Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal
The Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal is a disused canal in Greater Manchester, built to link Bolton and Bury with Manchester. The canal, when opened, was 15 miles 1 furlong long, it was accessed via a junction with the River Irwell in Salford. Seventeen locks were required to climb to the summit as it passed through Pendleton, heading northwest to Prestolee before it split northwest to Bolton and northeast to Bury. Between Bolton and Bury the canal required no locks. Six aqueducts were built to allow the canal to cross the rivers Irwell and Tonge and several minor roads; the canal was commissioned in 1791 by local landowners and businessmen and built between 1791 and 1808, during the Golden Age of canal building, at a cost of £127,700. Designed for narrow gauge boats, during its construction the canal was altered into a broad gauge canal to allow an unrealised connection with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal; the canal company converted into a railway company and built a railway line close to the canal's path, which required modifications to the Salford arm of the canal.
Most of the freight carried was coal from local collieries but, as the mines reached the end of their working lives sections of the canal fell into disuse and disrepair and it was abandoned in 1961. In 1987 a society was formed with the aim of restoring the canal for leisure use and, in 2006, restoration began in the area around the junction with the River Irwell in Salford; the canal is navigable as far as Oldfield Road, Salford. The local geology of the Irwell Valley, which included steep sided valleys with fast flowing rivers subject to rapid flooding and dry seasons, confined local river transport to the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, west of Manchester. Financial unrest and British involvement in the American Revolutionary War restricted local transport investment to road improvements. With the arrival of more favourable conditions, including the end of the war, a proposal for a canal to link the towns of Manchester and Bury was mooted. Matthew Fletcher had in 1789 been employed as a technical advisor and had surveyed the route of the proposed canal, but the first public notice came from Manchester on 4 September 1790.
The initial proposal came from a group in Bolton, with the support of the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company. A meeting was "intended to be holden at the House of Mr Shawe, the Bull's Head in Manchester aforesaid, on Monday, the twentieth day of this instant, September, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon", where "Surveys, Levels and Proposals" would be presented. A further meeting on 16 September, held in Bolton, appointed a committee of six Boltonians chaired by Lord Grey de Wilton to attend at Manchester. A series of resolutions at this meeting followed a discussion of the route, authorised the necessary actions to bring the plan into fruition, which included the petitioning of Parliament for the required bill. Hugh Henshall was asked to survey the proposed route of the canal. For local industries along the route of the proposed canal, whose operations relied on water from local rivers and brooks which the canal might use, its construction was a controversial idea. At a meeting in Bolton on 4 October 1790, it was resolved that "proper clauses be inserted in the bill to prevent injury to owners of mills".
A meeting in Bury at the Eagle & Child public house on 29 September 1790 secured an agreement that "the utility of this scheme cannot with propriety be ascertained until such time as it has been certified, from whence and in what proportion the proprietors of the intended navigation expect to draw their resources of water". At another meeting in Bury, on 13 October 1790, Hugh Henshall gave a written report on the canal, stated that his plan would not require water from the river in times of drought, but that floods and rivulets would supply his reservoirs, he suggested that mill owners could be protected by a suitable clause in the bill, such a clause was duly obtained by Robert Peel. Businesses in Bolton were concerned with the location of the canal terminus, proposed the construction of a tunnel to allow the terminus to be built closer to the town centre. Ralph Fletcher, spokesman for those concerned, reported on this proposal to the committee, although no tunnel was built. In a document entitled "A list of subscribers to the intended Bolton Bury and Manchester Canal Navigation", now kept in the Greater Manchester County Record Office, some of the more notable subscribers are listed, along with the amounts invested by each.
Many of the 95 investments on the list appear to have been made by proxy. The largest is £3,000, the smallest £100; the total sum of investments is £47,700. £5 per £100 share was paid, with an additional £10 call made by 10 August 1791. Similar share calls were made at regular intervals over the following years; the first dividend of 4% was paid in July 1812, with regular payments following thereafter. Following a parliamentary survey of the route by Charles McNiven, the bill received Royal Assent on 13 May 1791 and became an Act of Parliament for the construction of the canal, by which "the proprietors were empowered to purchase land for a breadth of 26 yards on level ground, wider where required for cuttings or embankments." The Act allowed the company to raise £47,000, with shares of £100. The intention was that at Prestolee the route would divide into two branches, with one branch towards Bolton and the other to Bury, but it would not, join the River Irwell; the proprietors were entitled to take water from any brooks within 1,000 yards of the canal, or within 3 miles of the canal summits at Bolton and Bury.
