Stroll Down Catterall Lane
  Origins of the name are unclear. Early spellings included Catrehala, Catrehal, Katerhale, Caturhale, Caterhale, Caterale and Catteral. Some scholars have suggested it derived from "cat's tail," a plant that could have flourished in the area where the name found its roots.  
 
 

Those roots apparently began about the end of the 12th century, when Robert, the son of Bernard, lived in the area and married a woman named Suani or Suena, who gave birth to a son, Richard de Caterhale. Catterall Hall was built along the banks of the River Wyre, across the river from Churchtown, in the 13th century. Alan de Catterall, son of Ralph de Catterall and grandson of Richard, expanded the family estate by marrying Loretta Pontchardon, an heiress to the Manor of Little Mitton on the banks of the River Ribble, near Whalley, about 12 miles east of Catterall. The properties remained in the Catterall family from generation to generation, from Alan to his son Richard (1303-1381) to Richard's son Adam (d: 1397) to Adam's son Richard (d: 1487) to Richard's son Ralph (d: 1515) to Ralph's son John (1478-1517) to John's son Ralph (1507-1526) and, finally, to Ralph's brother Thomas (b: 1510). Having no son but seven daughters by his wife Margaret, Thomas in 1561 agreed to convey the properties to his use during his lifetime and afterward to daughter Dorothy and her husband, Robert Sherburne. Catterall Hall and Little Mitton were passed on to the Sherburnes' son, Thomas, after Robert Sherburne's death in 1572, but Thomas became delinquent and Parliament seized the properties in 1652.

Three-and-a-half centuries later, the rebuilt white structure that stands pastorally beside the River Wyre remains identified today as Catterall Hall, a privately-owned farmhouse. It can be reached by walking across a footbridge behind St. Helen's Church in Churchtown.
 

 
   Catterall Hall
 
Catterall Hall, the ancestral home across the
River Wyre from the village of Churchtown, Lancashire.
 
Obviously, the Catterall name did not evaporate with Margaret Catterall's inability to produce a son. However, lineage charts being, well, linear, they don't reflect the generations of Catteralls that have extended from other branches of the family. Those are many. For example, John Catterall was among nine sons and eleven daughters born to Ralph and Elizabeth Catterall in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Thus, several hundred Catteralls are sprinkled across the world today.

Catterall Hall is less than two miles by road from the township of Catterall, which was among the property that was passed onto the Sherburnes. The village had its beginnings during the reign of King John (1199-1216) as a mill, probably for grinding corn. Later, a facility known as "Catterall Works" was the site for various industries, including calico printing, bleaching, cotton spinning and paper making. A cottage known as "The Pickerings" was built in the village in connection with Catterall Works in the 17th century and owned by Richard Curwen, yeoman of Poulton, whose family sold it in 1795 to merchants who carried on the business of calico printing. By the mid-19th century, the building became known as "Catterall Cottage" and was sold to William Boys. It eventually was passed on to the Rev. G. Boys Stones, vicar of St. Thomas, Garstang. It was used as a private residence until 1978, when it was sold and transformed into The Pickerings Country House Hotel., one of the finest country houses in England, featuring luxury quarters and five-course dinners at modest prices. The Pickerings is an ideal resting place for Catteralls desiring to visit their ancestral home.
 
 Catterall Heritage Links
          Ron Catterall's page from Oaxaca, Mexico
          Neil Catterall's page from Durban, South Africa
 
 Lee Catterall

 Author of The Great Dali Art Fraud and Other Deceptions
 
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I am a fifth-generation Wyomingite whose maternal great-great-grandparents arrived in the territory by wagon train in 1867. Grandfather Charles Catterall (1874-1949) came to the United States in 1906 from the coal fields of Lancashire to the coal mines near Sheridan, Wyoming.

An editorial writer for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin since 1994, I previously reported for newspapers in Wyoming, England, Nebraska and Maryland, for the Associated Press and as a Washington correspondent for news media in Wyoming and Montana. Before becoming an editorial writer, I was a reporter at the Star-Bulletin since 1980, principally covering legal affairs, and was a frequent contributor during the 1980s to The National Law Journal. In 1992, I was author of The Great Dali Art Fraud and Other Deceptions. Working from my home office since the Star-Bulletin gained complete independence from the Gannett newspaper chain in March 2001, I have written frequent reports on issues for the Star-Bulletin's new Sunday edition, in addition to editorials.
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My freelance articles have appeared in a variety of magazines, ranging from Us to Woman's World to Medical Economics to the eBay Magazine, in addition to The National Law Journal. I remain open to freelance assignments.
 
 
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