SALFORD HUNDRED 



BOLTON-LE-MOORS 



have found places in the Dictionary of National Bio- 

 graphy : John Lodge, archivist, author of a Peerage of 

 Ireland; died 1774. Lawrence Holden, 17 10-78, was 

 a Nonconformist divine. Moses Holden, an astrono- 

 mer, was born at Bolton in 1777 ; he lived chiefly at 

 Preston, and died there in 1 864. John Henry Robin- 

 son, 1796-1871, was a line engraver. Sir Thomas 

 Bazley, born at Gilnow in 1797, was a cotton spin- 

 ner at Halliwell, making his factories models of good 

 order ; he was an earnest free trader, and represented 

 Manchester as a Liberal in Parliament from 1858 to 

 1880. He was made a baronet in 1869, and died in 

 1885. William Lassell, 1799-1880, astronomer. 

 John Clowes Grundy, 1806-67, print-seller and art 

 patron. Abraham Walter Paulton, 1812-76, was 

 educated at Stonyhurst for the priesthood, but became 

 a journalist and politician ; he died at Boughton 

 Hall, Surrey, in 1876. Marshall Claxton, 1813-81, 

 historical painter. Thomas S. Mort, 1816-78, was 

 one of the pioneers of commerce in New South Wales. 

 James Christopher Scholes, 185290, became an anti- 

 quary and genealogist ; his book on Bolton Church 

 has been used in the following account of its history. 

 The church of ST. PETER 7 stands 

 CHURCH on a steep eminence rising above the 

 River Croal at the end of Churchgate, 

 about 200 yards east of the old market-place, 

 and is a handsome building in the style of the I4th 

 century erected in 1867-71, at the charge of Peter 

 Ormrod. 8 The former church, which stood on the 

 same site, then at the extreme end of the town, was a 

 low 15th-century building, consisting of chancel, 

 nave with north and south aisles, south porch, and 

 west tower. 9 The windows of the clearstory were 

 square-headed, but most of the others had been 

 altered, except that at the east end of the chancel, 

 which had seven lights under a depressed arch. The 

 tower had an embattled parapet, but there were no 

 battlements to the nave. The south porch had been 

 rebuilt in 1 694, and the aisle walls bore evidence of 

 work of apparently the same date. The east end of 

 each aisle was inclosed by a screen, forming the Chet- 

 ham Chapel on the north and the Bradford Chapel 

 on the south side of the chancel, which contained 

 several good stalls with heraldic carving. The erection 

 of galleries in the i8th century, and their extension 

 over the chapels, had necessitated the raising of the 

 walls and roof of the chancel as high as the nave, their 

 distinction being thus lost on the outside. The aisle 

 walls had also been raised, and a second tier of square- 



headed windows inserted to light the galleries. The 

 appearance of the church immediately before its 

 demolition was not such as to make its disappearance 

 a matter of much regret. 10 



The old church was taken down in 1866. During 

 the demolition several pre-Norman stones were found 

 under the tower, including a cross in three pieces." 

 There were also fragments of two other crosses, part 

 of another cross shaft, and two stones with rude 

 carvings, probably belonging to the 1 1 th century, 

 together with fragments of I2th and 13th-century 

 work, 11 a sepulchral slab, a stone coffin, and the remains 

 of a recumbent female figure, apparently of the I4th 

 century, showing that at least two stone churches of 

 earlier date had existed on the same site. 13 



The present building, 14 which was consecrated in 

 June 1871, consists of chancel of three bays 41 ft. 

 by 3 1 ft., with north and south aisles, north and south 

 transepts 2 5 ft. by 22 ft., nave of six bays 1 1 4 ft. by 

 33 ft. 3 in., with north and south aisles and lofty 

 clearstory, 16 south porch, and tower on the north side 

 forming a porch below. It is a very good example 

 of modern Gothic work, and is built of Longridge 

 stone, 16 the roofs being covered with green slates. 

