The manor of Ordsall lies within a great sweep of the River Irwell, and forms the southern portion of the township of Salford, of which Royal Manor it was anciently a member or hamlet. The original form of the name, Woerdesael, indicates its strategic importance adjacent to the Roman ford, which gave approach to the Saxon town from the great military highway through Cheshire. In the side of the hill rising from the river and hard by the ford, formerly existed a natural chamber hollowed out of the soft sandstone rock, and known as the Great Ordsall Cave. This is reputed to have been used during the Roman occupation as a temple for Mithras worship, and was subsequently converted by the Saxons into a den or place of devotion for their supreme deity, Woden. When Christian influences penetrated the district, this rocky cell was adapted from pagan to Christian use, and was used as an oratory by a hermitage of monks, who acted as guides across the ford and the perilous surrounding marshes beyond the river. These holy men built for their residence a hall of timber, close to the site of the present Ordsall Hall, and connected with the cave by a subterranean passage, still in existence. In the reign of Stephen (1135-1154) the monks removed their domicile to the new hermitage, which de Gernons had founded in the northern extremity of Salford manor at Kersal
After the conquest, Ordsall with Salford was held in demesne by Roger de Poictou, then by William Peverel, and eventually by the Earls of Chester. On the death of the fifth Earl in 1232, Ordsall was included in that portion of his estates which passed to his sister, Agnes, wife of William de Ferrers, sixth Earl of Derby. The son of Agnes, in or about 1251, conveyed to David de Hulton all his possessions in Flixton, together with the manor of Ordsall, by homage and service of two marks of silver four times a year by the sixth part of a knight's fee. David's son married Margaret, daughter of Robert de Radclyffe of the Tower, and on the death of his father in 1285 Richard de Hulton succeeded to the Ordsall lands as part of the patrimony. Richard de Hulton died in 1312, and was succeeded by a son of the same name, who died about 1331, leaving another Richard, his son, as heir. This third Richard married Maud, daughter of Adam de Norley, but the union was an unhappy one and was dissolved, Maud subsequently becoming the wife of Robert de Legh, son of John de Legh of the Booths, in Cheshire. Richard de Hulton thereupon partitioned his estates. To his uncle, Adam de Hulton, and his heirs, he gave all his lands in Westhaughton, with his manor of Hulton, and lands in Rumworth formerly held for life by Richard del Meadow; to William, son of Robert de Radclyffe, he gave Halliwell, with the manor of Blackburn; to John de Radclyffe he released all his claim in the manor of Ordsall and his moiety of Flixton. It would appear that a William de Hulton had a life interest in Ordsall; he was presumably an uncle to Richard, who had the reversion after William's death
The occupation of Ordsall at this time is veiled in a mist of confusion, and study of it's records only adds to the complexities. It was a period of grave civil and military distraction, owing to the demands of the Scottish Wars, the increasing population which the old system of feudal tenure was unable to sustain on the land, and the fact that men who had taken part in military campaigns were not disposed to settle to a more ordered and less eventful life. The tyranny of the feudal oppression burned at the resentful heart of an independent nation. Starving husbandmen saw land withheld from their ploughs by the pleasures of the chase, and they flocked to the woodlands in armed bands, roving and raiding the royal forests, and ready to offer their services to any overlord who would promise them reward from attacks on his neighbour's property. Tenure of estate was preserved more readily by the strong right hand than by claim of law, and every landowner gathered around him a force of dependants, who were granted allotments of land in requital for military aid. To these new freeholders was given the name of yeomen, signifying that they were the keepers or guards of the manor against the depredations of external enemies. To distinguish them from men of gentle blood, in place of steel armour they wore a buff coat of hide. With such a supporting force, many a manorial lord, often in combination with other proprietors, would sally forth on slender pretext, to make foray on lands he coveted, trusting later to compel legal recognition of his title at the Wapentake Court
