A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Cotham, 1 from whom it has descended to Mr. Alfred London and North Western system, and the latter 



Angelo Walmesley-Cotham.* Certain manorial rights was extended through the town to Ormskirk in 1849 



are still connected with it. Old Hardshaw Hall and 1858.' A new railway, known as the Liverpool, 



was pulled down about 1840; the new hall is used St. Helens, and South Lancashire, was begun in 1888 ; 



by the Providence Hospital. Another house, called the eastern portion is worked by the Great Central 



the Manor House, was pulled down about 1870. No Company, having been opened in 1895." There is 



courts are now held. also communication with neighbouring places by the 



A grant of land in Hardshaw was made by electric tramways. 



Bartholomew Ford to Sir Richard Bold in 1483 ; 3 Other conveniences for the growing town were 



supplied from time to time. 



the inquisitions show that his descendants held 

 a century later. A family named Roughley resided 

 here in the seventeenth century ; one of them was 

 founder of the school. 4 



ST. HELENS being situated at a 

 BOROUGH point at which various roads inter- 

 sected, as from Widnes or Warrington 

 to Lathom and Ormskirk, and from Prescot to Wigan 

 and Newton, it is probable that there has for centuries 

 been something of a village here, clustered round the 

 chapel. 4 The King's Head Inn, formerly on the site 

 of the post office, was built in l629- 6 A school was 

 founded about the same time, and before the end of 

 the century a monthly meeting of the Society of Friends 

 was established, followed by an Independent chapel 

 in 1710.' 



The progress of coal-mining in the neighbourhood, 

 which led to the formation of the Sankey Canal in 

 1755, also promoted the growth of St. Helens, as the 

 most convenient centre of trade and residence. By 

 1800 it had become a small town, comparable with 

 Ormskirk. 8 A Saturday market was established ' by 

 custom,' and two annual fairs, on Easter Monday and 

 Tuesday and the first Friday and Saturday after 

 8 September. 9 



The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in 

 1830, passed about a mile and a half south of the 

 town, and two years later the St. Helens and Runcorn 

 Gap line was constructed. Both are now parts of the 



A gas company was in- 

 corporated by Act of Parliament in 1832 ; a water 

 company was also established, and in 1 844 water pipes 

 were laid in the town ; these works have been taken over 

 by the public authorities. Market sheds were opened 

 in 1843, and a market hall in 1850; a covered 

 market was built in 1889. 



The government was popularized in 1845 by the 

 creation of an urban sanitary 

 authority, with a board of 

 Improvement Commissioners. 1 * 

 A county court was granted 

 about the same time. A town- 

 hall, built by an association of 

 'proprietors' in 1839, being 

 burnt down in 1871, the pre- 

 sent public town hall was built 

 and opened in 1876. A charter 

 of incorporation was granted in 

 1868;" the town became a 

 parliamentary borough in 1 885, 

 and a county borough in 1889. 

 A borough police fore was TaltifandHe'secon'd 



griffin 



established 



comprises Hardshaw, the ori- greant gules. 



ginal seat of the town, parts of 



Windle and Eccleston, and the whole ot Parr and 



Sutton in all 7,284 acres." The population in 



1901 was 84,410. 



and Wigan, and Liverpool and 



1845 the St. Helens and Runcorn 

 Iway and the Sankey Canal were 

 lated, and the united concern 

 purchased by the London and North- 

 Company in 1864. 



These particulars, as well as most of 

 ry, are derived from Jame 

 Brockbank's Hist, of St. Helens, 1896. 

 " - provement Act, 18 & 19 Vic.c. 74. 

 e original area of the borough wa* 

 ores, being the same as that of the 

 present parliamentary borough. The town 

 into six wards Hardshaw, 

 East Sutton, West Sutton, Windle, 

 nd Eccleston ; each with an alderman and 

 uncillors. In 1889 the borough 

 ded into nine wards Central, 

 dshaw, Parr, East and West Sutto 

 and South Windle, and North and 

 Eccleston the membership of the 

 1 being thus increased to thirty-six. 

 The water undertaking and the market: 

 Iready public property. The gas 

 were purchased in 1878. The 

 Helens Corporation Act, 1893, 

 vil parish the va 



1 parishes, or parts, within the county 

 , at the same time extending the 

 to include parts of Windle and 



further 6 acres of Eccleston 'was 

 included. Mr. W. H. Andrew, town clerk, 

 tion on these points 



7,285, including 104 of inland water : 

 Rep. of 1901. 





