Bolton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bolton (pronunciation ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, in North West England.[1] Situated close to the West Pennine Moors, 10 miles (16.1 km) northwest of the city of Manchester, it is the largest and most populous settlement within the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, and has a total resident population of 139,403.[2][3][4]
Historically part of Lancashire, Bolton rose to prominence during the 19th century as a mill town centred on textile manufacture and cotton spinning. At its zenith it was one of the largest and most productive centres of cotton manufacture in the world.
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[edit] History
[edit] Toponymy
The town's name, (in full, Bolton-le-Moors) has been recorded over the years with many derivations of spelling including Bothelton, Boulton and Bolton-super-Moras. However, the exact origins are not totally clear from historical records.[5][6] There have been three main hypotheses - one is that because of its location in the valleys of confluencing moorland rivers, it is derived from "Bowl Town"[citation needed]- another suggesting it is a derivation from the Saxon words "bolt" and "tun", meaning "arrow" and "stockade" respectively.[7] A final suggestion is from the words "boul" and "town", where boul means a monument or central feature, though the boul itself is unidentified. A further possibility is that "bol" derives from the Norse for farm and "ton" from the Norse for town.
[edit] Early history
Evidence of a Saxon settlement exists in the form of religious objects found when the present Victorian parish church was built.[8]
The town was given a charter to hold a market in Churchgate in 1251 by King Henry III of England.[9] It was then made into a market town and borough by a charter from the Earl of Derby, William de Ferrers, on January 14, 1253.[9]
[edit] The Civil War
During the English Civil War, Bolton supported Parliament and the Puritan cause, unlike most of the rest of Lancashire. The town was twice attacked unsuccessfully until the third assault on May 28, 1644. Prince Rupert's army along with troops under the Earl of Derby, attacked the town. There were 1,500 dead, and 700 taken prisoner. It became known as the Bolton Massacre.[9]
[edit] Textile manufacture
The town's position on the west of the Pennines provides a damp climate. It is this feature which probably led to Flemish weavers, fleeing the Huguenot persecutions in the 17th century, to eventually settle here, as moisture-laden air allows for the spinning of cotton with little breakage. The cotton industry was to provide the catalyst for the town's expansion between the 14th and 19th centuries. Large, steam-powered textile mills eventually dominated the town's skyline, providing the major employment and defining the rhythm of the working week, so much so that an annual shut-down for maintenance in late June became the Bolton holidays. There were also some large iron foundries in the town as well as other engineering works, many connected with the cotton industry.
Bolton was Worktown in the Mass-Observation project which has left us with many photographs taken around the town by Humphrey Spender as part of that project.[10]
[edit] Governance
[edit] Civic history
Until the early 19th century, Great Bolton and Little Bolton were two of the eighteen townships of the ecclesiastical parish of Bolton le Moors. These two townships were separated by the River Croal, with Little Bolton on the north side of the river and Great Bolton on the south side.[11][12][13]
In 1838, Great Bolton, most of Little Bolton and the Haulgh area from Tonge with Haulgh township were incorporated under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 as a municipal borough, making it the second to be created in England, after Devonport. Further additions were made to the borough, with part of Rumworth in 1872, and part of Halliwell in 1877.[14][15]
In 1889, Bolton was granted County Borough status and became entirely self-governing and independent from Lancashire County Council jurisdiction. In 1898, it was extended further by adding the civil parishes of Breightmet, Darcy Lever, Great Lever, the rest of Halliwell, Heaton, Lostock, Middle Hulton, the rest of Rumworth (which had been renamed Deane in 1894), Smithills, and Tonge, plus Astley Bridge Urban District, and part of Over Hulton civil parish.[14][15]
The County Borough of Bolton was abolished in 1974 and became a constituent part of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester.[14][16]
[edit] Parliamentary representation
Under the Reform Act of 1832, a Parliamentary Borough was established for the town. The Bolton constituency had two Members of Parliament who both represented the whole borough.[17]
The Parliamentary Borough continued until 1950 when it was abolished and replaced with two parliamentary constituencies, Bolton East and Bolton West, each with one M.P.[17]
In 1983, Bolton East was abolished and two new constituencies were created, Bolton North East (which covers a large part of the former Bolton East), and Bolton South East (which covers most of the former Farnworth constituency). Also in 1983, there were major boundary changes to Bolton West, which took over most of the former Westhoughton constituency.[17][18]
[edit] Geography
| North: Blackburn | ||
| West: Wigan | Bolton | East: Bury |
| South: Salford |
[edit] Demography
[edit] Township populations
These census population figures are for the former townships of Great Bolton and Little Bolton.
| Year [19][20][21] | 1801 | 1811 | 1821 | 1831 | 1841 | 1851 | 1861 | 1871 | 1881 | 1891 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Bolton | ||||||||||
| Little Bolton |
[edit] County Borough population
These census population figures are for the former County Borough of Bolton.
| Year [22] | 1901 | 1911 | 1921 | 1931 | 1939* | 1951 | 1961 | 1971 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population |
* The 1939 population is estimated from the National Registration figures.[23] The 1941 census didn't take place because of the Second World War.
