A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 





Nevertheless, it is one of the few parishes in which 

 any resistan:e was made, with a show of popular 

 support, to the abolition of the Prayer Book and 

 Episcopacy ; but even this resistance seems to have 

 been due less to principle than to a strong antipathy 

 to the domination of the Manchester Classis. In 

 1662 the rector complied, but the curate of Oldham 

 was expelled. The chapels at Stand and Greenacres 

 bear testimony to the existence of convinced Non- 

 conformists, as does also the Quaker meeting-house at 

 Royton. 4 



The Young Pretender's march through the district 

 has left a trace in the story of the arrest of two of 

 his officers in Prestwich. 5 Volunteers were raised in 

 1779 and 1803, and again in 1859.* 



Under the Redistribution Act of 1885 Prestwich 

 gives a name to one of the Parliamentary divisions of 

 south-east Lancashire, returning one member. 



The Prestwich part of the parish remained com- 

 paratively rural till recently ; but some sections have 

 now become manufacturing, and others have practi- 

 cally merged in Manchester. The Oldham part, on 

 the other hand, early felt the manufacturing impulse, 

 and has steadily gone on increasing its mines and 

 mills, till it has become the predominant partner. 

 The following is the present apportionment of agricul- 

 tural land in the whole parish : Arable land, 3,683 

 acres ; permanent grass, 11,395 ; woods and planta- 

 tions, 367. The details are thus given 7 : 



Prestwich . 

 Alkrington . 

 Tonge 

 Outwood 

 Unsworth 

 Unsworth 

 Whitefield . 

 Oldham . . 

 Crompton . 

 Royton . 

 Royton . 

 Chadderton . 



For the County Lay of 1624. Prestwich proper 

 was divided into two parts, each paying equally, so 

 that Prestwich and Pilkington each paid 2 12s. \\d. 

 when the hundred paid jioo. Oldham township 

 paid l 1 8s. 8</., Royton 19*. 4^., Chadderton and 

 Crompton i gs. each, or a fourth part of the con- 

 tribution from Oldham, which for this purpose was 

 considered a parish. 8 To the more ancient fifteenth, 

 out of 4.1 I4_r. \d, for the hundred, Prestwich con- 

 tributed i8/., Pilkington 23*., Oldham ijs., Royton 

 I is. 4<, Crompton 13^., and Chadderton 2 is. 8</. 9 



The church of Sr. MART is situated 



CHURCH on the south-west side of the town on 



an eminence overlooking the valley of 



\ 



the Irwell, set in very picturesque surroundings. It 

 consists of a chancel with organ chamber and quire 

 vestry on the north, and a chapel on the south side, 

 nave with north and south aisles, each with a chapel 

 at its east end, north and south porches, and west 

 tower. The main body of the church belongs to the 

 1 6th century, and the tower to the 1 5 th, while the 

 whole of the east end, including the chapels at the 

 end of the aisles, is modern. 



The tower presumably belongs to a 15th-century 

 building whose east wall was about where the chancel 

 arch now is, and whose width was the same as at 

 present. This 1 5 th-century church had a chancel 

 about 34 ft. long occupying the space of the two 

 eastern bays of the present nave, and a nave of three 

 bays, the lines of the arcade of which are still re- 

 tained. The aisles were probably of the present 

 width, but whether the chapels at their east ends 

 belonged to this building in the first instance it is 

 impossible to say. The aisles probably overlapped 

 the chancel for about 1 5 ft., and may have been 

 extended and carried further eastward when the 

 chantries were founded. At some time in the first 

 half of the 1 6th century the chancel, both arcades of 

 the nave, and the north and south aisles were rebuilt, 

 destroying all traces of the former work. The 1 6th- 

 century church also had a south porch and a low 

 vestry east of the chancel. There is no record as to 

 when this rebuilding took place, and the work itself 

 is of a very plain description, and does not help much 

 in fixing a date. At first sight the clearstory seems 

 to be of later date than the arcade, but the evidence 

 of the building appears to indicate that they were 

 built at the same period. The rebuilding left the 

 church pretty much as it was till the restorations and 

 additions of the igth century, with chapels the full 

 length of the chancel on each side, and 6 ft. wider than 

 the north and south aisles. The chancel had a traceried 

 window of seven lights under a pointed head, possibly 

 belonging to the 15th-century church. The east 

 vestry was a low building whose roof was below the 

 sill of the chancel window and was entered from the 

 church, as at Sefton, by a door on the south side of 

 the altar. The south porch was rebuilt in 1756, and 

 at the same time, according to an inscription upon 

 the porch, the church ' was raised.' This probably 

 refers to the raising of the aisle walls in order to 

 obtain light for the galleries, though there is only 

 record of one gallery being erected at that time, and 

 that probably in the north chapel. 11 The line of the 

 original aisle roofs may still be seen outside at the 

 west end. In 1782 there were some repairs done to 

 the tower, which was reported to be decaying fast. 

 In 1803 the east vestry was rebuilt, but it seems to 

 have been destroyed about 1860 in order to effect a 

 lengthening of the chancel on its site, having a vestry 

 on the north side. In the same year the body of the 

 church was repewed, and in 1872 a new chapel (the 



* See also the account of Shaw Chapel. 



* See p. 8 1 of the Hist, and Traditions 

 of Prestivscb (1905), by the Rev. W. 

 Nicholls, Congregational Minister, who 

 has also written accounts of Ravenstone- 



. dale and Mallerstang Forest. 

 \ Ibid. 59-66. 

 " N 7 Inf. from Bd. of Agric. (1905). 



8 Gregson, Fragments (ed. Harland), 15, 

 **.. \ Ibid. 1 8. 



10 The supposed dedication to St. Bar- 



tholomew was an error which arose in 

 the 1 8th century; Booker, Mem. of the 

 Ch. in Prestvticb, 54 ; Nicholls, op. cit. 

 67. 



11 1756 ; faculty granted to Sir Thomas 

 Grey Egerton to erect a gallery 26 ft. by 

 14 ft. at his own expense. 1791 ; faculty 

 granted to twelve parishioners for erect- 

 ing a gallery on the north side of the 

 church 28 ft. front by 15 ft. at east and 

 12 ft. at west end, and to raise the roof 



68 



of the north aisle. 1 800 ; faculty granted 

 to Rev. J. Lyon and others who had 

 erected [the previous year] a south-west 

 gallery 1 6 ft. by 12 ft. to let and sell 

 same, Church-wardens' AccK. (Booker). 

 None of these measurements fits the 

 present galleries. The gallery in the 

 north (Wilton) chapel was taken down 

 when the chapel was rebuilt. The west 

 gallery, erected in 1760, was taken down 

 in 1882. 



