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Bolton le Moors in Lancaster County England History and GeographyBOLTON le MOORS, a parish in the hundred SALFORD, county palatine of LANCASTER, comprising the chapelries of Blackrod, Little Bolton, Bradshaw, Darcy-Lever, Rivington, and Turton, the townships of Anglezarke, Great Bolton, Breightmet, Edgworth, Entwisle Harwood, Little Lever, Longworth, Quarlton, Sharples, and Tonge with Haulgh, and the hamlet of Lostock, and containing 50,197 inhabitants, of which number, 31,295 are in the market-town of Bolton, 43 miles (S. S. E.) from Lancaster, and 197 (N. W. by N.) from London. This place, which derives the adjunct to its name from being situated on the moors, was of little importanee until about 1337, when the emigrant Flemings, who fixed their residence here, introduced the manufacture of woollen cloth, and laid the foundation of its future increase as a manufacturing town; and after the revocation of the edict of Nantz, many of the French refugees, attracted by the means of cmployment which its trade at that time afforded, took up their abode in the town. At the commencement of the civil war in the reign of Charles I., the inhabitants espoused the cause of the parliament, by whom the town was garrisoned, and in whose possession it remained till 1644, when Prince Rupert, advancing with ten thousand men to the relief of Latham House, which was besieged by a body of two thousand parliamentary troops, compelled them to raise the siege and retire into this town. Having been joined by the Earl of Derby, the prince resolved to invest Bolton, and an attempt was made to take it by storm; but the garrison, after sustaining several assaults with desperate valour, finally repulsed the assailants. The earl, placing himself at the head of his Lancashire tenantry, made a second attempt upon the town, which fell into his hands, and the parliamentary governor escaped with the remnant of the garrison into Yorkshire. After continuing for some time in possession of the royalists, Bolton was given up to the parliament; and after the disastrous battle of Worcester, the gallant earl, who had come from the Isle of Man to the assistance of Charles II., being taken prisoner, was condemned by a military tribunal at Chester, and sent under an escort to this place, where he was beheaded. The town, comprising the townships of Great and Little Bolton, which are separated by the small river Croal, has been greatly enlarged, under an act of parliament obtained in 1792, for enclosing Bolton moor, of which more than two hundred and fifty acres were divided into allotments, a portion of which is occupied with buildings. The powers of the commissioners appointed under that act were extended by an act in 1817, since which time, three spacious squares, several ranges of buildings, and a few public edifices have been erected: four hundred and twenty-eight houses in Great Bolton, and one hundred and ninety-six in Little Bolton, were built during the year 1823, and considerable improvement has been made in the roads leading to the town. The houses are handsomely built; the streets, which are well paved, are lighted with gas by a company incorporated in 1820, and the inhabitants are supplied with excellent water, brought from a distance of a mile and a half by earthenware pipes, into a reservoir which occupies a space of twenty-two acres, whence it is conveyed by an iron main of 13 inches diameter, to the various parts of the town: the water, descending from an elevation of seven hundred feet into the reservoir, rushes through the main with a pressure sufficient to raise it to the height of eighty feet, and is thus rendered available, without the assistance of an engine, to the prompt extinction of fire in the loftiest buildings. This undertaking was effected at an expense of £40,000, subscribed in shares of £50 each, by a company established by act of parliament, in 1824, for whose use a handsome stone building has been erected, in front of which is an emblematic tablet, representing a Naiad seated by a fountain, pouring water from a ewer to a thirsty child. The theatre is regularly open during the season; and a new assembly-room has been lately erected, in which also concerts take place occasionally. There are three public libraries; one of which, recently established, is conducted on principles less restrictive than either of the two former: it is held in the Exchange Buildings, a neat stone edifice, with two Ionic columns at the entrance, erected in 1825: the lower room, which is of ample dimensions, is appropriated to the transaction of general business, and fitted up as a news-room; the upper part contains the library and reading-rooms. A mechanics' institution was established in 1825. The principal branch of manufacture, and to the introduction of which Bolton owes its present extent and importance, is that of cotton, in the improvement of which, many ingenious and valuable discoveries originated in this town. Sir Richard Arkwright, a resident here, after he had established his works at Derby and Nottingham, brought the spinning jenny, and the waterframe machines, to perfection; and Samuel Crompton, who was also an inhabitant of Bolton, invented a machine, called the mule, combining the properties of both, for which, after receiving two several donations of £105 and £400, subseribed as acknowledgments of his merit, he was ''ltimately remunerated by parliament with a grant of £5000. Previously to the introduction of the cotton trade, some weavers, who arrived in this country from the palatinate of the Rhine, had added to the manufacture of woollen cloth, that of a fabrie, partly composed of linen yarn, chiefly imported from Germany, and partly of cotton. The chief articles were fustian, jean, and thickset: velvet, entirely of cotton, was first made here in 1756, and muslin, quilting, and dimity, succeeded. After the introduction of the improved machinery several factories were established, but being chiefly worked by water, they were consequently on a smail scale; the subsequent employment of steam enabled the proprietors to enlarge their works, and the adoption of power-looms contributed greatly to improve and extend the trade: there are at present more than twenty factories, worked by thirty-one steam engines, of the aggregate power of seven hundred horses. The bleaching grounds are very extensive, and more than ten millions of pieces of cloth are annually bleached in the parish; among these are three large establishments, in each of which, from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty thousand pieces are, on the average, bleached every month. There are ten iron-foundries, some of them on a very extensive scale, and one employing three hundred persons, chiefly in the construction of steam-engines. Machinery of all kinds, and mills of every description, are made to a great extent. The neighbourhood abounds with coal, which is brought into the town at a moderate expense, by means of a rail-road communicating with the Leeds and Liverpool canal at Leigh, eight miles distant; this work was begun under an act of parliament, in 1825, and completed at an expense of £80,000, subscribed in shares of £100 each. The canal from Manchester to Bolton was constructed in 1791; a branch to Bury diverges from it at Little Lever, in this parish. Veins of lead-ore and of calamine have been worked at Rivington, but they have not been found productive. The market days are Monday and Saturday: the fairs are, July 30th and 31st, and October 13th and 14th, for horned cattle, horses, pigs, and pedlary; a fair for lean cattle is also held every alternate Wednesday, from January 5th to May 12th. The market is held in the area of the new square, in the centre of which is a handsome cast iron column, thirty feet high, rising from a pedestal in the form of a vase, and supporting a lantern which is lighted with gas. The town is within the jurisdiction of the county magistrates, one of whom attends every Monday, and a petty session is held for the division every Friday. A borough-reeve, two constables, and a deputy constable, are chosen for each of the townships of Great and Little Bolton, at the court leet of the lord of the manor, under whom also a court for the recovery of debts under 40s., was held till the 6th of George III., when it was discontinued. A town-hall has been recently erected at Little Bolton, at an expense of £2000: it is a neat and commodious edifice, and it is in contemplation to erect a similar structure in Great Bolton, more adapted to the use, and more suited to the importance, of the town, than the present rooms in which the public business is transacted. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Chester, rated in the king's books at £10. 3., endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Chester. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, is a spacious structure, principally in the later style of English architecture, and there are some interesting monuments in the chancel. A church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was erected in 1825, at an expense of £13,412. 13., part of which was defrayed by grant from the parliamentary commissioncrs: it is a handsome structure in the later style of English architecture, with a tower, and contains nine hundred and twenty free sittings: the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Bolton. The church, dedicated to St. George, in Little Bolton, was erected by subscription, in 1796: the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Trustees. The chapel, dedicated to All Saints, has been recently rebuilt: the living is a perpetual curacy, endowed with £200 private benefaction, £200 royal bounty, and £2200 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the lord of the manor. There are two places of worship each for Baptists, Independents, and Unitarians, one each for the Society of Friends, and Swedenborgians, seven for the various denominations of Methodists, and a Roman Catholic chapel. The free grammar school was founded by Robert Lever, Esq., citizen of London, who, in 1641, bequeathed estates now producing £396. 3. 3. per annum, with which the revenue of a school previously existing, has been united, amounting in the whole to £485 per annum: it is under the direction of governors incorporated in 1784, who appoint a head master, with a salary of £160; a second master, with a salary of £100; and a writing master, with a salary of £75 per annum: there is a small exhibition to either of the Universities. Robert Ainsworth, the compiler of the Latin Dictionary, and Dr. Lempriere, the compiler of the Classical Dictionary, were masters of this school; and the former was educated here. A charity school was founded and endowed in 1693, by Mr. Nathaniel Hulton, for the instruction of thirty boys and thirty girls; the income is £277 per annum: the school is under the management of trustees, who appoint a master and a mistress, the former with a salary of £45, and the latter with a salary of £25 per annum. A school for the clothing and education of poor children, was founded in 1714, by Thomas Marsden, Esq. who endowed it with £150, now producing £14. 10. per annum, of which the master receives £10. 10., and the remainder is expended in repairs. There are Sunday schools in connexion with the established church and dissenting congregations, in which more than seven thousand children are instructed. The school-room in connexion with the parish church, is a large and handsome building of freestone, in the later style of English architecture, erected by subscription, in 1819, at an expense of £1800; it contains a good organ. A dispensary was established in 1814, and is liberally supported by subscription; the building, which is of a neat and appropriate character, was erected at an expense of £1700. A clothing society is supported chiefly by ladies, and a society for the relief of poor women during childbirth, was established in 1798. John Bradshaw, president of the court which sentenced Charles I. to the scaffold, is said to have been born near this town. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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