BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



BLACKBURN 



Eccles on his estate at Mill Hill. In i860 the Mill 

 Hill Congregational Church was opened ; the former 

 chapel, devoted to the purposes of a day and Sunday 

 school, was enlarged in 1885 and 1903.^' Another 

 church was opened at Cherry Tree in 1887.^" 



The chapel of the United Methodist Free Church 

 at Waterfall was erected in 1861 and has since been 

 enlarged.^^ There is a Primitive Methodist chapel in 

 Bentham Street. 



The Roman Catholic church of St. Peter-in- 

 Chains, Mill Hill, was founded in 1889. 



WALTON-LE-DALE 



Waleton, xiii cent. ; Waleton in le (la) Dale, 

 usual since a.d. 1300. 



The township lies on the south side of the River 

 Ribble to the south-east of and almost opposite 

 to the town of Preston ; to the west and south it is 

 bounded by the hundred of Leyland, the River Los- 

 tock and the tributary Clayton Brook forming the 

 division on the latter side for some distance. The 

 River Darwen flows through the north-eastern part of 

 the township before falling into the Ribble, the two 

 waters inclosing the village of Walton-le-Dale in a 

 long peninsula. Ordinary tides flow a short distance 

 above the point where the north-western boundary 

 terminates in the River Ribble. The greater part of 

 the township does not exceed 100 ft. in elevation 

 above the ordnance datum ; the highest ground 

 reaches 300 ft. in the southernmost point. The 

 area is 4,683 acres, and the population in 1901 num- 

 bered 11,271 persons,^ of whom the larger part were 

 at Bamber Bridge and Higher Walton. In the 

 greater part of the township the subsoil consists of the 

 Bunter pebble beds, but on the eastern side there 

 are small areas of the Millstone Grit, Lower Coal 

 Measures and Permian rocks. The soil is a rich 

 loam. 



Two main roads converge at the village and cross 

 the river by Ribble Bridge, a stone bridge of three 

 arches built in 1782, 50 yds. above the site of an older 

 erection ; the road from Manchester and Chorley 

 crosses the River Lostock at Bamber Bridge and passes 

 through the village of that name and Brownedge ; 

 that from Blackburn passes through Higher Walton. 

 An inferior road connects with the main road from 

 Preston to Clitheroe at Samlesbury. The Liverpool, 

 Blackburn and Accrington line of the Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire Railway Company passes through the 

 southern part of the township, with stations at 

 Lostock Hall and Bamber Bridge ; from the latter 

 place a branch line called the Bamber Bridge and 

 Preston extension runs through Preston Junction to 

 Preston, and from it a branch line passes over Walton 

 Moss to connect with the main line of the London 

 and North Western Railway Company ; a branch of 

 the Leeds and Liverpool Canal terminates on Walton 

 Summit, and used to be connected with Preston by 

 a tram line which passes through the village of 

 Bamber Bridge. 



The land consists principally of meadow and 

 pasture ; there is some arable, and in the lower ground 

 a considerable amount of market gardening is carried 

 on ; there is a fair amount of woodland scattered 

 over the township. ^ 



A local board was formed in the year 1877, but 

 under the provisions of the Act of 1894 the township 

 is now governed by an urban district council of 

 twelve members, and for urban purposes is divided 

 into four wards. 



The Working Men's Institute was erected in 188 I 

 at the charge of Mr. Richard Calvert, who also fur- 

 nished it with books and fittings. 



The principal industry is cotton-spinning, carried 

 on at Flats Mill in the village ; there is also a water 

 corn-mill. 



Bamber Bridge is a populous village distant 2 

 miles south from Walton-le-Dale ; it contains three 

 extensive cotton manufactories. The hamlet of 

 Brownedge, where there are iron-works, is a mile 

 north on an eminence. School Lane is another 

 hamlet. The village of Lostock Hall, formerly 

 called Cuerden Green, is 2 miles west of Bamber 

 Bridge. There is a cotton-spinning factory there 

 also. 



Higher Walton, formerly called Moon's Mill, is a 

 village situated a mile east from Walton-le-Dale 

 on the Blackburn road. There are two cotton 

 factories, also yarn and piece dyeing works. Darwen 

 Bank, standing in its own grounds of 70 acres, occupies 

 an eminence near the village from which extensive 

 and beautiful views of the neighbourhood may be 

 obtained. Prospect Hill, the residence of Mr. 

 William Gent, occupies a similar position. 



Traces of a Roman station of minor importance 

 were found here in 1855 by men employed in the 

 repair of the highways during excavation for gravel of 

 a large mound known as the ' Plump,' and two or 

 three years later during excavations made in a garden 

 150 yds. to the south-west of the mound. A variety 

 of miscellaneous articles were found, including pottery 

 and coins. It has been suggested that the station was 

 the Rigodunum of Ptolemy.^ 



In 1253 the boundaries of Walton against the 

 township of Brindle, and in 1283 against Cuerdale, 

 were for the first time properly defined by perambu- 

 lation. 



In answer to their petition pontage for five years 

 was granted in I 302 to the bailiffs and good men of 

 ' Walton-in-la-Dale ' for building and repairing the 

 bridges of Ribble and Derwent, to be collected from 

 goods intended 'for sale passing over or under them.' 

 A similar grant for two years was made to the com- 

 monalty of Blackburnshire in 1339 for the repair of 

 Ribble Bridge. Again in 1400 pontage was granted 

 for three years, renewed in 1403 for a similar period, 

 for the repair of Ribble Bridge and for the construc- 

 tion of a stone bridge by the old one which had been 

 broken by floods and ice.* 



A number of Walton people were indicted and 

 fined in i 323 for having stolen the goods and chattels 



*' Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. ii, 88- 

 92, with view. ™ Ibid. 109. 



'1 Abram, Blackburn, 585. 



^ The Census Rip, 1 90 1 gives 4,6 5 8 acres, 

 of which 44 acres are inland water ; there 

 are also 21 acres of tidal water and 3 of 

 foreshore. 



' The agricultural returns for 1905 give 

 arable land 199 acres, permanent grass 

 3,684 acres, woods and plantations 115 

 acres. 



^ Trans. Lanes, and Ches. Hist. Soc. viii, 

 127-40 ; X, 352 ; Watkin, Roman Lanes. 

 203-5. 



289 



* Pari. R. i, 104* ; Cal. Pat. 1301-7, 

 P- 54; 1338-40, P- 3°i ; i39?-'40i. 

 p. 374; 1401-3, p. 236. Cf. Fishwick, 

 Preston, 34. The waters of Ribble and 

 Derwent were described in the petition 

 to Parliament as together 70 perches 

 wide. 



37 