[edit] Economy
In recent times, the town has swapped much of its heavy industry for service-based activities including a large number of data processing and call centres and also hi-tech electronics and IT companies. It is a mecca for shoppers from all over the north of England and further afield, not only to the Victorian splendour of the town centre but to newly developed Middlebrook retail park, home to Bolton Wanderers, the Bolton Arena, leisure facilities, shops, pubs, restaurants and sundry other businesses. The town retains a variety of more traditional industries, employing people in, amongst other things, aerospace, paper-manufacturing, packaging, textiles, transportation, steel foundries and building materials. The area of Horwich around Middlebrook has been designated by Bolton Council as the `Bolton Economic Development Zone', and is currently seeing much building work, predominantly office space for law firms and business headquarters.
Tourism plays an important part in the local economy, with visitor attractions such as Hall i' th' Wood (the home of inventor Samuel Crompton), Smithills Country Park and Smithills Hall, Rivington, Last Drop Village, Barrow Bridge mill village, Bolton Steam Museum and the civic museums in the town centre. Residents and visitors alike can make use of the facilities at Leverhulme, Moss Bank and Queen's parks.
Bolton is the birthplace of the Reebok brand. The company's European headquarters are located in the Reebok Stadium. Bolton is also the home of the family bakery, Warburton's, who began their business in 1876 on Blackburn Road in Bolton. As well as this Bolton is home to MBDA's main production facility in Horwich.
Bolton Council has launched a large-scale series of redevelopments of the town centre.[24]
[edit] Transport
Given its proximity to Manchester, Bolton is well served in terms of both the local road network and national routes. The A6, a major north–south trunk road, passes through Hunger Hill and Westhoughton. The A666 (sometimes referred to as `The Devil's Highway' because of the numeric designation) is a 4-lane dual carriageway which acts as a spur from the large M61/M60 motorway interchange, carrying traffic to and from the town centre. The M61 itself has 3 dedicated junctions serving the borough.
Bolton is served by the National Express coach network.
Bolton is located on the Manchester loop of the West Coast Mainline and as such is served by Virgin West Coast trains passing through Manchester Picadilly station. There are regular commuter services between most of the local stations and Manchester. 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 (for the Reebok Stadium - Bolton Wanderers FC)
- Lostock
- Westhoughton
- Moses Gate
- Farnworth
- Kearsley
[edit] Education
Bolton is home to a leading independent day school, Bolton School, whose Boys' Division originated in around 1516. It was endowed by Robert Lever in 1641 and again by William Hesketh Lever (later Lord Leverhulme) in 1898, allowing it to be rebuilt alongside a new Girls' Division on its current site in Chorley New Road.
Bolton also has its own modern university, the University of Bolton. Formerly Bolton Institute of Higher Education, it finally gained university status in 2005 and has seen much building work and growth since.
The town also contains a host of primary and secondary schools such as Canon Slade School, Thornleigh Salesian College, Mount St. Joseph School, St. James's School and Turton High School Media Arts College (motto: Integrity and Honour), although some are in special measures. Bolton also has a community college which provides further education to many in the borough and has many sites throughout, as well as Bolton Sixth Form College, which comprises North and South campuses.
Harper Green School is also located in Bolton. Harper Green is home to the Alan Ball Sports Hall, as well as the Peter Kay Drama Complex. Peter Kay also filmed a music video at Harper Green with the Scottish band Texas.
The Bolton Teaching and Learning Centre serves schools as a central point for online materials.[25]
The Bolton Steam Museum is located here and has several restored working steam engines.
[edit] Sports
Bolton is home to a Premiership football club called Bolton Wanderers F.C.. Formerly playing at Burnden Park they currently play their home games at the Reebok Stadium.