 The tower, which is 1 80 ft. high to the top of the 

 vanes, has a square parapet and angle pinnacles, and 

 forms a fine feature at the end of the main street of 

 the town. The windows have all good tracery, that 

 at the east of the chancel being of seven lights, and 

 that at the west end of the nave of six. 



In the chapel on the south side of the chancel are 

 preserved three of the stalls of the old church with 

 misericordes, one with the crest of the Bartons (acorn 

 between two oak leaves), another with that of the 

 Stanleys (eagle and child), and the third with an 

 angel holding a plain shield. The end of the third 

 stall has a poppy head, and is carved with two angels 

 holding a book. 



An organ was first erected in 1795 ; it was greatly 

 enlarged in 1852 and replaced by another, which 

 included some of the old pipes, in 1 8 82." 



One of the tablets in the church was placed there 

 by the townspeople to commemorate the bravery of 

 Robert Knowles, a Bolton man who distinguished 

 himself in the Peninsular War, and fell at the pass of 

 Roncesvalles, 25 July 1813. 



The churchyard lies chiefly on the south side of 

 the church, 18 and since 1903 has been a public 

 garden under the care of the corporation, who raised 

 the ground and put the flat gravestones out of sight. 



7 An award by Lord Stanley in 1478 

 ordered certain money to be paid ' in the 

 church of St. Margaret of Bolton at St. 

 Margaret's altar ' ; Lever Chart. (Add. 

 MS. 32103), no. 190. Two of the old 

 bells bore invocations of St. Peter ; Ch. 

 Gds. (Chet. Soc.), 25. 



8 This benefactor was a cotton manu- 

 facturer and banker of the town and lived 

 at Halliwell Hall. He died in 1875. 



9 The tower was not central with the 

 nave, and was evidently part of an older 

 church, the nave of which had been pulled 

 down and widened about 1480. The tower 

 at the same time had been encased with 

 *tone. When the building was pulled 

 down in 1866 it was found that the outer 

 2 ft. of the tower walls was a later ad- 

 dition which easily came away, but the 

 inner part, 4ft. thick, was immensely 

 .strong, and of older date. 



In 1693 the vicar wrote : 'Our chancel 

 is at present out of order, the floor upon 

 one level, the communion table standing 

 in the midst and no rails, and thus it has 

 been ever since the late wars ' ; Scholes 

 and Pimblett, Hist. ofSolton, 158. A de- 

 scription of the church as it was in 1764, 

 with an account of the custom as to the 

 repairing of the building, is printed in the 

 same work, p. 1 60. 



10 Sir Stephen Glynne's description of 

 the church in 1843 ; Chet. Soc. Publ. 

 (new ser.), xxvii, 103. There is a fuller 

 description of the building, with illustra- 

 tions, in J. C. Scholes's Hist, of Bolton 

 (1892), 123-213. 



11 The pieces have been reunited and 

 the cross erected inside the present 

 church, close to the door in the north 

 aisle. See V.C.H. Lanes, i, 264 ; Lanes, 

 and Cbes. Antiq. Soc. xxii, 144. 



2 37 



12 Four stones with lozenge pattern, 

 one with round billet, one with cheveron 

 (now lost), and part of a double Early 

 English cap (respond) with dog-tooth 

 moulding. 



18 All these stones are now preserved 

 in a room in the tower, and are engraved 

 in Scholes's Hist, of Bolton, 125-9. 



14 Designed by Mr. E. G. Paley. 



16 Height of nave to apex of roof, 73 ft. 

 9 in. 



18 The plain portions of the tower and 

 the lower part of the walls up to base- 

 course all round the church are of stone 

 from Bradshaw Quarry. 



V Scholes, Bolton Ch. Organs (1882). 



18 In 1714 the church was 'surrounded 

 on its south side by a vista of trees ;' Book 

 by ' A Traveller to the North ' (no title 

 stated), quoted by Whittle, Hist, of Bolton, 

 75, and by Scholes, op. cit. 141. 



