WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



LEIGH 



There are chapels of the Wesleyan, Baptist, Inde- 

 pendent Methodist, and Primitive Methodist denomi- 

 nations. The last-named was built in 1884. 



The Chowbent Unitarian chapel was the earliest 

 Nonconformist one in the township, and represents 

 the oldest religious society therein. The chapel was 

 erected by the Presbyterian congregation at the time 

 (1721) when the ancient Chowbent chapel, built in 

 164.5, was transferred to the Episcopal Church. It is 

 a curious and interesting building, enlarged in 1 901, 

 and contains high-backed dark oak pews, and a three- 

 decker pulpit in an excellent state of preservation. 

 The Communion table and plate came from the old 

 chapel.' 



A new Congregational church at Howe Bridge was 

 opened in 1904. 



The Roman Catholic school chapel of St. Richard 

 was opened in 1890, the mission having formerly been 

 served from Tyldesle}-.' 



A grammar school existed at Chowbent in 1655, 

 of which Mr. Richard Jollie was master. Nathaniel 

 Lommax of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 

 1674-5, was partly educated here under Mr. Taylor.' 

 Edward Sedgwick was appointed master in 1733. 



Bequests yielding ^^26 per annum 

 CHARITIES in 1900 were made between 1865 

 and 1899 in favour of Chowbent 

 Unitarian chapel.* 



TYLDESLEY WITH SHAKERLEY 



Tildeslei, Tildeslege, 1190-1210; Tyldesley, 

 1242 ; Tildeslegh, Tildesley, I 332. 



This township includes Tyldesley, containing 1,970 

 statute acres, and the hamlet of Shakerley on the north- 

 west, containing520 acres, and is bounded on the north- 

 ern and eastern sides by the hundred of Salford.* The 

 ground rises gently from an elevation of 100 ft. above 

 the Ordnance datum on the south to 250 ft. on the 

 north, forming the southernmost spur of the central 

 and east Lancashire hills. The ' Banks of Tyldesley ' 

 command an extensive prospect over several counties, 

 extending even to points in the counties of Salop and 

 Montgomery. The town of Tyldesley is situate on 

 the main road between Manchester, Hindley, and 

 Wigan, near the western boundary of the township 

 and on the northern side of the Eccles, Tyldesley, 

 and Wigan branch of the London and North 

 Western Railway, upon which is Tyldesley Station. 

 The Leigh and Bedford branch of the same line 

 connects this town with Leigh. A branch of the 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway from Pendleton to 

 Hindley passes through Shakerley, about one mile 

 to the north of the town. With the exception 

 of a trifling area of the lower red sandstone of 

 the permian rocks, near Dam House, the geological 

 formation consists entirely of the coal measures, 

 which are more or less covered with boulder clay. 

 The soil is of clay, upon which a limited amount 

 of wheat is grown. The land consists mostly of 



meadow and pasture which formerly produced the 

 noted Leigh cheeses. The aspect of the township is 

 eminently characteristic of an industrial district whose 

 natural features have been almost entirely swept away 

 to give place to factories, iron foundries, and collieries. 

 Except from an industrial point of view this treeless 

 district presents a most uninteresting landscape to the 

 traveller. 



In 1 90 1 the population of the township was 

 14,843." The inhabitants are chiefly employed in 

 the collieries and in the cotton spinning and weaving 

 industry. In 1863 the township adopted the Local 

 Government Act of 1858, but under the recent 

 Local Government Act, 1 894, it is governed by an 

 urban district council of fifteen members, represent- 

 ing its five wards — North, East, South, West, and 

 Shakerley. It is supplied with gas from works be- 

 longing to the council, who also control the water 

 supply. A cemetery of 9J acres with three mortuary 

 chapels was formed in 1878, and is administered by a 

 burial board of fifteen members. A building in 

 Elliott Street, known as the Miners' Hall and seating 

 about 750 persons, was erected by the Tyldesley 

 miners in 1893. The public baths in Union Street, 

 erected upon land given by Lady Cotton, were opened 

 in 1876. The township was formed into a parish 

 from the civil parish of Leigh on 15 January, 1828.' 

 The manor of TTLDESLET was one 

 MJNOR of the thirty-four manors dependent 

 upon the chief manor of Warrington 

 before the Conquest, being held by a dreng, whose 

 successors afterwards held it of the barony of War- 

 rington. At the date of the inquest of 1 2 1 2 it was 

 held of William le Boteler by Hugh son of Henry de 

 Tyldesley,' and at the date of the Gascon Scutage of 

 1242—3 by Henry de Tyldesley 

 of the heir of Emery le Boteler.^ 

 Henry was living in 1260,'° 

 was seneschal of Warrington in 

 1 26 1," and survived at least 

 until 1265.'' It was probably 

 he who in 1260 enfeoffed 

 Richard son of John de Hulton 

 of land called The Fall, on the 

 boundary of which were places 

 called Herbert's Clough, Cart 

 Leach, Wych Brook, and Fair- 

 hurst Sike." Henry son of the 

 above Henry released the service due from this land," 

 and in 1300 had a charter from William le Boteler, 

 his chief lord, releasing one of the two beadles whom he 

 kept by custom to serve in his lord's court and fee of 

 Warrington and acquitting him from all claim to, or 

 services for, the wastes and assarts by him improved 

 or to be improved — except the service of puture of 

 one beadle, bode and witness due from his oxgangs 

 of land — and of stallage and pleas of forestalling.'* 

 In 1 301 he divided his manor, lands, and services 

 among his three sons, Hugh, Adam, and Henry. 

 To the eldest he gave the manor, seven messuages, 



Tyldesley. Argent^ 

 'ee mole hills vert. 



lEx inform. Mr. W. D. Pink. An 

 account of the chapel and its ministers 

 will be found in the Seed Soioer, i. New 

 S^. 6, pp. 91-3. 



^ Liverpool Cath. Ann. 1905. 



' Admin, to Gon. and Caius Coll. 1588- 

 1678, p. 280. 



■* End. Char. Lanes. 1901, pp. 80-1. 



® 2,490 acres, including 11 of inland 

 water; Census Rep. 1901. 



« Including Boothstown, Makens, and 

 Parr Bridge ; Census Ret. 



7 Lond. Ga%. 98. 



SExch. K.R. Knfs. Fees, bdle. i. 

 No. 9, m. 3*7. 



9 Testa de Neiiill (Rec. Com.), 3 96 ; Lanes. 

 Inq. (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches., xlviii), 

 146. 1" Pipe R. 44 Hen. Ill, Lanes. 



" Dodsworth MSS. in Chet. Soc. Ixxxvi, 



74- 



12 Lane. Inq. (Rec. Soc. of Lanes, and 

 Ches. xlviii), 232. 



18 Yates D. No. 39. The date appears 

 on the seal tag. 



" Ibid. No. 40, 



" Harl. MS. 2112, fol. 213 ; cf. Chet. 

 Soc. Ixxxvi, 1 19-21. An early seven- 

 teenth, century translation of this charter 

 among Captain Clowes' deeds gives ' flor- 

 toUe ' instead of ' forestall.' 



439 



