Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

Bury is a large and extensive parish, and consists of several townships, of which, including the town, Walmesley, Heaps, and Elton, are usually called the lordship of Bury. These are mostly held by lease under the Earl of Derby; and Tottington, higher and lower End, are considered as the royal manor of Tottington. The church has been lately rebuilt, in a very handsome manner *; besides which the parish contains three chapels of ease, at Holcombe, Edenfield, and Heywood. One half of the town is the rector's glebe, and the other is held under lease from the Earl of Derby. By an Act of Parliament of 1764, the rector is em powered to grant building leases for ninety-nine years, with the privilege of renewal at any intermediate period. The town also contains a chapel for the establishment; and the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Independants, as in most populous and manufac turing towns, have places of worship here. A handsome free school for boys, with two masters, who have each a good house, with comfortable salaries, and a charity school for boys and girls, have been established here. The number of families in Bury, in 1773, was 464, and the inhabitants 2090; but in 1801 they amounted to 1400 families, who occupied 1341 houses, and the inhabitants had increased to 7072. At the north end of the town is CHAMBER-HALL, the seat of Sir Robert Peel, Bart. a gentleman who has particularly distinguished himself, by his active zeal in promoting the cotton manufactures.

[ocr errors]

BOLTON, OR BOLTON-LE-MOORS,

So called to distinguish it from some other places of the same name in this county and in Yorkshire, is a large thriving manufacturing town; and it is traditionally asserted, that the cotton manufacturing

T3

* On pulling down the old church, in 1776, the workmen uncovered a piece of timber, called a pan, on which was cut DCLXXV, There was no appearance of an M before the D.

nufacturing machinery originated here*.

the time of Henry the Eighth, that the

Leland remarked, in market at this place

❝stondeth most by cottons and course yarne. Divers villages in the mores about Bolton do make cottons. Nother the site nor

ground abowte Bolton is so good as it is abowt Byri. (Bury.) They burne at Bolton sum canale, but more Se cole, of the wich the pittes be not far of. They burne turfe also +." These vague notices are curious, though not completely satisfactory. According to tradition, some Flemings settled in Bolton in the year 1569 or 1570, and established a novel species of business here. Soon after the revocation of the edict of Nantz, A. D. 1685, some French protestants settled in this town and neighbourhood. Again, in the reign of Queen Anne, about the year 1709, some poor Palatine weavers carried on their professions here. Some large wooden-shoes, or sabbots, said to have belonged to these men, were preserved as objects of curiosity at Anderton, in the house of Alexander Shaw, Esq. From the kind communications of John Pilkington, and Samuel Oldknow, Esquires, I am enabled to record a few memorable events and circumstances respecting the manufactures of this place and its neighbourhood. What were called cotton goods, previous to the invention of the late Sir Richard Arkwright, were chiefly composed of Irish, Hamburgh, or Bremen linen yarn warps, and cotton weft. Counterpanes, velvets, quiltings, India-jeans, ribs, some thicksets, and some strong jeans, were, however, then made solely of cotton. The warps of corded dimities were made of cotton and linen mixed, Cotton velvets were first made by Jeremiah Clarke in 1756; and

cotton

* The first machines, called Mules, or "Hall-in-the-Wood-Wheels," from being made at a place named Hall, situated in a wood a little north of Bolton, were invented by a poor weaver of the name of Samuel Crompton, who resided at that place. As a reward for his invention, and as an inducement for him to make it public, the manufacturers subscribed, and made him a present of 1001.

+ Itinerary, Vol. VII, fo. 57.

cotton-quiltings by Joseph Shaw, of Bolton, in 1763. British muslins were first manufactured at Anderton, in this county, in 1764. At this period Mr. Joseph Shaw manufactured plain, striped, and spotted muslins, and supplied his looms with yarns. spun on the old single spindle hand wheels. But he could not get a quantity sufficiently cheap to cope with the East India Company's muslins, which he had to meet in the home market, and was under the necessity of abandoning the pursuit, without being rewarded for his meritorious labours.

In the year 1782, Mr. Samuel Oldknow commenced the manufacture of British muslins at Anderton, on his native soil. At that time Sir Richard Arkwright's fine yarn, and other rollerdrawn yarns, were become tolerably plentiful, and had induced Mr. Thomas Ainsworth, of Bolton, Sir Richard Arkwright, and others, to begin to make this thin and delicate fabric: but it is generally admitted, that Mr. Oldknow was the first that produced the Balasore handkerchiefs, the jacconot and japaned muslins, in the style of India; and was the first person who realized 10,000l. by the manufactures of British muslins.

