[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by Pudwoppa

I've heard this book referenced numerous times when talking about early settlement in the area. I did some hunting and found out that it was copied and annotated in 1904 as "The coucher book of the Cistercian abbey of Kirkstall, in the West Riding of the county of York". I also managed to find a copy available to read for free online via Open Library - here's the link.

The main document is still in Latin, but has modern English annotation throughout. There are references to Accrington and Huncoat on pages 53, 196, 197, 198, 201, 284, 345 and 346. There also seem to be references to Rishton on a few other pages - need to double check that. Using Google Translate you can get the general info if not an entirely accurate translation.

Bit late with that, don't want to put you off what your doing, I obtained a copy of the Coucher Book of Kirstall Abbey, some 30 odd years ago when the Public Record Office was in Chancery Lane.
Translated the important bits relating to this part of Lancashire.
Some of it has already been posted on Accy Web.
The Rev W.H. Burgess also included parts of the Coucher Book of Kirkstall in his History of Accrington, back in 1920.
As for Google translate, your flogging a dead horse, a lot of the Coucher book is written in Church Latin, I had to get a high ranking Catholic Priest, to tranlate some of it, the words in question were not in any dictionary's in Accy Library.
Retlaw.