In connexion with the Established Church Peel 

 Chapel, St. Paul's, was built in 1760 by Joseph 

 Yates ; several of the Yates family are buried there. 76 

 It was rebuilt in 1828 and in 1876, a district 

 chapelry having been formed in 1874." The patron- 

 age is vested in Lord Kenyon. Services are held in 

 St. Andrew's School, Over Hulton. 



The Presbyterian Church of England has the old 

 Wharton Chapel, the congregation originating with 

 the Nonconformists of 1662, under the protection of 

 the Mort family; the chapel was rebuilt in 1723. 

 The Moravians held services in it from 1755 till about 

 1800; afterwards the Congregationalists used it till 

 in 1 860 it was given to the Presbyterians. It had 

 been very poorly attended. 78 A new church was 

 built in 1901. 



The Wesleyan Methodists' Chapel dates from 

 1817, and that of the Primitive Methodists from 

 1823. Each denomination has since added another. 



The Roman Catholic Church of St. Edmund, King 

 and Martyr, was opened in Little Hulton in i876, 79 

 and rebuilt in 1899. 



FARNWORTH 



Farnworth, Farneworth, Farnewrth, 1278-9. 



Farnworth, anciently a hamlet in Barton, after- 

 wards became a separate township, and in modern 

 times has grown into a small town, with numerous 

 industries. 



It measures about 2 miles from east to west, with 

 a breadth of a little over a mile. The area is 1,502 

 acres. 1 The surface slopes generally from west to 

 east, the lowest ground being in the north-east corner, 

 where the River Croal forms the boundary ; this 

 part is called Darley. Will Hill Brook, part of which 

 has been utilized to form reservoirs, forms the northern 

 boundary. The town has grown chiefly in the 

 eastern half of the area, on both sides of the great 

 road from Manchester to Bolton, and the main road, 

 which here joins the former, leading north from 

 Eccles. A third important road, known as Plodder 

 Lane, goes westward through the centre of the town- 

 ship, the hamlet called Dixon Green lying upon it. 

 Highfield lies in the south-west corner ; to the east 

 of it is Blindsill, and the hamlet of New Bury is near 

 the middle of the southern boundary. Presto Street, 

 near the eastern boundary, indicates the position of 

 Prestall, which stood on the boundary of Kearsley, 

 perhaps partly within it. Halshaw Moor is in the 

 same quarter. Birch House is situated on the north- 

 east side of the Manchester and Bolton road, there 



called Market Street. Moses Gate is the district on 

 the northern boundary, through which the same road 

 passes, and Harper's Green lies to the south-west. 

 The population in 1901 numbered 25,925.* 



The Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's line from 

 Manchester to Bolton s goes through the north-eastern 

 corner of the township, and has a station called Farn- 

 worth and Halshaw Moor and another called Moses 

 Gate on the southern and northern limits respectively. 

 The London and North Western Company's line 

 from Bolton through Eccles to Manchester crosses the 

 centre of the township from north to south, and has 

 a station called Plodder Lane, close to Dixon Green. 



In 1666 there were ninety-one hearths liable to 

 the tax ; the largest houses were those of Urian Leigh 

 and Jonathan Doming, with six hearths each. 4 



There were large paper mills, 5 iron foundries, 6 and 

 cotton mills ; 7 brick and tile works, and extensive 

 collieries. A newspaper is published on Fridays. 



A local board was formed in i863. 8 The town- 

 ship is now divided into six wards, denoted by points 

 of the compass, each returning three members to the 

 urban district council, which replaced the local board 

 in 1894. 



Gas is now supplied by a company formed in 1854.' 

 There are market, park, baths, and cemetery under 

 public control. Monday and Saturday are the mar- 

 ket days. There is a fair held on the third Monday 

 in September. 10 The Bolton Workhouse is built in 

 the north-west corner of the township. 



For a few years there were races on the moor. 11 



Doming Rasbotham, writing in 1787, recorded 

 that the Croal was * extremely subject to floods,' by 

 which * great quantities of paving stones and gravel ' 

 were carried down. It then produced * trout, 

 shoulers, dace, gudgeons, and eels.' Farnworth Hall, 

 the property of the Duke of Bridgewater, was then 

 standing ; butter had been churned by a late tenant 

 by means of a water-mill. The farms were small, 

 and occupied by manufacturers, willing to pay some- 

 thing from the labour of their looms for the con- 

 venience of a few acres to support two or three 

 cows. Oats and potatoes were grown. Coal was 

 worked and conveyed to Worsley by subterranean 

 canals. In all the cloughs or dingles the alder grew 

 spontaneously ; charcoal was made of it ; oak and ash 

 also grew. 11 



Coins have been found. 13 



Originally merely a hamlet in Barton, 



M4NOR FARWVQRTH does not seem to have 



been recognized as a manor or lordship 



till late in the I3th century. At that time, it was 



divided, being held partly of the lords of Manchester 



7* Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 42. 



77 Land, Gaz. 20 Mar. 1874. 



7 s Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconformity, iv, 

 1 08. An account of its endowments may 

 be seen in the Endowed Charities Rep. 

 (Deane) of 1903, p. 32. 



7 Kelly, Engl. Catb. Missions, 252. 



1 1,504* including 42 of inland water, 

 according to the census of 1901. 



3 Pop. Returns, 1901. 



8 Opened 29 May 1838 ; Dixon Fold 

 Bridge, Stoneclough Bridge, Tunnel (now 

 Farnworth), and Moses Gate were the 

 stations in Kearsley and Farnworth. 



4 Subs. R. bdle. 250, no. 9. 



5 At Darley Mill in 1783 two vats 

 were employed, making six packs of coarse 



paper weekly ; Doming Rasbotham in 

 B. T. Barton's Farnworth and Kersley 

 (Bolton, 1887), 9. This work gives a 

 good account of the history of the town- 

 ships during the i gth century. The story 

 of the Crompton family and their paper 

 and cotton factories is related ; p. 266, &c. 

 The old Pack Horse Road is described on 

 p. 30. 



6 Ibid. 263 ; the first foundry started 

 in 1838. 



7 For an account of James Rothwell 

 Barnes (who died 23 Mar. 1849), and the 

 foundation of the Farnworth cotton mills 

 see the above-quoted work, pp. 83-6, 272 

 87. 



8 Land. Gaz. \\ Sept. 1863. 



34 



9 Barton, op. cit. 60-6. From 1835 it 

 had been supplied by James Berry, a 

 brazier, who, without authority, ran pipet 

 from his own apparatus. 



10 It is said that the ' wakes ' owe their 

 date to the opening of St. John's Church 

 in Sept. 1826; ibid. 74. A fair, how- 

 ever, had been held in July for some time 

 before 1783 ; ibid. 14. 



" Ibid. 79. 



12 Ibid. 9-15. 



Farnworth Hall had been purchased 

 from Lord Semple, who had it with his 

 wife, Miss Gaskell, of Manchester. Raines 

 says that in 1849 it was occupied as 

 cottages. 



u Ibid. 7, 15 ; mediaeval and later. 