Indoor facilities for sports training and major racket sports tournaments are provided courtesy of the newly-built Bolton Arena, which was used for some of the events in the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Bolton is also home to one of North West England's largest Field Hockey Clubs, Bolton Hockey Club.[26]
The oldest football club in Lancashire, Turton F.C was formed in a village on the moors above Bolton in 1871 and is said to have introduce the Association game to the county. There have been recent claims that their original ground, which is still in use, is the oldest surviving football ground in the world. It is claimed matches were played there since the 1830s.[27]
Speedway racing, then known as Dirt Track Racing, was staged at Raikes Park in the pioneer days – 1928 – but the venue was short lived.[28]
Bolton also has a rugby union club, Bolton R.U.F.C.[29]
[edit] Culture and society
According to a survey of the British Association for the Advancement of Science Boltonians are the friendliest people in Britain.[30][31]
Bolton is one of the more deprived boroughs in England according to the Indices of Deprivation 2000.[32] It is the 28th most deprived in England in terms of numbers of people who are income deprived. A third of the borough's population lives in seven wards which are amongst the 10% most deprived in England. Despite this, Bolton is currently experiencing much attention and is experiencing an influx of people, leading to property prices increasing faster than most other parts of the UK.[citation needed] The borough already contains traditional and also increasingly affluent areas including Heaton, Horwich, Harwood and Smithills.
On 13 February 2003, Bolton was granted Fairtrade Town status[33].
Bolton's oldest public house is Ye Olde Man and Scythe, dating from 1251 - one of the oldest remaining public houses in England.
[edit] Arts
Bolton has a theatre called The Octagon along with many small, independent groups such as Bolton Little Theatre, Farnworth Little Theatre and the Phoenix Theatre Company. Inside the town hall there is also a large theatre and conference complex called The Albert Halls,[34] named after the Prince Consort, Prince Albert whose early death in 1861 at the comparatively young age of only 42 would eventually lead to many buildings and monuments throughout Great Britain and her vast empire being named in his memory. The Halls opened on 5 June 1873.
Visual arts are also represented in Bolton via Bolton Museum and Art Gallery which boasts a fine collection of both local and international art.[35]
Le Mans Crescent, (currently home to the central library, museum, art gallery, aquarium, police station, magistrates' court and town hall) is to be at the centre of a new Cultural Quarter. This area will no longer house the police station and magistrates' court; instead the library and museum are to be extended into these sections of the building, along with other new cultural projects. These works are to take place during a large-scale expansion and improvement project, which is set to more than double the size of the current town centre and improve its appearance, infrastructure and amenities.
[edit] Bolton Central Library
The library was one of the early public libraries established after the Public Libraries Act 1850, opening on 12 October 1853 in the Exchange Building on Market Square (present day Victoria Square). The library moved to its present site in Le Mans Crescent on 4 July 1938.[36]
[edit] Media
Local radio is provided by Tower FM, a station which broadcasts across Bolton and Bury.
The town's local daily newspaper is The Bolton News, formerly known as the Bolton Evening News. There are weekly free papers, such as the Bolton Journal and Bolton Council's free monthly newspaper, Bolton Scene.
The town falls under the Granada ITV television region, and North West BBC region, both served by the Winter Hill transmitter at Belmont, just to the north-west of the town.
[edit] Cultural references
The industrial village of Barrow Bridge became Millbank in Benjamin Disraeli's novel Coningsby.
Bolton is referenced in the famous Monty Python's Flying Circus Dead Parrot sketch, in which it is the location of the shopkeeper's brother's pet shop. The shopkeeper's brother (played by Michael Palin), incorrectly describes the town as Ipswich. On being challenged by Mr Praline (played by John Cleese), Palin's character defends himself, claiming (wrongly) that Ipswich is a palindrome of Bolton. Cleese's character retorts, "It's not a palindrome. The palindrome of Bolton would be Notlob. It don't work." As a consequence, Bolton is sometimes humorously nicknamed, "Notlob"[citation needed]. Bolton is also referred to in Monty Python's "Blackmail" sketch, in which the host of the gameshow "Blackmail" (played by Michael Palin) announces that if a Miss Betty Teal from Lancashire sends the show 15 pounds, he will refrain from revealing her lover in Bolton.
Spring and Port Wine by Mayo playwright, Bill Naughton was filmed and set in Bolton. The Family Way based on Naughton's play All in Good Time was also filmed and set in Bolton.
More famously Peter Kay is from Bolton and much of his comedy TV series That Peter Kay Thing and Phoenix Nights are set in the town. The latter was filmed at St Gregorys Social Club in Farnworth, and an episode of the former was set at Bolton West services on the M61.
Many Bolton buildings have also stood in for other towns and cities. Bolton Town Hall stood in for an East European bank in the 1980s film Sleepers and Le Mans Crescent has featured as an upmarket London street in the Jeremy Brett version of Sherlock Holmes. Although not identified, much of the 1990s series Cops was filmed in Bolton.
