WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



Platt Bridge, built in I854. 54 The Independent 

 Methodists have one at Lowe Green, built in 1867." 



The Particular Baptists built Ebenezer Chapel in 

 Mill Lane in i854. 56 



The Congregationalists made a first effort in 1 794, 

 but no church was formed until 1812 ; St. Paul's 

 Chapel was built in 1815, meetings for worship having 

 been held some years earlier in cottages. Certain 

 differences between the minister, the Rev. William 

 Turner, and the majority of the congregation caused 

 him to resign in 1830; his friends opened a tem- 

 porary building in the Bridge Croft, and built a 

 church in 1838, where he officiated till l86z. 57 



The ejected Presbyterians of 1698 built another 

 place of worship for themselves ; it has been continu- 

 ously used, the present congregation being Unitarian 

 in doctrine. 58 



Nothing is known of the permanence of the ancient 

 religion during the I7th century, but mass was prob- 

 ably said at Lowe Hall as opportunity was afforded. 

 Dom John Placid Acton, a Benedictine, was stationed 

 at this place in 1699, and died there in 1727 ; 

 succeeding priests, who till 1758 resided chiefly at 

 Park Hall in Charnock Richard, or at Standish Hall, 

 moved the chapel to Strangeways and then to 

 Hindley village; this change was made in 1789. 

 From 1758 there has been a resident Benedictine 

 priest in charge ; and the present church of St. 

 Benedict in Market Street was built in 



ABRAM 



Edburgham, 1212; Adburgham, 1 246, and com- 

 mon ; Abraham, xvi cent. ; Abram, xviii cent. Pro- 

 nounced Abbram. 



Abram is situated in the centre of a coal-mining dis- 

 trict ; the surface of the country is flat except in the 

 south, where it is very slightly undulating. The sur- 

 roundings are characteristic of a coal-producing district, 

 distinctly unpicturesque, dingy grass-fields alternating 

 with collieries, pit-banks, and railway lines. Some 

 fields are arable and produce crops of wheat and oats. 

 There is much pasture land. Trees are in the 

 minority, and stunted and blackened with smoke. 

 The hawthorn hedges which divide the fields are low 

 and spare. The soil is a stiff clay which holds a 

 quantity of water on its surface, for besides occasional 

 * flashes ' caused by mining, the fields appear to be 

 slightly flooded at most seasons of the year. It is a 

 district of sett-laid roads and cinder-paths. In the 

 northern part of the township the geological forma- 



WIGAN 



tion consists of the Coal Measures. At some distance 

 from the southern boundary this formation dips under 

 the New Red Sandstone and the intervening Per- 

 mian Beds. 



The area is 1,982 acres, 1 and in 1901 the popula- 

 tion numbered 6,306. Part of the western and nearly 

 all of the southern boundary is formed by a brook 

 running through Hindley, and called successively Eye 

 Brook and Glazebrook ; by it Bamfurlong, 3 in the 

 extreme west, is cut off from the main portion of the 

 township. 



Abram village lies in the north-western corner, 

 where the road from Wigan to Warrington by Gol- 

 borne crosses the township, meeting at the village 

 other roads from Ashton on the south-west, and from 

 Leigh on the east. Bickershaw 3 lies by the last- 

 named road, near the eastern boundary. Plank Lane 

 is a hamlet in the south-eastern corner, situate on the 

 road from Leigh to Newton. Dover is a hamlet on 

 the south-west border. 



The London and North Western Company's railway 

 from Warrington to Wigan crosses the western 

 corner of the township, with a station called Bamfur- 

 long ; a branch of its Wigan and Manchester line 

 has a station at Plank Lane ; the Great Central Com- 

 pany's Manchester and Wigan line passes north 

 through the middle of the township, with two stations 

 called Westleigh and Bedford, and Bickershaw and 

 Abram. The Leigh branch of the Leeds and Liver- 

 pool Canal passes through near the southern border. 



Coal-mining began about sixty years since. 



A local board was formed in 1880. The township 

 is now governed by an urban district council of twelve 

 members, elected by four wards. 



Before the Conquest, as after, ABRAM 

 MANOR appears to have been a member of the 

 manor and fee of Newton. 4 Henry II 

 gave it to Warine son of Godfrey, and his descendants, 

 assuming the local name, held it to the I7th century. 

 This Warine confirmed a grant by his nephew, William 

 de Occleshaw, to Cockersand Abbey, for the souls of 

 King Henry and others. 5 His son Richard was a 

 benefactor to the same house, granting Bernegrenes, 

 on the south of Walter's Pool, with other lands and 

 liberties. 6 Richard de Abram was in possession in 

 1 21 2, holding the manor as 4 oxgangs by a rent of 

 \s. ; a third part had been given in alms. 7 John son 

 of Richard confirmed the previous grants to Cocker- 

 sand and added a ridding by Glazebrook. 8 Warine 

 Banastre granted an oxgang of his demesne to the 

 same canons, 9 and Robert son of Robert Banastre 

 gave a general confirmation about I25O. 10 



54 Leyland, op. cit. 79. 



55 Ibid. 79. 



56 Ibid. 78. 



*7 Ibid. 75-7; Nightingale, op. cit. iv,i3. 



58 Leyland, Hindley, 64-75. The chapel 

 was built in 1700 by Richard Crook of 

 Abram and conveyed to trustees in 1717, 

 James Green of Abram being one. Owing, 

 it is said, to an attempt by William Daven- 

 port, minister in 1777, to carry the endow- 

 ment to the Presbyterian chapel at Wigan, 

 he became unpopular, was assaulted and 

 finally resigned. He is said to have been 

 Arian in doctrine. Unitarianism pre- 

 vailed here by the end of the i8th century, 

 but from the account of a disturbance in 

 the chapel in 1833 it would seem that 

 some Trinitarians then remained in the 

 congregation. Particulars of the endow- 



ment, now considerable, on account of coal 

 mining on the land, are given in the 

 Report of the End. Char, of Wigan, 1899, 

 pp. 90-7. 



59 Mr. Gillow in Trans. Hist. Sac. (new 

 ser.), xiii, 153, 154, where it is stated 

 that Bishop Matthew Gibson confirmed 

 fifty-nine at Strangeways in 1784 ; there 

 were 259 communicants ; Liverpool Cath. 

 Ann. 1901. See further in Leyland, 

 Hindley, 62, 63, for reminiscences of Dom 

 Anselm Appleton, 1808-36. 



1 1,984, including 26 of inland water; 

 Census of 1901. 



2 Banforthlang, 1448. 

 8 Bykershagh, 1365. 



4 V.C.H. Lanes, i, 286. 



6 Cockersand Chart. (Chet. Soc.), ii, 661. 



' Ibid. 663. The first of his charters 



III 



names ' the deep lache which was the 

 boundary between Abram and Occleshaw.' 

 ' Lanes, Inq. and Extents (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), i, 77. How King Henry 

 came to have Abram in his hands is un- 

 known. The third part in alms probably 

 refers to the Occleshaw and other gifts 

 recorded in the text. 



8 Cockertand Chart, ii, 664. In 1246 

 John de Abram quitclaimed his right in 

 200 acres of land to Peter de Burnhull ; 

 Final Cone. (Rec.Soc. Lancs.and Ches.),i, 98. 



9 Cockersand Chart, ii, 660. 



10 Ibid, ii, 643. The following were 

 the abbey tenants in 1501 : John Ashton, 

 I2</. ; William Culcheth, I2</. ; Richard 

 Atherton and Robert Bolton, in Bicker- 

 shaw, each 6d. j Cockersand Rental (Chet. 

 Soc.), 4. 



