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Hello,
There is a Welsh government website with a searchable list of place names--

https://www.welshlanguagecommissioner.wales/standardised-welsh-place-names

It doesn't bring up anything beginning with Lle or Lli but of course an infinite number of Llan's

Just a thought - she said that a place name was unpronounceable and you mentioned the possibility that it could be Anglesey which made me think of Llanfair PG which for most people fits that description.

Best wishes
BM

Hello Ian,
Thanks for all that information. I think that it can be accepted that the Gibraltar Rock closed down as you say in the 1828 to 1828 region.
I'm not sure about the connection with the Bulls head for a couple of reasons. I don't know how familiar you are with the old naming of this little area which is now all Smallbridge. Within no more than half a mile was  Shaw Lane End; Brickfield, Stud Shaw, Howarth Cross and at some undefined place in the middle of these was Black Lane End.   Smallbridge was the small area close to St John's church where there was a small bridge over the stream.

The use of these names seemed to be very flexible, possibly Howarth Cross sounded better than Stud Shaw or Black Lane End?

The Bulls Head was and still is clearly Smallbridge and Mary Kershaw in 1841 was at Howarth Cross.
In 1851 she was at Smallbridge, but very close in the enumerator's list to Howarth Cross - assuming he followed a logical route.
I have a Kershaw reference to the Bulls Head for 1843 when it was describes as `the house of Miss Kershaw' . As you say, she could have been a sister of Thomas.

There was also at this time an Abraham Kershaw; beer seller and shopkeeper of Smallbridge. The words `beer seller` suggest that he had a simple beer house rather than a public house.

I have a number of references to the Bay Horse in connection with Thomas Kershaw up to 1869. They appear to have been father and son. If you're interested I'll send you a summary of the write up.
Regards,

Bob

Hello,

I contacted you some time ago regarding the Gibraltar pub - I've now found an illustration of it in a book.
Hopefully I've attached a copy of it  which gives a good idea of what it looked like.
The book is named `Smallbridge - a lost village`; the author is Allen Holt and its available from Amazon.

Hope this helps,

Bob Muncaster

Hello,
Just to clarify the Wardle & Wuerdle names.  Wardle is a distinct village about two miles north east of Rochdale. Wuerdle is a vague area on the road from Rochdale to Halifax but it borders with Wardle. The name is rarely used nowadays but the two places were formerly grouped together.

Wardleworth is again a distinct area, less than a mile east of Rochdale but separate from the other places.

Holly Green and Hazel Green rang a bell!  I think if you Google for Polly Green and Hazel Grove at Syke you'll get a result; there's a photograph posted by Dr Neil Clifton which shows Hazel Grove farm at the right hand side of the picture.
Hope this helps.

BM

Hello,
Regarding Castleton and Milkstone Road. They don't do things the easy way in Rochdale!
The southern part of Rochdale (where the castle was) was known as Castleton, but now it's all simply Rochdale.
Milkstone Road is in Rochdale, about half a mile south of the town centre and can be seen on Google Earth Street View.

However Castleton village is about two miles south of Rochdale on the road to Manchester. This area (including the railway station) was formerly known as Blue Pits.
Hope this helps

BM