The feud between the King and the barons during the reign of Edward the Second (1307-1327) intensified these distractions, and tore families apart with internal dissensions. The Hultons and the Radclyffes were to be found on indiscriminately on the rival sides, seeking to augment their possessions at the expense of opposing kinsmen. Richard de Hulton was a bold champion of the Holland faction in these disputes, and gathered around him a redoubtable force of landless men, to whom he made promise of rewards he seems subsequently to been unable to fulfil, judging by the claims which were later preferred against his estate. In 1334 he was convicted, with others, of having broken into the King's park at Ightenhill, near Padiham, but his offence was pardoned later. Although he held the Radclyffes in great favour, his father had regarded the otherwise, and in 1322 had sought the protection of the King's justice against various Radclyffes who had broken into and entered illegally his manors of Ordsall, Hulton, and Flixton. The younger Richard would appear to have been an outcast from his own family. That may be the explanation of the manner in which he partitioned his estates. He died in 1335, whereupon the manor of Ordsall was seized by Robert de Legh, the husband of Richard's divorced wife, who enlisted the aid of kinsman, Thomas de Strangeways, and of Robert, son of Roger de Radclyffe. Robert de Radclyffe was cousin to John, the rightful heir, who was prevented from entering on his inheritance through his absence in the King's service overseas, and taking advantage of this Robert established himself as lord of Ordsall. He was a man of some importance in the county and succeeded in obtaining the shrievalty of Salfordshire in 1337. His occupation of Ordsall was somewhat insecure at its inception and in 1338 he sought legal confirmation of his possession by claiming annuities out of Ordsall and Flixton against Robert de Legh and Maud, his wife, and other claimants to the estate of Richard de Hulton. Thereafter he appears to have been formally recognised in possession
On the death of his cousin and namesake, the son of Richard the Seneschal, Sir Robert de Radclyffe of Ordsall married the widow. This lady, Margaret de Shoresworth, is a somewhat remarkable personage in local records. She was the daughter and heiress of Robert de Shoresworth, an ancient manor immediately contiguous to the western bounds of the Ordsall estates. From her paternal ancestors she also inherited considerable lands in Denton. She had a son by Sir William de Holland, but whether she was married to this knight or not remains a mystery. From her relationship with him, however, she acquired the manor of Hope, within the township of Pendleton, and adjacent to her own ancestral lands. Subsequently, she was married to Henry de Workedsley of the Booths, as his second wife, and became known as Lady Margery of the Booths. Henry died about 1305, and she was espoused by Robert, son of Richard de Radclyffe, whose first wife had been Mary de Bury. She bore him two sons, William, who inherited from Richard de Hulton the manor of Blackburn with Halliwell, and became the progenitor of the Radclyffes of Smithills, and John, who became Rector of Bury and from whose natural son descended the Radclyffes of Chadderton. Margaret outlived all her, and was living in 1363, when her will was made. She seems to have lived a troubled life, judging from the amount of litigation regarding her lands which appears in the various records and deeds. The date of her marriage to Sir Robert de Radclyffe is not recorded, but he appears to have been previously married, and to have had a son, John, who was one of the collectors of the tax on fleeces in 1342. He was accused, with Sir Robert, as a defaulter, but of his subsequent history nothing is known, although he must have predeceased his father
Who was Sir Robert of Ordsall? His identity presents us with a baffling problem. Foster makes him to be the illegitimate son of Richard the Seneschal, though on what evidence is not stated. It is more probable that Robert was the son of Roger de Radclyffe, the younger brother of the Seneschal, to whom Adam de Bradshaw in 1312 gave certain lands at Bradshaw and Harwood, with remainder to Robert, son of Roger and his heirs, and then to Adam de Hulton. On the death of Sir Robert without an heir, these lands were seized by Adam de Hulton, Roger, his son, and John de Radclyffe, Rector of Bury, and subsequently formed part of the Smithills inheritance. Sir Robert seems to have been a prominent member of the Holland faction and a firm adherent to the Earl of Lancaster. In 1339 he was appointed Sheriff of Lancashire, and was one of the assessors appointed to collect the tax of the ninths within the county. This was in connection with the supplies voted for the wars in France and Scotland, when in 1340 the King was granted the ninth lamb, the ninth fleece, and the ninth sheaf for the space of two years. In the following year Robert de Radclyffe failed to obey the King's orders to deliver the monies he had collected to William de Montague, Earl of Salisbury, and at Dunstable on February 1342 an order was issued: