Choppards, Wooldale
Details
- location: Holmfirth
- status: still exists
- category: area with a cluster of properties
Extract
Holmfirth: Place-Names and Settlement (1994) by George Redmonds:
Literally "Chopard's place", referring to Robert Chobard or Chopard a tenant of Wakefield manor who settled in the graveship of Holme in the early 1300s. The move there may have resulted from his marriage to Cecily "Billcliffe", but certainly he took possession of "14 acres with buildings, in Littlewood" in 1313 and three years later paid 2s for further land in Longley, then a distinctive territory in Wooldale. His name continued to appear in the court rolls, either for minor forest offences or in disputes over land, and there is even a plea of debt involving a Robert Chopard as late as 1352. Clearly this could have been his son, but whether or not that is so, the surname became extinct soon afterwards, at least locally. It was probably French in origin for both Chobard and Chopard are listed by Dauzat in his dictionary of French surnames. The two families associated with Choppards in the period up to c.1700 were the Hinchliffes and Croslands.