4,000 - 2,000 B.C.
Signs of settlement by people the Neolithic period.
2,000 - 800 B.C.
Evidence of Early Bronze Age settlement & farming.
Roman Occupation
The steps on Lanty Scar, overlooking the Under Loughrigg road, are said to be the remains of a Roman sentry look-out post. Rydal was on one of the principal routes North.
12th Century
1126
Records of the Le Fleming family & their importance to Rydal can be traced back to this date & are possibly linked to the Norman conquest of 1066. Sir Thomas Le Fleming married Isabella de Lancaster whose family owned a large area of land in the Coniston area.
Rydal, part of these lands, was inherited through this line.
13th century
The creation of a medieval deer park had a marked effect on village developmentthe park being devoid of any settlement or building. The deer hunting being reflected in local place names
e.g The Hunter’s path, Hart Head, Little Hart Crag etc.
1240
Records show a valley in a clearing.
1274
The first appearance in a charter showing ‘Ridale’ with a guarded “motte in the valley”.
1277
A dispute between William de Lyndseye and Roger de Lancaster, Lord of the Baronery of Kendal,
when de Lydseye’s stock encroached on de Lancaster’s deer park resulting in fencing a boundary
which was possibly an earth bank topped by wooden fencing the line of which survives on Nab Scar.
Parts of this have been dated to 1565 & 1581.
Early 15th century
Land grant to the Le Fleming family who become the Lords of the Manor of Rydal.
1439
Records of an arson attack on a corn stack at a corn mill in Rydal.
16th Century
1575
Rydal Old Hall which stood on Old Hall Hill was by this time in a poor state of repair.
1576
The original New Hall (present Rydal Hall) buildings leased to the Le Flemings.
1579
Records of the plague in Rydal.
17th Century
1633
Birth of Sir Daniel Le Fleming (died 1701) the ‘family historian’
who established a school in buildings behind Rydal Hall.
1636
Rydal stricken by a smallpox epidemic.
1633
Daniel le Fleming & others responsible for putting ‘local ruffians’ up before the notorious Judge Jeffreys.
1649
Execution of Charles I.
1659
Low Park Barn (Rydal Farm) re-uses stone from the Old Hall to repair & renovate a large barn,
originally constructed in the thirteenth century.
1663
Sir Daniel le Fleming establishes a village school in buildings behind the Hall.
1668 - 1669
Sir Daniel creates the Grotto at Rydal Hall pre-empting the Picturesque Movement by almost a century.
18th Century
1782
The “New Road’ created which is now Rydal Hill.
1769
The poet Thomas Gray passes through & comments on Rydal Hall.
1788 - 89
A new ‘modern’ front added to Rydal Hall.
19th Century
1823
Foundation stone laid for Rydal Church.
1824
Rydal Church opened on Christmas Day.
1825
Rydal Church consecrated August 26th.
20th Century
1905
Discovery of a Priest Hole at Rydal Hall.
1963
Rydal Hall leased to the Diocese of Carlisle & opened as a retreat house.
1970
Rydal Hall sold to Carlisle Diocese.