At a meeting in Manches
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father, Henry VII. Henry is best known for his six marriages, in particular his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled, his disagreement with the Pope on the question of such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated. Henry is known as "the father of the Royal Navy". Domestically, Henry is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution, ushering into England the theory of the divine right of kings. Besides asserting the sovereign's supremacy over the Church of England, he expanded royal power during his reign. Charges of treason and heresy were used to quell dissent, those accused were executed without a formal trial, by means of bills of attainder.
He achieved many of his political aims through the work of his chief ministers, some of whom were banished or executed when they fell out of his favour. Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich, Thomas Cranmer all figured prominently in Henry's administration, he was an extravagant spender and used the proceeds from the Dissolution of the Monasteries and acts of the Reformation Parliament to convert into royal revenue the money, paid to Rome. Despite the influx of money from these sources, Henry was continually on the verge of financial ruin due to his personal extravagance as well as his numerous costly and unsuccessful continental wars with King Francis I of France and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. At home, he oversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 and following the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 he was the first English monarch to rule as King of Ireland, his contemporaries considered Henry in his prime to be an attractive and accomplished king.
He has been described as "one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne". He was an composer; as he aged, Henry became obese and his health suffered, contributing to his death in 1547. He is characterised in his life as a lustful, egotistical and insecure king, he was succeeded by the issue of his third marriage to Jane Seymour. Born 28 June 1491 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, Henry Tudor was the third child and second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Of the young Henry's six siblings, only three – Arthur, Prince of Wales, he was baptised by Richard Fox, the Bishop of Exeter, at a church of the Observant Franciscans close to the palace. In 1493, at the age of two, Henry was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, he was subsequently appointed Earl Marshal of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at age three, was inducted into the Order of the Bath soon after. The day after the ceremony he was created Duke of York and a month or so made Warden of the Scottish Marches.
In May 1495, he was appointed to the Order of the Garter. The reason for all the appointments to a small child was so his father could keep personal control of lucrative positions and not share them with established families. Henry was given a first-rate education from leading tutors, becoming fluent in Latin and French, learning at least some Italian. Not much is known about his early life – save for his appointments – because he was not expected to become king. In November 1501, Henry played a considerable part in the ceremonies surrounding his brother's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the youngest surviving child of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile; as Duke of York, Henry used the arms of his father as king, differenced by a label of three points ermine. He was further honoured, on 9 February 1506, by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I who made him a Knight of the Golden Fleece. In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15 of sweating sickness, just 20 weeks after his marriage to Catherine.
Arthur's death thrust all his duties upon the 10-year-old Henry. After a little debate, Henry became the new Duke of Cornwall in October 1502, the new Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in February 1503. Henry VII gave the boy few tasks. Young Henry was supervised and did not appear in public; as a result, he ascended the throne "untrained in the exacting art of kingship". Henry VII renewed his efforts to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, by offering his second son in marriage to Arthur's widow Catherine. Both Isabella and Henry VII were keen on the idea, which had arisen shortly after Arthur's death. On 23 June 1503, a treaty was signed for their marriage, they were betrothed two days later. A papal dispensation was only needed for the "impediment of public honesty" if the marriage had not been consummated as Catherine and her duenna claimed, but Henry VII and the Spanish ambassador set out instead to obtain a dispensation for "affinity", which took account of the possibility of consummation.
Cohabitation was not possible. Isabella's death in 1504, the ensuing problems of succession in Castile, complicated matters, her father preferred her to stay in England, but Henry VII's relations with Ferdinand had deteriorated. Catherine was therefore left in limbo for some time, culminating in Prince Henry's rejection of the marriage as soon he was able, at the age of 14. Ferdinand's solution was to make his daugh
North West England
North West England, one of nine official regions of England, consists of the five counties of Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,052,000 in 2011, it is the third-most populated region in the United Kingdom after the South Greater London. The largest settlements are Manchester, Warrington and Blackpool. North West England is bounded to the west by the Irish Sea; the region extends from the Scottish Borders in the north to the West Midlands region in the south. To its southwest is North Wales. Amongst the better known of the North West's physiographical features are the Lake District and the Cheshire Plain; the highest point in North West England is Cumbria, at a height of 3,209 feet. Windermere is the largest natural lake in England. Broad Crag Tarn on Broad Crag is England's highest lake. Wast Water is England's deepest lake, being 74m deep. A mix of rural and urban landscape, two large conurbations, centred on Liverpool and Manchester, occupy much of the south of the region.
