As well as the central area, Westhoughton incorporates several former villages and hamlets which have their own distinctive character, sports traditions and amenities including railway stations. They include Wingates (famous for the Wingates Brass Band), White Horse, Over Hulton, Four Gates (or Fourgates), Chequerbent (which was all but destroyed by the building of the motorway), Hunger Hill, Snydale, Hart Common, Marsh Brook, Daisy Hill and Dobb Brow.[4]
History
Toponymy
The name Westhoughton is derived from the Old English, "halh" (dialectal "haugh") for a nook or corner of land, and "tun" for a farmstead or settlement – meaning a "westerly settlement in a corner of land".
Its name has been spelt various ways, often the "West-" affix was omitted. In 1210 it was spelt as Halcton, 1240 as Westhalcton, 1292 as Westhalghton, 1302 as Westhalton, and in the 16th century as Westhaughton and Westhoughton.[5][6][7]
The people of Westhoughton are known as "Howfeners" or "Keawyeds" (cow heads) or a combination of the two "Keawyedners", and the town is known as "Keawyed City". Folklore describes a farmer who found his cow with its head stuck in a five barred gate, and, rather than damage the gate, cut the cow's head off, as the cow cost less than the gate.[8]
Banastre Rebellion
In 1315 a group of men led by Sir William Bradshaigh of Haigh Hall, Sir Henry Lea of Charnock Richard and Sir Adam Banastre met at Wingates to plan a campaign of violence against Sir Robert de Holland of Upholland, chief retainer of the powerful Earl of Lancaster. The campaign came to be known as the Banastre Rebellion and ended with the deaths of most the main parties concerned.[9]
Civil War
During the English Civil War in 1642, a battle was fought on Westhoughton Common between Lord Derby'sCavalier forces and Parliamentarians. It is believed that Prince Rupert of the Rhine gathered his troops in Westhoughton before the attack and ensuing massacre at Bolton in 1644.[6] The street named Whitsundale is the site of the Battle of Warcock Hill. Civil War activity is known to have occurred around the site of Hunger Hill. A sword claimed to be from the time of the Civil War was discovered in the garden of one of the cottages at Pocket Nook in Chew Moor during the 1950s.[citation needed]
Industrial Revolution
Blue plaque on the White Lion public house, commemorating the Luddites
On 25 March 1812 a group of Luddites burned Rowe and Dunscough's Westhoughton Mill, in one of the first terrorist acts in Britain. Twelve people were arrested on the orders of William Hulton, the High Sheriff of Lancashire.[10][11] James Smith, Thomas Kerfoot, John (or Job) Fletcher and Abraham Charlston, were sentenced to death for their part in the attack. The Charlston family claimed Abraham was only twelve years old but he was not reprieved.[10] They were publicly hanged outside Lancaster Castle on 13 June 1812.[12] It was reported that Abraham cried for his mother on the scaffold.[11] By this time, however, hanging of those under 18 was rare and of those under 16, in practice, abolished.[13] Nine others were transported to Australia.[14] The riots are commemorated by a blue plaque on the White Lion public house, across the road from where the mill stood.
The original Pretoria Pit Memorial in Westhoughton Cemetery
The family of William Hulton of Hulton Park had many small collieries from the 16th century. After 1828 the pits at Chequerbent were served by the Bolton and Leigh Railway. The Hulton Colliery Company sank Chequerbent Colliery in 1892 and Bank Pit Nos 1–4 between 1897 and 1901. They mined the Trencherbone, Plodder and Arley seams. Bank Pit No 3, known as the Pretoria Pit, was the site of one of the worst coal-mining disasters when on 21 December 1910, 344 men and boys died in an explosion of firedamp.[15] The Pretoria Pit Disaster was the third worst in British mining history, after the 1866 Barnsley Oaks Disaster in Yorkshire,[16] and the 1913 Senghenydd Colliery Disaster in Glamorgan.[17]
In 1896 the Wigan Coal and Iron Company's Eatock Pits employed 484 underground and 89 surface workers whilst the Hewlett Pits, at Hart Common, employed 981 underground and 182 on the surface.[18]
Westhoughton Town Hall was built in 1903 to a plan by Bradshaw and Gass, architects of Bolton. It replaced the Local Board Offices at the junction of Market Street and Wigan Road.[22]
Westhoughton has six councillors who are elected in two borough wards – Westhoughton North and Chew Moor ward and Westhoughton South ward – and they represent the area on the metropolitan borough council of Bolton.[23]
Westhoughton civil parish, gained town council status in 1985, and has eighteen town councillors who are elected in six town council wards – Central, Chequerbent, Daisy Hill, Hoskers and Hart Common, White Horse, and Wingates.[24] Each year, Westhoughton Town Council elects a Town Mayor who as the town's First Citizen represents it at functions and events.
