Bolton

Bolton, or BOLTON-LE-MOORS, an important English manufacturing town and parliamentary and municipal borough in South Lancashire, on the Croal, 11 miles NW. of Manchester. The river Croal divides the town into Great and Little Bolton. It was celebrated as far back as the time of Henry VIII. for its cotton and its woollen manufactures, introduced by Flemish clothiers in the 14th century. Emigrants from France and the Palatinate of the Rhine subsequently introduced new branches of manufacture; and the improvements in cotton-spinning of the middle of the 18th century rapidly increased the trade of the town. Though Arkwright was at one time a resident, and Crompton was born and all his life lived in the parish of Bolton, the opposition of the working-classes long retarded the adoption, in the town, of their inventions—the spinning-frame and the mule. Bolton, containing more than 100 cotton-mills, with about 4 million of spindles, is now one of the principal seats of the cotton manufacture in Lancashire. Muslins, fine calicoes, quiltings, counterpanes, dimities, &c. are manufactured. There are also extensive foundries and iron-works, bleaching-mills, chemical works, paper-mills, and numerous dye-works. Bolton parish has numerous coal-mines. There are public reference and lending libraries and museum, town cemeteries, public park and recreation grounds, town-hall, which cost in all £170,250, opened in 1873, market-hall, fish-market, exchange, mechanics' institute, and many churches and schools. The cost of bringing the water from Entwisle Moor, a distance of 5 miles, was, up till 1887, £766,270. Bolton is an important railway centre, being a principal station on the London and North-western and the Lancashire and Yorkshire railways. It is the birthplace of the daily evening press (Bolton Evening News), and has now three evening and three weekly newspapers. During the Civil War, the Parliament garrisoned Bolton; in 1644 it was stormed by the Earl of Derby. A canal was made from Manchester in 1791. Pop. (1871) 92,655; (1881) 105,973; (1891) 115,002. Since 1832 it returns two members to parliament.