The north of the region, comprising Cumbria and northern Lancashire, is rural, as is the far south which encompasses parts of the Cheshire Plain and Peak District. The region includes parts of three National parks and three areas of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty; the official region consists of the following subdivisions: *metropolitan county After abolition of the Greater Manchester and Merseyside County Councils in 1986, power was transferred to the Metropolitan Boroughs making them Unitary Authorities. In April 2011, Greater Manchester gained a top-tier administrative body in the form of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which means the 10 Greater Manchester Boroughs are once again second-tier authorities. Source: Office for National Statistics Mid Year Population Estimates North West England's population accounts for just over 13% of England's overall population. 37.86% of the North West's population resides in Greater Manchester, 21.39% in Lancashire, 20.30% in Merseyside, 14.76% in Cheshire and 7.41% live in the largest county by area, Cumbria.
According to 2009 Office for National Statistics estimates, 91.6% of people in the region describe themselves as'White': 88.4% White British, 1.0% White Irish and 2.2% White Other. During the Industrial Revolution hundreds of thousands of Welsh people migrated to the North West of England to work in the coal mines. Parts with notably high populations with Welsh ancestry as a result of this include Liverpool, Widnes, Wallasey, Ashton-in-Makerfield and Birkenhead; the Mixed Race population makes up 1.3% of the region's population. There are 323,800 South Asians, making up 4.7% of the population, 1.1% Black Britons. 0.6% of the population are Chinese and 0.5% of people belong to another ethnic group. North West England is a diverse region, with Manchester and Liverpool amongst the most diverse cities in Europe. 19.4% of Blackburn with Darwen's population are Muslim, the third-highest among all local authorities in the United Kingdom and the highest outside London. Areas such as Moss Side in Greater Manchester are home to a 30%+ Black British population.
In contrast, the town of St. Helens in Merseyside, unusually for a city area, has a low percentage of ethnic minorities with 98% identifying as White British; the City of Liverpool, over 800 years old, is one of the few places in Britain where ethnic minority populations can be traced back over dozens of generations: being the closest major city in England to Ireland, it is home to a significant ethnic Irish population, with the city being home to one of the first Afro-Caribbean communities in the UK, as well as the oldest Chinatown in Europe. Summarised There are around 400,000 people living in the North West of any Asian ethnicity Around 125,000 people from the North West are of full or partial Sub-African and/or Caribbean descent The single largest non-white ethnic group in the North West are Pakistanis, numbering at least 144,400 The list below is not how many people belong to each ethnic group; the fifteen most common countries of birth in 2001 for North West citizens were as follows England – 6,169,753 Scotland – 109,163 Wales – 73,850 Ireland – 56,887 Pakistan – 46,529 Northern Ireland – 34,879 India – 34,600 Germany – 19,931 China and Hong Kong – 15,491 Bangladesh – 13,746 South Africa – 7,740 United States – 7,037 Jamaica – 6,661 Italy – 6,325 Australia – 5,880 Poland – The table below is based on the 2011 UK Census.
One in five of the population in the North West is Catholic, a result of large-scale Irish emigration in the nineteenth century as well as the high number of English recusants in Lancashire. For top-tier authorities, Manchester has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the region. For council districts, Burnley has the highest rate followed by Hyndburn, both in Lancashire. Of the nine regions of the England, the North West has the fourth-highest GVA per capita—the highest outside southern England. Despite this the region has above average multiple deprivation with wealth concentrated on affluent areas like rural Cheshire, rural Lancashire, south Cumbria; as measured by the Indices of deprivation 2007, the
Henry II of England
Henry II known as Henry Curtmantle, Henry FitzEmpress or Henry Plantagenet, ruled as King of England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, Count of Anjou and Nantes, Lord of Ireland. Before he was 40 he controlled England, large parts of Wales, the eastern half of Ireland and the western half of France—an area that would come to be called the Angevin Empire. Henry was the son of daughter of Henry I of England, he became involved by the age of 14 in his mother's efforts to claim the throne of England occupied by Stephen of Blois, was made Duke of Normandy at 17. He inherited Anjou in 1151 and shortly afterwards became the Duke of Aquitaine by marrying Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose marriage to Louis VII of France had been annulled. Stephen agreed to a peace treaty after Henry's military expedition to England in 1153, Henry inherited the kingdom on Stephen's death a year later. Henry was an energetic and sometimes ruthless ruler, driven by a desire to restore the lands and privileges of his grandfather Henry I.