[edit] Notable people
Bolton has produced its fair share of actors, comedians, musicians, sports personalities, engineers, inventors, politicians, authors and other notable people. They have all made a mark in different periods of time, whether at local, national or international level. For a list of these people from Bolton and the outlying areas, see List of people from Bolton.
[edit] Twin towns
- Image:Flag of France.svg Le Mans, France, since 1967
- Image:Flag of Germany.svg Paderborn, Germany, since 1975
[edit] References
- ^ Anon (2003-07-31). A select gazetteer of local government areas, Greater Manchester County. Greater Manchester County Records Office. Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
- ^ UK Towns with Populations over 100,000. URL accessed 17 June 2007.
- ^ UK Town Populations Compared With Council Populations. URL accessed 17 June 2007.
- ^ Census 2001, Key Statistics for urban areas. URL accessed 17 June 2007.
- ^ A Town Of Many Names. Bolton Evening News, 24 July 2001.
- ^ The story of Bolton. Bolton Evening News, 28 June 2003.
- ^ History of Bolton. URL accessed 18 June 2007.
- ^ History of Bolton Parish Church. URL accessed 18 June 2007.
- ^ a b c Bolton's Social history. URL accessed 18 June 2007.
- ^ Humphrey Spender's Worktown. URL accessed 18 June 2007.
- ^ Great Bolton township. A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 5 (1911), pp. 243-51. URL accessed 8 June 2007.
- ^ Little Bolton township. A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 5 (1911), pp. 251-55. URL accessed 8 June 2007.
- ^ The parish of Bolton-le-Moors. A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 5 (1911), pp. 235-43. URL accessed 8 June 2007.
- ^ a b c Greater Manchester Record Office - Bolton. URL accessed 6 July, 2007.
- ^ a b Bolton County Borough. URL accessed 6 July 2007.
- ^ Bolton Metropolitan Borough. URL accessed 6 July 2007.
- ^ a b c Leigh Rayment's - House of Commons: Bodmin to Bradford East, (including Bolton)]. URL accessed 6 June 2007.
- ^ Bolton West constituency profile. URL accessed 6 June 2007.
- ^ Tatton, Pauline. Local population statistics 1801-1986, Bolton Central Library Archives, Le Mans Crescent, Bolton, BL1 1SE.
- ^ Vision of Britain - Great Bolton Population (1861-1891). URL accessed 4 June 2007.
- ^ Vision of Britain - Little Bolton Population (1881-1891). URL accessed 4 June 2007.
- ^ Vision of Britain - Bolton County Borough Population (1901-1971). URL accessed 4 June 2007.
- ^ National Registration Act, 1939. Rootsweb.com. URL accessed 5 June 2007.
- ^ Plum opportunities for development in Bolton. URL accessed 18 June 2007.
- ^ Bolton Teaching and Learning Centre. URL accessed 18 June 2007.
- ^ Welcome to Bolton Hockey Club. URL accessed 8 November 2007.
- ^ Bolton has the oldest football ground in the country. The Bolton News 8 May 2007.
- ^ Tiger Jack Wood - Bolton's Broadsider. URL accessed 8 November 2007.
- ^ Bolton RUFC. URL accessed 8 November 2007.
- ^ Town 'hot' favourite to be Britain's friendliest, Bolton Evening News, 8 September 2003
- ^ Bolton people 'are friendliest in Britain', Bolton Evening News, 26 August 2003
- ^ Indices of Deprivation 2000. URL accessed 18 June 2007.
- ^ Bolton Fairtrade Town. URL accessed 28 December 2007.
- ^ The Albert Halls, Bolton. URL accessed 18 June 2007.
- ^ Welcome to Bolton Museum and Archive Service. URL accessed 18 June 2007.
- ^ Bolton Public Libraries 1853-1978, Tom Dunne, Arts Department of Bolton Metropolitan Borough 1978, ISBN 0906585007
[edit] External links
- Bolton Council
- Bolton Evening News
- Boltonians Listing well over 500 Boltonians - born, bred or adopted
- Bolton Remembers The War An Oral History of Bolton during the Second World War
- Bolton Revisited Local history project created by Bolton residents, past and present
- bolton.org.uk Bolton History, Photos, Links & Trivia
- University of Bolton
- Bolton Museum & Archive Service Collections include an original spinning mule made by inventor Samuel Crompton, works by Bolton born artist Thomas Moran and one of Britains oldest public Aquaria
es:Bolton fr:Bolton id:Bolton nl:Bolton no:Bolton pl:Bolton (Anglia) ro:Bolton fi:Bolton sv:Bolton
Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since June 2007 | Articles with sections needing expansion | Articles with unsourced statements since October 2007 | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | Bolton | Towns in Greater Manchester | West Pennine Moors
