TOPOGRAPHY 



THE HUNDRED OF SALFORD 



(Continuation) 



DEANE 



RUMWORTH 

 HORWICH 

 HEATON 

 HALLIWELL 



WESTHOUGHTON 

 HULTON, LITTLE 

 HULTON, MIDDLE 



HULTON, OVER 

 FARNWORTH 



KEARSLEY 



This parish, originally the northern half of the 

 parish of Eccles, takes its name from the dean or narrow 

 wooded valley, on the edge of which the church stands. 1 

 A little brook runs down the valley northward to the 

 Croal. The whole was held of the lord of Manchester, 

 in part directly and in part under the mesne fee of 

 Barton. 1 The district measures about 8 miles from 

 north-west to south-east, and has a total area of 

 20,102 acres. The geological formation consists of the 

 carboniferous rocks, the Coal Measures in the southern 

 and central parts, the Gannister Beds and Millstone 

 Grit in the northern that is, in Heaton, Horwich and 

 Halliwell. The church stands as near as may be to 

 the centre of its irregularly-shaped district. 



Of recent formation the parish has but little record 

 beyond that of industrial progress, being largely in- 

 fluenced by Bolton, within which a large portion of 

 it is now included. 



The following is the present apportionment of the 

 agricultural land : Arable land, 2,375 acres 5 P er ~ 

 manent grass, 10,798 ; woods and plantations, 354. 

 Details are given as follows : 



Grass 

 Acres 



493 



1,811 



1,104 



1,199 



613 



284 



Woods, &c. 



Acres 



190 



5 



144 



15 



For assessment purposes it was divided into four 



quarters Rumworth, Farnworth, and Kearsley ; Hea- 



' ton, Horwich, and Halliwell ; Westhoughton ; the 



three Hultons. Each quarter contributed 1 14*. i\d. 



to the county lay of 1624, when the hundred had to 

 raise ioo. 3 To the fifteenth Rumworth, together 

 with Lostock in Bolton, paid 1 4*. ; Heaton with Halli- 

 well, 1 3/. ; the three Hultons, I o/. ; Westhoughton, 

 I5/. \d. ; Horwich was not reckoned, and Farn- 

 worth and Kearsley were included with Barton-on- 

 Irwell. 4 



The church of ST. MART is pictur- 

 CHURCH esquely situated on high ground above a 

 small stream that flows past it on the 

 west, and consists of a chancel 28 ft. long by 19 ft. 6 in. 

 wide, nave 71 ft. 6 in. by 20 ft. gin., north aisle 

 1 3 ft. wide, with organ chamber at the east and vestry 

 at the west end, south aisle 1 5 ft. wide, south porch 

 and west tower 9 ft. square ; these measurements being 

 all internal. With the exception of the tower the 

 building belongs to different periods of the I5th and 

 to the beginning of the i6th centuries, with modern 

 additions. The tower is of 14th-century date, and 

 probably belongs to an older church which the 15th- 

 century building replaced. 



The church is built of rough wall-stones, and has 

 battlemented parapets to chancel, nave, and aisles, with 

 three crocketed pinnacles on the east end, and leaded 

 roofs. The details are poor, the windows all being 

 late in style, with rounded uncusped heads to the lights, 

 the clearstory consisting of an almost continuous line 

 of square-headed three-light windows. 



The church appears to have been originally a small 

 14th-century building, the nave covering the area now 

 occupied by the two westernmost bays of the present 

 nave, probably without aisles and with a chancel and 

 western tower. Early in the 1 5th century the church 

 was extended eastward by the addition of two bays 

 forming a new chancel, probably built round the for- 

 merly existing one and taking up the space now occu- 



1 Rochdale is another parish taking its 

 name from the position of the church ; 

 Wilmslow in Cheshire, is another. There 

 are no townships so named, but each of 



them gives its name to the village around 

 the church. 



2 Part at least of Hulton was held in 

 thegnage with Worsley, and the mesne 



lordship of Barton and therefore of Man- 

 chester was usually ignored. 



8 Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 22; 

 also 15. 4 Ibid. 1 8. 