"In the neighbourhood of Bolton, bleaching of the very best quality in the kingdom is performed; and of late has been introduced, by M. Vallete, (an ingenious Frenchman,) a more expeditious mode of bleaching, so much, that a piece of calico which would have required, by the customary process, three weeks in the most favorable season, may now be rendered perfectly white in the space of one hour, and that, as it is said, without the least injury sustained by the cloth*."

Previous to the present war with France, an Act of Parliament was obtained for the sale of a large waste piece of ground, called Bolton-Moor, for the purpose of building on it. An account of this sale will show the value of land in the district. The moor consisted of about 250 acres; and after five Lords of Manors had been satisfied for their respective claims, the land was divided into T4 lots,

* Holts' Agricultural Survey, 8vo. p. 214,

[ocr errors]

lots, and sold by auction, for the sum of 26321. per annum, be side 101. per acre, which was to be paid down at the time of sale. This sum, after paying for the necessary roads, has been appropriated to the improvement of the town, and towards the poor's rates.

[ocr errors]

4

The principal streets of Bolton unite at the market-place, and two of them are each nearly a mile in length. From this place to Manchester, where most of its manufactured goods are sent, is a Canal, a branch of which also communicates with Bury. On this canal are twelve locks, and three aqueduct bridges. The latter are at the respective heights of ten, sixteen, and twenty yards above the bed of the river, which pursues the same course through a narrow, picturesque vale. In the year 1773, the number of houses in Great-Bolton was 946, and of inhabitants 4568. Little-Bolton at the same time contained 232 houses, and 771 inhabitants. In 1801, Great-Bolton contained 12,549 inhabitants, and 2,510 houses. At the same time Little-Bolton contained 966 houses, and 4,867 inhabitants.

[ocr errors]

The parish church of Bolton is only remarkable for having in its windows the shields of 'Chetham and Bridgeman. It is situate in the part of the town called Great-Bolton, besides which there is a chapel of ease at Little-Bolton. Several meeting-houses, for dissenters of various denominations, have been also erected in the town. Here is likewise a good free school, which had for its master the noted Mr. Ainsworth, whose name will be long revered by classical characters, for his laborious and intelligent Latin Dictionary. "In the Sunday-schools of the methodists," says Dr. Aiken, "upwards of 1000 children are instructed by teachers without pay." Bolton has a weekly market on Monday, and two annual fairs. The police is under the cognizance of two constables, assisted by the magistrates of the division, or county.

About two miles to the north-west of Bolton is SMITHILLSHALL, originally the property of the Ratcliffe family, but passed by marriage to a younger branch of the Bartons of Barton and

Holm.

Holm. It was afterwards the property of the Byroms; but was sold, a few years ago, to Mr. Ainsworth, a bleacher in the neighbourhood. It is situated in a wood, above a small rocky glen, and is built in the form of a quadrangle, with entrances under gateways from the north and west sides. It was originally built of timber and plaster, and a clumsy open gallery of timber now runs round the second story of the interior. The east front is somewhat more decorated, and of stone, which, from the bows of the chapel and recess in the dining-room, has rather an elegant appearance. Both the chapel and hall windows contain some painted glass; and the latter is wainscotted all round, from the ceiling to the floor. The middle row of pannels is charged with carved devices of names, heads of kings, crests, knots, &c. In the windows of the kitchen, and on the wainscot, are the monograms of A, with a bar and a tun, or cask, said to allude to Sir Andrew Barton, a noted pirate mentioned in Percy's ballads; but the pedigrees of the Radcliffes and Bartons, of Smithills, rather tend to prove that the house was built, or greatly altered, by Andrew Barton, who lived about the time of Henry the Seventh or Eighth; and the crest of the oak branch, which has been supposed to belong to the Fauconbergs, must have been the badge of the Smithills branch of the family of Ratcliffe, as it does not appear by this pedigree ever to have belonged to the Faucon bergs".

In the parish of Bolton is TURTON-TOWER, now attached to a farm-house, and consisting of four stories, with an embattled parapet. Here is some ancient armour. This estate belonged to George Chetham, Esq. who was high sheriff of the county in 1660; and his successor, Samuel Chetham, Esq. procured the Queen's bounty for the chapel here in 1717.

LOSTOCK

* This pedigree goes back to the Ratcliffes, of Smithills, six descents anterior to John Barton, of Smithills, who lived in the time of Henry the Sixth.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »