SALFORD HUNDRED 



RADCLIFFE 



period ; at the beginning of this the rector, Peter 

 Shaw, disappeared ; at the end of it his successor, 

 Thomas Pyke, was ejected. 



There was a school of some kind in the I 7th cen- 

 tury, for the schoolmasters are mentioned. 125 



During the last century a number of places 

 of worship were erected to accommodate the in- 

 creasing population. For the Established worship 

 St. Thomas's, Radcliffe Bridge, was built in 1819 

 and rebuilt in l86^., lK and St. Andrew's, Black 

 Lane, in iSyy; 117 the patronage of the first is 

 now vested, like that of the parish church, in Sir 

 F. Johnstone, and that of the second in the rector 

 of Radcliffe. 



The Wesleyans, 1 * 8 Primitive Methodists, and Metho- 



dist New Connexion have chapels. The Congrega- 

 tionalists have a chapel, built in iSjz. 129 The Baptist 

 chapel dates from 1880. 



The Society of Friends has a meeting-place, erected 

 in 1892." 



The Roman Catholic church of St. Mary and 

 St. Philip Neri was built in i894. 131 



The principal charity is that 

 CHARITIES founded by James Walsh Howarth 

 in 1886 ; he bequeathed 3,000, 

 partly for church purposes, but as to half for the 

 benefit of the poor. 133 The poor also receive 7 from 

 the benefaction of John Guest, 133 and the highways 

 have 1 5^. from a quarry allotment. 134 Some older 

 gifts have been lost. 134 



PRESTWICH WITH OLDHAM 1 



I. 



PRESTWICH 

 GREAT HEATON 



LITTLE HEATON 



ALKRINGTON 



TONGE 



PILKINGTON 



II. 

 OLDHAM 



CROMPTON 



ROYTON 



CHADDERTON 



This large parish, stretching for 1 3 miles from east 

 to west, was probably in earlier times still larger, as 

 the receipt of tithes from part of Tottington in Bury 

 and the claim to church land in Radcliffe suggest that 

 Bury and Radcliffe, and therefore Middleton also, 

 were at one period under the care of the priest or 

 colony of priests who gave a name to Prestwich. 

 Not only did the three parishes just named become 

 independent, but Oldham also, though remaining 

 nominally a chapelry to the present day, early secured 

 a practical independence for the eastern part of 

 the parish. 1 Oldham Church is 7 miles from the 

 parish church. The area of the whole is 22,022^ 

 acres, including Prestwich 9,983 acres, and Oldham 

 12,039^. The geology of the entire parish is repre- 

 sented by the Coal Measures, and on the eastward 

 side of a line drawn from High Crompton to Green- 



acres, of the Lower Coal Measures or Gannister 

 Beds. 



The Roman road from Manchester to Ribchester 

 passed through Prestwich and Pilkington ; that from 

 Manchester to York passed through the southern part 

 of Oldham, where Roman coins have been found. 5 



The parish has no united history. In the western 

 portion the Pilkingtons ranked among the great 

 families of the county, until their adherence to 

 Richard III and the Yorkist side brought about their 

 overthrow. The other manorial families were either 

 non-resident or of only local importance. 



Though the Elizabethan reformation found the 

 rector of Prestwich at first reluctantly compliant and 

 then an avowed opponent, there is little evidence of 

 opposition to the change of religion ; recusants were 

 few, and the district soon became strongly Puritan. 



145 Dr. Bon (?) ' in 1639 ; Mite. (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), i, 125. Abraham 

 Mather was licensed in 1662, and re- 

 mained till his death in 1699 ; Stratford's 

 Visit. List, 1691. There was no per- 

 manent endowment ; Gastrell, Notitia, ii, 

 1 60. 



126 A district was assigned to it in 1839 ; 

 Lond.Gaz,$ July 1839. The old church 

 was ' on the model of an eastern pagoda ' ; 

 Baines, Lanes, (ed. 1836), iii, 10. 



137 A district was assigned in 1878; 

 Land. Cast. 24 May. 



1! The Wesleyan Chapel, Radcliffe 

 Close, erected about 1 800, benefited under 

 the will cf Richard Bealey, conditionally 

 on 'the usual morning prayers of the 

 Church of England ' being read ; End. 

 Char. Reft. 1901, p. 4. St. Paul's Wes- 

 leyan Chapel, Black Lane, commenced in 

 hired rooms in 1881 ; church built 1901. 



129 Preaching had begun in 1838, but 

 the present church represents a secession 

 from Stand Chapel in 1 847 ; a school- 

 room was opened the following year and 

 a church formed in 1849 ; Nightingale, 

 Lanes. Nonconf. iii, 233-7 



180 Information of Mr. Robert Mus- 

 champ, who states that the first meeting 

 of the Society of Friends at Radcliffe 

 began in 1676 ; the present one began 



in 1886. In 1689 there was a meeting 

 at John Townson's house in Radcliffe ; 

 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiy, App. iv, 230. 



181 The first chapel wa opened in 

 1865, the mission being served from 

 Ramsbottom. A second chapel was 

 opened in 1878 ; Kelly, Engl. Cath. 

 Missions, 326. 



us T nc account of the charities is from 

 the Endowed Charities Report for Rad- 

 cliffe, 1901 ; in it is reprinted the re- 

 port of 1828. Mr. Howarth's other gifts 

 were 1,500 for the choir and 500 for 

 the Sunday school treat. The income 

 of the gift to the poor is called the Aged 

 Poor Fund, and is distributed by the 

 churchwardens. 



188 An estate in Buersill and Castleton 

 was left in 1653 by John Guest for the 

 benefit of the poor of Radcliffe and Middle- 

 ton. A moiety of the net income, now 

 6 141., is paid to the rector of Rad- 

 cliffe, who gives z each to the vicars 

 of St. Thomas's and St Andrew's, and 

 pays the residue to the poor fund of the 

 parish church. Formerly the income was 

 disposed of, according to the testator's 

 wish, in a distribution of linen to the 

 poor, and this course is closely followed 

 by the vicar of St. Andrew's, who gives 

 flannel. 



6 7 



184 At the inclosure made in 1 8 1 2 an acre 

 of land was appropriated from the common 

 for a public stone quarry for the repair of 

 the roads. The suitable material has long 

 been exhausted, and the land is let at 

 8 51. a year, the district council as the 

 highway authority claiming it. 



185 Charities founded by Nicholas Gas- 

 kell and by William Brown at the 

 beginning of the iSth century are men- 

 tioned by Bishop Gastrell in 1718 ; Notitia, 

 ii, 1 60. 



Dr. Wroe in 1718 gave 10 to the 

 poor, the income to be distributed on 

 Christmas Day, and William Lawson, 

 rector, in 1757 bequeathed a further 

 sum. In 1828 it was supposed that the 

 capital had been expended in improve- 

 ments of the Guest estate, 1 of the in- 

 come from this having for long been 

 treated separately, but the charities are 

 now regarded as lost. In 1798 William 

 Yates left 5 to augment the Christ- 

 mas charity ; it was lent to Mrs. Bealey 

 of Worth, who in 1828 paid 5*. a year, 

 but her representatives had discontinued 

 the payment before 1862. 



1 For parish map see Radcliffe. 



9 In the Charity Rep. of 1826 Oldham 

 is treated as a separate parish. 



8 Watkin, Rom. Lanes, 