During the early years of his reign the younger Henry restored the royal administration in England, re-established hegemony over Wales and gained full control over his lands in Anjou and Touraine. Henry's desire to reform the relationship with the Church led to conflict with his former friend Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury; this controversy lasted for much of the 1160s and resulted in Becket's murder in 1170. Henry soon came into conflict with Louis VII and the two rulers fought what has been termed a "cold war" over several decades. Henry expanded his empire at Louis' expense, taking Brittany and pushing east into central France and south into Toulouse. Henry and Eleanor had eight children -- five sons. Three of his sons would be king, though Henry the Young King was named his father's co-ruler rather than a stand-alone king; as the sons grew up, tensions over the future inheritance of the empire began to emerge, encouraged by Louis and his son King Philip II. In 1173 Henry's heir apparent, "Young Henry", rebelled in protest.
France, Brittany and Boulogne allied themselves with the rebels. The Great Revolt was only defeated by Henry's vigorous military action and talented local commanders, many of them "new men" appointed for their loyalty and administrative skills. Young Henry and Geoffrey revolted again in 1183; the Norman invasion of Ireland provided lands for his youngest son John, but Henry struggled to find ways to satisfy all his sons' desires for land and immediate power. By 1189, Young Henry and Geoffrey were dead, Philip played on Richard's fears that Henry II would make John king, leading to a final rebellion. Decisively defeated by Philip and Richard and suffering from a bleeding ulcer, Henry retreated to Chinon castle in Anjou, he was succeeded by Richard. Henry's empire collapsed during the reign of his youngest son, John. Many of the changes Henry introduced during his long rule, had long-term consequences. Henry's legal changes are considered to have laid the basis for the English Common Law, while his intervention in Brittany and Scotland shaped the development of their societies and governmental systems.
Historical interpretations of Henry's reign have changed over time. In the 18th century, scholars argued that Henry was a driving force in the creation of a genuinely English monarchy and a unified Britain. During the Victorian expansion of the British Empire, historians were keenly interested in the formation of Henry's own empire, but they expressed concern over his private life and treatment of Becket. Late-20th-century historians have combined British and French historical accounts of Henry, challenging earlier Anglocentric interpretations of his reign. Henry was born in France at Le Mans on 5 March 1133, the eldest child of the Empress Matilda and her second husband, Geoffrey the Fair, Count of Anjou; the French county of Anjou was formed in the 10th century and the Angevin rulers attempted for several centuries to extend their influence and power across France through careful marriages and political alliances. In theory, the county answered to the French king, but royal power over Anjou weakened during the 11th century and the county became autonomous.
Henry's mother was King of England and Duke of Normandy. She was born into a powerful ruling class of Normans, who traditionally owned extensive estates in both England and Normandy, her first husband had been the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. After her father's death in 1135, Matilda hoped to claim the English throne, but instead her cousin Stephen of Blois was crowned king and recognised as the Duke of Normandy, resulting in civil war between their rival supporters. Geoffrey took advantage of the confusion to attack the Duchy of Normandy but played no direct role in the English conflict, leaving this to Matilda and her half-brother, Robert of Gloucester; the war, termed the Anarchy by Victorian historians, degenerated into stalemate. Henry spent some of his earliest years in his mother's household, accompanied Matilda to Normandy in the late 1130s. Henry's childhood from the age of seven, was spent in Anjou, where he was educated by Peter of Saintes, a noted grammarian of the day. In late 1142, Geoffrey decided t
North West Ambulance Service
The North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust is the ambulance service for North West England. It is one of 10 Ambulance Trusts providing England with Emergency medical services, is part of the National Health Service, receiving direct government funding for its role. NWAS was formed on 1 July 2006, it was created by the merge of 4 previous services as part of Health Minister Lord Warner's plans to combine ambulance services. Based in Bolton, the new Trust provides services to 7 million people in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire and the North Western fringes of the High Peak district of Derbyshire in an area of some 5,500 square miles. There is no charge to patients for use of the service, under the Patient's charter, every person in the United Kingdom has the right to the attendance of an ambulance in an emergency. NWAS provides emergency ambulance response via the 999 system, as well as operating the NHS 111 advice service for North West England, they operate non-emergency patient transport services, in 2013/2014 carried out 1.2 million such journeys.
