WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



185 1, but in 1875 the three local board districts 

 were dissolved and constituted into the Leigh Local 

 Board District, the three townships forming one large 

 town, subsequently controlled by an urban district 

 council under the Local Government Act, 1894. In 

 that year the three townships with a portion of Ather- 

 ton were formed into the civil parish of Leigh.' 



In 1899 a charter of incorporation 

 BOROUGH was granted to the urban district, 

 under which the borough is governed 

 by a mayor, eight aldermen, and twenty-four coun- 

 cillors. The borough comprises the townships of 

 Westleigh, Pennington, Bedford, with part of Ather- 

 ton, and is divided into eight 

 wards. ' The same year the 

 new borough obtained a grant 

 of arms.' In 1903 a borough 

 bench was erected and a Com- 

 mission of the Peace issued to 

 thirty-three local gentlemen. 

 The town is now connected 

 by a system of electric tramways 

 with Bolton, Wigan, Atherton, 

 Tyldesley, Hindley, and Low- 

 ton. There are gas works, 

 and an electric lighting station 

 erected in 1 899-1900. A tho- 

 rough system of drainage was 

 established in 1898 with sewer- 

 age and disposal works, the 

 latter being the joint property 

 of Leigh and Atherton. 



The Town Hall in King 

 Street, a plain red brick build- 

 ing with stone facings, formerly a police station, 

 was acquired in 1875. There are public baths in 

 Silk Street, erected in 1881, a drill hall in Ellesmere 

 Street belonging to H Company, ist Volunteer 

 Battalion, Manchester Regiment, formerly used for 

 public meetings before the erection of the Assembly 

 Room in 1878, a public library in Railway Road, 

 opened in 1894, and a technical school, in connexion 

 with which a spacious and well-equipped gymnasium 

 was erected in 1903 in commemoration of the reign 

 of Queen Victoria, the cost being defrayed by the 

 late W. E. Marsh. There are also Liberal and 

 Conservative clubs, a theatre, and a fine range of 

 buildings erected by the Leigh Friendly Co-operative 

 Society, which includes two large halls used for 

 public meetings, lectures, and concerts. An infirmary 

 is in course of erection, and a new town hall to cost 

 ;^6o,ooo will, it is expected, be opened in 1907.* 



The church of St. Mary the Virgin, 

 CHURCH anciently described as ' the church of 

 Westleigh in Leigh,' was originally con- 

 secrated in honour of St. Peter. The nave and most 

 of the churchyard lay in Westleigh, a small portion of 



Borough of Leigh. 

 Quarterly gules and ar- 

 gent, a cross quarterly 

 caunterchanged bet'ween a 

 spear head of the last in 

 the first quarter, a mullet 

 sable in the second, a 

 shuttle jesse'tvise, the thread 

 pendant, of the last in the 

 third, and a sparroiv- 

 haivk close proper in the 

 fourth. 



LEIGH 



the latter and the chancel lay in Pennington. The 

 old church' was rebuilt, with the exception of the 

 west tower, in 1873. It has a chancel of two bays, 

 continuous with a nave of six bays, with a clearstory 

 running the full length of the building. There are 

 north and south aisles to both nave and chancel, the 

 east bay of the north aisle being used as a vestry, and 

 the second bay containing the organ, which has an 

 eighteenth-century wooden case. It was made by 

 Samuel Green of London in 1777. The former nave 

 was narrower than the present, as may be seen by the 

 springers of the western responds which remain in the 

 east wall of the tower ; the arches were of two cham- 

 fered orders.' The roof of the north aisle of the nave 

 is the old roof reused. The tower opens to the church 

 with a tall arch of two chamfered orders with half 

 octagonal responds and moulded capitals. The tower 

 is of poor detail and late date, said to have been built in 

 1516, and has a west doorway with an elliptical arch, 

 and over it a three-light window with uncusped 

 tracery. In the second stage are plain loops, and the 

 belfry stage has two two-light windows on each face, 

 with transoms and uncusped tracery, and is finished 

 with an embattled parapet. 



In the nave is a fine brass hanging chandelier, the 

 wrought-iron rods which carry it being very well de- 

 signed. 



On a pew west of the second pillar of the north 

 arcade of the nave is a brass plate, marking the burial 

 place of Henry Travice of Light Oakes, 1626, who 

 founded a charity by which 5/. was to be given to 

 forty poor people yearly on Thursday in Passion Week 

 near his gravestone. The font is modern, octagonal, 

 with panelled sides. There are eight bells, all from 

 the Rudhalls' foundry at Gloucester, the treble and 

 second of 1 761, and the rest of 1740, by Abel Rud- 

 hall. There is also a small bell, cast at Wigan in 

 1715. 



In 1693 the church possessed four bells said to have 

 been given by Queen Elizabeth,' two of which — the 

 great bell and the third bell — had been cast at Leigh 

 in 1663.* A fifth bell was added in 1692, and in 

 1705 the second and fourth were re-cast by Gabriel 

 Smith of Congleton. The bells were found unsatis- 

 factory, hence the re-casting in 1 740. 



The church plate consists of a tall communion cup 

 of Elizabethan shape, with an engraved band near the 

 lip, and no mark but that of the maker, G E, repeated 

 twice ; a plain cup of 1650 ; a set of plate given by 

 Mr. Henry Bolton of Leigh, mercer, 1724, compris- 

 ing two cups, one paten, two flagons, and one alms- 

 dish, all being of the Britannia standard, and dated 

 1724, except the paten, which is of 1723 ; and a 

 plate of 1894, given in the following year. 



The registers begin in 1559. From the commence- 

 ment to March, L625, they have been printed by the 

 present vicar.' 



^ Loc, Gov. Bd. Provisional Order, Sept. 

 1894. 



^ The names of the wards are : St. 

 Paul's, Lilford, St. Joseph's, Etherstone, 

 St. Mary's, St. Thomas, Hopecarr, and 

 St. Peter's. 



* Crest. On a wreath of the colours 

 the battlements of a tower proper, issuant 

 therefrom a bear's paw gules, holding a 

 javelin erect, or. Motto: '^quo pede 

 propera.' 



^ These particulars and many others 

 relating to the parish are from information 



supplied by Mr. W. D. Pink, editor of 

 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Notes, f^c. 



^ The nave of the old church was ap- 

 parently restored In 1616, as shown by 

 the date carved on one of the principals. 

 Ex inform. Rev. Canon Stanning. 



^ See Sir S. Glynne's description of the 

 old church taken in 1856 j Chet. Soc. 

 New Ser. xxvii, 53. 



7 Stanning, Reg. of Leigh, xxv. In 

 1552, when an inventory of church goods 

 was made, there were four bells, a sanctus 

 bell and another small bell. Also one 



chalice, a suit of vestments with two copes 

 of red velvet, one suit of vestments with a 

 cope of * olde carnacion,' an old cope of 

 red velvet, another of blue 'crules,' an old 

 vestment of yellow velvet and another of 

 ' crules,' and two crosses of copper. One 

 aisle was covered withjead ; the rest of the 

 church was presumably slated or thatched ; 

 In-v. ofCh. Goods (Chet. Soc. cxiii), 66. 



8 Roger Lowe, Diary. 



^ Inscriptions on 104 burial stones exist- 

 ing In the churchyard in 1881 are given in 

 Hist, and Gen. Notes, iii, 37, 56. 



