issued in favor of the then-Abbot (perhaps due to a reversion of interest or reclaim of proprietary right). John Calvert, a gentleman from Cockerham, farmed the manor's customs beginning in 1597; when he passed away in 1620, he was in possession of both the manor and the rectory. One of his daughters eventually married the man whose skull plays an odd role in Lancashire folklore. She wed Roger Downes, the vice-Chamberlain of Chester to William, Earl of Derby, etc., who settled in Wardley Hall about seven miles west of Manchester at the start of the Civil War in the 17th century. After their grandson Roger Downes, a courtier in the time of Charles 11, had his head severed in a brawl on London Bridge, tradition has it that his head was sent to his sisters at Wardley Hall, where it was preserved and became the subject of the strange legend of the Wardley Hall skull. If the skull were taken away, thrown into a nearby pontl, or buried, it would return to the Hall again, and it "never failed to punish the transgressor." The skull is probably presently kept in a secure location in Wardley Hall. After John Calvert's passing, the Charteris family regained ownership of Cockerham manor. Colonel C. H. Bird, Crookhey Hall, Cockerham, who holds two lordship rights; Lieutenant Greene, Whittington Hall, near Kirkby Lonsdale; and Mr J. Clarke, of Summerhill, Newton-in-Cartmel, are the current lords of the manor as a result of a sale made by Lord Wemyss to four conjoint lords of the manor in or around 1798. They are known as "the Lords Cockerh" by the locals.

Cockerham Parish Church can be found down among fields about a quarter mile south-west-northeast of the actual village. It is believed that this church was established in the year 1160. Towards the end of the 13th century, de Newark, Archdeacon of Richmond, assumed leadership of the vicarage of Cockerham. A new church was constructed in the early 17th century.