WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



the seat of the Urmstons, or at Hall House, the 



Jesuit fathers of Culcheth and Southworth serving chapelry 



from the latter part of the seventeenth century. 1 In and por 



1778, before the first relaxation of the penal laws, 



a chapel was built and public worship resumed. 



Schools were opened in 1829, and rebuilt in 1871. 



The present church of St. Joseph was opened in 



1855, a tower being added in 1884. The mission is 



still served by the Jesuits. 8 



LEIGH 



The township was formed into a district 

 1859 from the civil parish of Leigh,* 

 were assigned in 1878 to form the 

 ecclesiastical parish of Howe Bridge, 9 and in 1884 

 the district parish of St. Anne's, Hindsford. In 

 1894 a portion of the township was transferred to 

 Leigh. 



The Local Government Act, 1858, was adopted 

 by the township 22 December, 1863,' which was 



In 1558 Lawrence Asshawe of governed by a local board of fifteen members, but 

 CHARITIES Shaw in Flixton gave by his will under the Act of 1894 is now controlled by an urban 

 5 marks towards ' the paving of any district council of fifteen members, elected from five 

 horse causey [causeway] from the towne of Leighe wards Central, North, East, South, and West. The 

 unto the Sawter Buttes in Bedford.' 3 Richard Speak- district is supplied with gas from works belonging to 

 man and Catherine his wife in 1673 and 1679 left the urban council, and with water obtained partly 

 small sums for the benefit of the poor of Bedford from the Bolton and partly from the Manchester 

 and Tyldesley, of which the interest used to be dis- corporations. 



tributed yearly on Candlemas Day at Speakman The geological formation consists almost entirely 



House in Bedford. 4 In 1679 Matthew Lythgoe of the coal measures, with a trifling area of the 

 bequeathed 50, and in 1727 Samuel Hilton gave permi an rocks and new red sandstone in the south- 

 jloo, to the overseers of the poor, the interest in western angle of the township. The soil is clayey, 

 both cases to be distributed amongst the poor. 5 In the land mainly pasture and meadow, but some wheat 

 1872 William Eckersley gave ^50 by his will for the and vegetables are grown. 



Silk-weaving was formerly carried on extensively in 

 the village houses, but owing to foreign competition 

 has now entirely disappeared. The first cotton-mill 

 was erected in 1776. The manufacture of bolts 

 and nails " and the spindles and flyers of spinning 

 machinery is also carried on here. The population 

 of the township, including Howe Bridge, in 1901 

 was 16,211 persons. A cattle fair was formerly held 

 yearly on the last Thursday in March, but has been 

 discontinued. A pleasure fair is held on the third 

 Monday in September. 



The cemetery, formed in 1857 and enlarged to 

 about nine acres in 1888, is under the control of a 

 burial board of fifteen members. It contains two 

 mortuary chapels. The Volunteer Hall in Mealhouse 

 Lane, used for public meetings and concerts, wa 



benefit of the poor of Bedford church. 6 



ATHERTON 

 12, 1242 ; Atherton, 1259, 



md 



Aderton, 

 mon since. 



This name, derived from A.S. Adre, a watercourse, 

 and tun, a farmstead or village, aptly describes the 

 character of this well-watered township, which is 

 bounded on the west and south by streams and 

 traversed by two others. Beginning on the south- 

 west at the town of Leigh the ground rises in gentle 

 elevations from under 100 ft. above sea-level to over 

 250 ft. on the northern side. 



The township has an area of 2,426 acres, 7 and in 

 shape somewhat resembles a pear, the demesne of 



Atherton Hall occupying the end towards the stalk at erected in 1883 and will seat about 1,000 persons, 

 the outskirts of Leigh. The town of Atherton, in- The Public Hall in Bolton New Road is used for 

 eluding Chowbent, the name of that part of the town 

 which surrounds the parish church, stands on the 

 high road from Bolton to Leigh with branches west- 

 ward to Wigan and eastward to Tyldesley. It is the 

 centre of a district of collieries, cotton-mills, and iron- 

 works, which cover the surface of the country with 

 their inartistic buildings and surroundings, and 



ratepayers' meetings and the meetings of the urban 

 council. There is a Public Free Library, containing 

 about 8,000 volumes ; the building, erected in 1904, 

 was the gift of Mr. Carnegie ; also two political 

 clubs, and a village club for the use of the colliers 

 employed in the Atherton collieries, containing a 

 small free library of about 300 volumes. Atherton 



linked together by the equally unlovely dwellings of Parish Church-house in Tyldesley Road serves as a 

 the people. There are three railway stations restaurant and club, and contains also a gym 

 Atherton Central Station on the Manchester and 



Wigan branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Rail- 

 way, which passes close to the north of the town ; 

 Atherton Station on the Bolton and Kenyon section 

 of the London and North Western Railway, half a 

 mile to the west ; and Howe Bridge, formerly Chow- 

 bent, Station on the Manchester, Eccles, and Wigan 

 section of the same line, to the south-west of the 



and rooms for arts and crafts work. There are 

 athletic grounds belonging to the club in Flapper 

 Fold Lane. A technical school was erected in 

 1893. 



Saxton's map shows that there was a deer park 

 here in the time of Elizabeth. 



Adam Twaite of Chowbent issued a token about 

 1664." 