Since 2016, the PTS in Cheshire and Wirral has instead been carried out by West Midlands Ambulance Service. NWAS utilise a mixed fleet of emergency ambulances based on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter or Fiat Ducato, the former consisting of a demountable box body on a chassis, the latter a van conversion; the Trust uses Skoda Octavia estates as the main Rapid response car although since 2017 begun using BMW i3 electric cars and use Renault Masters for Intermediate, Urgent care and Patient Transport vehicles. In Central Manchester, some paramedics respond on specially converted bicycles; the Trust operates from 104 ambulance stations across the North West. The most northerly station is at Carlisle, the furthest south is at Crewe, it maintains three Emergency Operations Centres for the handling of 999 calls and dispatch of emergency ambulances. Parkway Anfield Preston In 2017, NWAS signed an agreement to purchase a new EOC and area office for £2.9m at Liverpool International Business Park next to Liverpool John Lennon Airport As of 2019, this building has been converted and services are being moved from the Anfield site.
Over recent years, the Trust has combined many of their older ambulance stations into purpose-built facilities shared with other emergency services, including Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue, Lancashire Fire and Rescue and Greater Manchester Police. NWAS was the first ambulance trust to be inspected by the Care Quality Commission, in August 2014; the Commission found the trust provided safe and effective services which were well-led and with a clear focus on quality but it was criticised for taking too many callers to hospital and for sending ambulances when other responses would have been more appropriate. The Trust was subsequently inspected in 2018 and was found to have improved with a rating of "Good" Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom Healthcare in Greater Manchester North West Air Ambulance List of NHS trusts NWAS Website
Metropolitan Borough of Bolton
The Metropolitan Borough of Bolton is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest settlement, the large town of Bolton, but covers a far larger area which includes Blackrod, Horwich and Westhoughton, a suburban and rural element from the West Pennine Moors; the borough has a population of 276,800, is administered from Bolton Town Hall. The boundaries the Bolton metropolitan district were set as part of the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, cover an amalgamation of eight former local government districts; the metropolitan districts of Bury and Wigan lie to the east and west respectively. The metropolitan borough was formed on 1 April 1974, by the merger of the County Borough of Bolton and the following districts from the administrative county of Lancashire: Municipal Borough of Farnworth Urban District of Blackrod Urban District of Horwich Urban District of Kearsley Urban District of Little Lever Urban District of Westhoughton the southern part of Turton Urban District the villages of Bradshaw, Bromley Cross, Dunscar and Harwood.
This area is now known as South Turton. Bolton Council unsuccessfully petitioned Elizabeth II for the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton to be granted city status in 1992, in 2000, in 2002, 2012. Horwich and Blackrod are now constituted as civil parishes. There are three town councils in the metropolitan borough, Westhoughton Town Council, Horwich Town Council and Blackrod Town Council; the rest of the metropolitan borough, Farnworth, Little Lever, South Turton, have remained unparished areas since 1974. According to the 2009 estimates, of the 265,100 people living in Bolton Metropolitan Borough, the following ethnicities have been recorded: 88.0% White 85.9% White British 1.2% Other White 0.8% White Irish 9.3% South Asian 5.9% Indian 2.7% Pakistani 0.5% Other South Asian 0.2% Bangladeshi 1.2% Mixed Race 0.5% White and Asian 0.4% White and Black Caribbean 0.2% White and Black African 0.2% Other Mixed 1.0% Black 0.6% Black African 0.4% Black Caribbean 0.1% Other Black 0.6% Other 0.3% Chinese 0.3% Other The table below details the population change since 1801, including the percentage change since the last available census data.
Although the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton has only existed since 1974, figures have been generated by combining data from the towns and civil parishes that would be constituent parts of the borough. The Bolton metropolitan area is served by the following railway stations: Bolton Trinity Street – a town-centre transport interchange Bromley Cross Hall i' th' Wood Blackrod Horwich Parkway Lostock Westhoughton Moses Gate Farnworth Kearsley Daisy Hill In 2007, Bolton was ranked 69th out of the 149 Local Education Authorities – and sixth out of ten in Greater Manchester – for its National Curriculum assessment performance. Measured on the percentage of pupils attaining at least 5 A*–C grades at GCSE including maths and English, the Bolton LEA was 111th out of 149: 40.1% of pupils achieved this objective, against a national average of 46.7%. Unauthorised absence from Bolton's secondary schools in the 2006/2007 academic year was 1.4%, in line with the national average, authorised absence was 6.0% against the national average of 6.4%.
