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Leigh in Lancaster County England History and GeographyLEIGH, a parish in the hundred of WEST DERBY, county palatine of LANCASTER, containing 18,372 inhabitants, and comprising the chapelries of Astley and Atherton, and the townships of Bedford, Tyldesley, Pennington, and West Leigh, the two latter including the market town of Leigh, 46 miles (S.S.E.) from Lancaster, and 197 (N.W.) from London, the population of the town of Leigh being included in the return for the respective townships. The name of this place is pure Saxon, and synonimous with the English word Lea, a field or pasture. The manufacture of cambric-muslins and fustians is carried on, that of the former being the more considerable; and the general trade of the place has much improved of late years, chiefly in consequence of advantages derived from a branch of the Duke of Bridgewater's canal, which here forms a junction with the Leeds and Liverpool canal. Packet-boats, for passengers from Liverpool to Manchester, pass by this place every day. Coal and limestone are found in the parish; the latter, when burnt, is used in making a very excellent cement, which is impervious to water. The market is on Saturday; and fairs are held on the 24th and 25th of April, and on the 7th and 8th of December, for cattle, pigs, pedlary, &c. A court baron for the manor of Pennington, and a court for the manor of West Leigh, are held here annually by their respective lords; as are also the petty sessions for the Warrington division of the hundred of West Derby. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Chester, rated in the king's books at £9, endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of Lord Lilford. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient stone edifice, consisting of a nave, chancel, and two side aisles, terminating in sepulchral chapels. There are places of worship for Independents, Wesleyan Methodists, Swedenborgians, and Roman Catholics. The free grammar school is of uncertain foundation, but was endowed, in 1655, by Piers Rancars, with a rent-charge of £5; in 1681, by Richard Bradshaw, with £6 per annum, which, with subsequent grants, produce an annual income of £25: there are seven free scholars; and the master has a dwelling-house rent-free. Upwards of one thousand children receive instruction in the various Sunday schools in this town. Several sums have been given, by charitable individuals, for distribution among the poor. The manufactures of Lancashire are eminently indebted to the ingenuity of Thomas Highs, a reed-maker at this place, who, in 1764, constructed the first spinning-jenny, and, in 1767, invented the water-frame, which was afterwards improved and extensively introduced by Sir Richard Arkwright. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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