SALFORD HUNDRED 



Archbishop of Dublin from 1605 to 1619, and 

 ancestor of the Viscounts Ranelagh. 86 



Early in the reign of Henry VIII disputes broke 

 out respecting the boundaries of the manors of Middle- 

 ton and Bury, which were much intermingled, and a 

 commission was issued to determine them. 87 



Formerly the government of the 

 BOROUGH place was in the hands of the con- 

 stables chosen at the manor court held 

 in May. An Improvement Act for Middleton and 

 Tonge was passed in 1 86 1 ; 88 these townships had 

 long been treated as forming one town, though in 

 different parishes. In 1886 a charter of incorporation 

 was granted, 89 and the town is governed by a council 

 composed of a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen 

 councillors, six for each of the wards North, South, 

 and West into which the borough has been divided. 

 The corporation own the gasworks, which were es- 

 tablished in 1847 and transferred to the town in 

 1 86 1. 90 Water is supplied by the Heywood and 

 Middleton Water Board. 91 The town has a com- 

 mission of the peace ; the police station, with court 

 room, was built in 1873. The corporation have 

 established a free library, 93 built in 1888, a small 

 park, public baths, and a fire brigade. A cemetery was 

 formed in 1861. 



Lord Suffield in 1791 procured a charter for hold- 

 ing a weekly market on Friday and three annual 

 fairs ; he also erected a market-house and shambles, 

 taken down in 1851. The charter was for a long 

 time practically useless ; in 1 840 there was no market 

 held on Friday, and the business done on Saturday 

 was trivial. At that time also the fairs were scarcely 

 observed ; the times fixed were the first Thursdays 

 after 10 March and 15 April, and the second Thurs- 

 day after 29 September. 93 A monthly fair was es- 

 tablished in 1862. 



To minister to the largely increased population many 

 places of worship have in recent times been erected. 

 In connexion with the Church of England Holy 

 Trinity, Parkfield, was consecrated in 1862 ; the 

 rector of Middleton is the patron. 94 



The Wesleyans ' originally met for devotion in a 

 chapel at Back of the Brow, where they continued till 

 about 1788, when they removed to a chapel at the 

 bottom of Barrowfields.' 95 This was followed in 1 805 

 by a chapel in Wood Street, represented by the pre- 

 sent one in Long Street, built in 1901. There is 

 another chapel at Rhodes. The Primitive Methodists 

 appeared in 1821 at Middleton, and at Rhodes in 

 1835; they have also a chapel at Bowlee. The New 

 Connexion held meetings in 1 804, and though they 

 erected a chapel at Barrowfields, became extinct in a 



MIDDLETON 



few years. The Wesleyan Association held meetings 

 in 1837, but failed ; subsequently work was resumed, 

 and as the United Free Church the body has chapels 

 in the town and at Hebers. 



The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion used 

 the abandoned New Connexion chapel in 1815, but 

 in 1824 built St. Stephen's in High Street. 



The Congregationalists held meetings as early as 

 1818, and used the New Connexion chapel for some 

 years, with varying success, and at last in 1836 built 

 Providence Chapel ; this was replaced by the present 

 building in 1860. A division in the congregation 

 occurred in 1866, and Salem Chapel, built in 1855 

 by secessionists from the Countess of Huntingdon's 

 Connexion, was acquired and continues in use. 96 



The Baptists have a chapel, dating from 1862. 



The Swedenborgians first met in a cottage in 1801, 

 and in 1832 opened the New Jerusalem Temple in 

 Wood Street ; they have another at Rhodes, begun in 

 1861. 



The Unitarians in 1825 unsuccessfully tried to 

 form a congregation. Their present church originated 

 in services in the Temperance Hall in 1860. 



St. Peter's Roman Catholic school-chapel was built 

 in 1867. There is a house of the Sisters of the Holy 

 Cross and Passion. 97 



PILSWORTH 



Pylesworth, 1243 ; Pilliswrthe, c. 1270. 



The township of Pilsworth has an extreme length 

 of more than 3 miles ; the area is 1,482} acres. 

 The surface is undulating, being highest in the centre 

 and on the eastern side, over 400 ft. above sea-level, 

 and lowest along the Roch and the Hollins Brook, 

 which form the boundary on the west and south. 

 There is no village or considerable hamlet in the 

 greater part of the township, but in the north-east 

 is Broadfield, which is becoming a suburb of Heywood. 

 The population in 1901 was not returned separately. 



The principal roads meet at Three Lane Ends near 

 the centre. From this point one road goes north- 

 east to Broadfield and Heywood ; another, north-west 

 to Heap Bridge and Bury, with a branch turning west 

 and south to Hollins in Unsworth ; the third, south- 

 east to Birch and Middleton. The Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire Railway Company's line from Bury to 

 Rochdale crosses the north-east corner and has a station 

 called Broadfield, opened in 1869. 



The soil is sandy, with subsoil of clay ; wheat and 

 potatoes are grown, and there is pasture. There are 

 bleach works and a cotton-mill. 



86 Piccope, Wilh (Chet. Soc.), ii, 225 ; 

 Thomas Jones was 'kept to learning in 

 Cambridge ' at the charge of Richard 

 Jones, rector of Bury. He was conse- 

 crated Bishop of Meath in 1584, translated 

 to Dublin in 1605, being made Lord 

 Chancellor of Ireland, and died in 1619. 

 His son, Sir Roger, was created Viscount 

 Ranelagh in 1628. 



8 7 Duchy Plead. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and 

 Ches.), ii, 239. 



88 24 & 25 Viet. cap. 10 ; amended 

 by 41 & 42 Viet. cap. 162, 42 & 43 

 Viet. cap. 86, &c. ; by these Middleton 

 and Tonge were amalgamated and (in 

 1879) Alkrington and parts of Hopwood 

 and Thornham were added. Particulars 



of the Acts are given in the Corporation's 

 Year Bk. which the town clerk, Mr. F. 

 Entwisle, has supplied to the editors. 



89 Dated 21 July 1886. Parts of the 

 townships of Great and Little Heaton 

 were added in 1891. 



90 Under the Act of 1847 a joint-stock 

 company owned the gasworks ; a new 

 company was formed under an Act in 1851; 

 9 & 10 Viet. cap. 8 ; 17 & 18 Viet. cap. i. 



91 The water-supply was formerly in the 

 hands of a private company, owning the 

 Heywood waterworks, then of the Hey- 

 wood Corporation, and since 1898 by the 

 Heywood and Middleton Water Board, 

 consisting of six members from each 

 borough ; 6 1 & 62 Viet. cap. 240. 



169 



92 An account of the opening, with a 

 view, is contained in Oldham Notes -and 

 Gleanings, iii, 192. There are also reading- 

 rooms at the Co-operative Hall in Long 

 Street, Bowlee, and Rhodes. 



98 These details are from E. Butter- 

 worth's Middleton (ed. 1840), and the 

 Middleton and Tonge Industrial Society's 

 Jubilee Handbook (1900). 



94 A district was assigned to it in 1863 ; 

 Land. Gas;. 24 Mar. 



95 This and other information as to the 

 Nonconformists' chapels is taken from 

 E. Butterworth, op. cit. 31. 



96 Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. v, 



275-9- 



* Kelly, Engl. Cath. Missions, 277. 



22 