At GCSE level, Bolton School was the most successful of Bolton's 21 secondary schools, with 99% of pupils achieving at least 5 A*–C grades at including maths and English. The University of Bolton is one of Greater Manchester's four universities. In 2008, The Times Good University Guide ranked it 111th of 113 institutions in Britain. There are 4,440 students. In 2007 there were 8.8 applications for every place, student satisfaction was recorded as 74.4%. It is one of Britain's newest universities, having been given this status in 2005; the table on the left shows the percentage of students gaining five A* to C grades, including English and Maths, for secondary schools in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The table on the right shows the Average Total Point Score per Student for secondary schools in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. Schools highlighted in yellow are above the LEA average. Another secondary school, Bolton Muslim Girls' School, has opened since January 2007. Source: Department for Children and Families The Metropolitan Borough of Bolton has two twin towns, one in France and another in Germany.
Bolton local elections List of Mayors of Bolton List of people from Bolton
Breightmet
Breightmet is a neighbourhood of Bolton, in Greater Manchester, England. The population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 13,584. A township of the civil and ecclesiastical parish of Bolton le Moors in the Salford hundred of Lancashire, it lies 2 miles north-east of Bolton and 4 miles north-west of Bury; the name is from Old English maed. It was recorded variously as Brihtmede, Brightemete and Breghtmed, Brithmete and Breightmet; the manor originated as part of the Marsey fee and one ploughland was held by Augustin de Breightmet in the 12th century. By marriage, one part descended to the Southworths of Samlesbury, who held it until the 16th century; this portion was owned by Gerards, Banastres and Parker families. The other part was held by the Hollands until they forfeited it in 1461, when it was granted to Lord Stanley and his son, Lord Strange, the Earls of Derby. In the township there was a quarry and several collieries, including one accessing a seam of coal 3 yards thick. There were handloom weavers producing counterpanes.
Two cotton mills and a bleachworks were built. In 1837 Breightmet became part of the Bolton Poor Law Union, which took responsibility for funding the Poor Law in that area; the township was incorporated in the borough of Bolton in 1898. Following the Local Government Act 1972, the County Borough of Bolton was abolished and Breightmet became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester in 1974, it is represented by three councillors on Bolton Council and is part of the Bolton North-East Westminster constituency. The Breightmet township, which covered 825 acres acres of hilly land was two miles north east of Bolton on Bury road, it was separated from Tonge with Haulgh by the Bradshaw Brook. Breightmet Hill, the highest point, rises to about 525 feet. There is a local nature reserve at Seven Acres Country Park; the park separates the west side of Breightmet from neighbouring Tonge Moor. The main shopping area within Breightmet is along the A58 Bury Road, it has a Morrisons store Netto, acquired from Asda in Jan 2011, a Home Bargains.
There is a Breightmet Health Centre which includes a library and pharmacy. In 2016 a retail park was built on the site of the former Mecca Bingo hall, includes an Iceland, Greenhalghs bakery, Card Factory and Barnardo's charity shop; as of July 2018 two units remain empty: one which has never been occupied and one, formally Poundworld, which closed in July 2018. There are several places of worship in Breightmet including two Anglican churches, St James and St John the Evangelist, St Osmund's Roman Catholic church, Red Lane United Reformed Church and the independent Kings Church Bolton, Unit 1, Millfield Rd, Boundary Industrial Estate. St James' parish church was consecrated in 1855. Canon James Slade, Vicar of Bolton from 1817 to 1856, founder of the Bolton Church Institute is buried in the churchyard. Bolton St Catherine's Academy has a community leisure and sports centre. Leverhulme Park, the largest park area within Bolton has a community and children's centre with therapy suites, indoor athletics hall and outdoor athletics stadium, which hosts the town's school athletics competitions.
The park has football pitches, 5-a-side football pitches, bowling greens and an athletics stadium as well as nature walks and picnic areas. The park is home to the Bolton Parkrun. Bolton St Catherine's Academy caters for children from three to 19, it is a Church of England school incorporating the former Withins School, a secondary school and Top o'th Brow Primary School. Four other primary schools serve Breightmet; these are Red Lane County Primary School, Leverhulme Community Primary School, Blackshaw County Primary School, St. Osmund and Andrew Roman Catholic County Primary School. Badly Drawn Boy, indie singer-songwriter, grew up in Breightmet. Photos and information about Breightmet GENUKI: Breightmet, Lancashire genealogy St James parish church Breightmet graves