Parliamentary representation
For 98 years, between 1885 and 1983 the Westhoughton constituency represented the town. Although, since 1906, always returning a Labour candidate, the elections were, after 1950, a close run contest, due to the working class conservatism found in Westhoughton and surrounding areas. At the 1906 general election, the birth of the modern Labour Party, William Tyson Wilson was one of 29 successful "Labour Representation Committee candidates."
The constituency had by-elections in 1921, 1951 and 1973 due to the retirement, ill-health or death of the sitting MPs. The last MP for Westhoughton was Roger Stott (Labour) who, on abolition of the Westhoughton constituency, was elected MP for Wigan in 1983, his death later prompting a by-election.
Westhoughton covers an area of 4,341 acres (1,757 ha) and has an average breadth of over 2 miles (3.2 km) from north-east to south-west, and an extreme length of nearly 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from northwest to south-east. The highest ground at over 480 feet (150 m) is to the north east with the land sloping downwards to the south-west. The lowest point at about 120 feet (37 m) is in the extreme southerly corner. Borsdane Brook separates the township from Aspull, another brook divides it from Hindley joining a stream which rises on the northern edge of Westhoughton and flows south through Leigh to Glazebrook.[6]
There are three Local Nature Reserves at Hall Lee Bank Park, Cunningham Clough, and Eatock Lodge at Daisy Hill.[27]
The long established St John's, Wingates CE Primary & Fourgates County Primary schools were closed in 2004 following amalgamation to form The Gates CP School. Westhoughton CP School closed in 2008. An earlier round of reorganisation saw the closure of Hart Common Primary School and opening of St George's on The Hoskers, and the closure of the tiny County Primary at White Horse which is now a private nursery.
The Church of England parish church of Saint Bartholomew was completed in 1870. Its east window depicted the Twelve Apostles. On the Wednesday before Advent Sunday, 28 November 1990, the church was gutted by fire, but the tower was saved.[32] A new church designed by architects Dane, Ashworth & Cottam was built by Laing North with Bradshaw Gass & Hope as project managers and structural engineers. It cost about £1 million.[33] After the fire services transferred to the Parochial School. The church bought the town's redundant telephone exchange, now the Parish Hall, as a temporary worship centre until the new church opened.
The new church was consecrated on 28 October 1995. A procession from the top of Wingates into the church grounds preceded the Right Reverend Christopher Mayfield, Bishop of Manchester, entering and blessing the doorway.[34]Nicholsons of Malvern built a new two manual organ for the church. It has 1,256 pipes, ranging from 1/2 inch to 16 feet (4.9 m). The pipes are made of tin, spotted metal (an alloy of lead and tin) and hammered lead.[35]
The other parish churches are St John the Evangelist, Wingates and St James', Daisy Hill. St James' is a Grade II* listed building.
John Wesley plaque, Wingates
John Wesley, the co-founder of the Methodist church, preached a sermon at Barnaby's Farm at Wingates in April 1784. The spot is marked by a plaque. Houses cover the site where Wesley stood, but the stone from which he preached stands outside the old Grove Lane Chapel, now Westhoughton Methodist Church's Church Hall, Wigan Road.
Services were held in the cottages opposite the farm, which became known as Methody Row before the first Methodist church was built in 1835 and the Methodist Church in Dixon Street in 1871. The Wingates Band began as the church’s drum and fife band, part of the temperance movement. The final service was held there (by then the Independent Methodist Church) on 6 May 2001 and it was subsequently demolished.[36] Daisy Hill Methodist Church was closed and demolished in the late 1980s. The remaining Methodist church is located on Wigan Road at its junction with Grove Lane, now truncated and turned into the church car park.[37]
The industrial north west was a focus for non-conformism, and until the 1990s there was a Church of the Nazarene in Church Street, now replaced by a block of flats named 'Nazarene Court, a Quaker Meeting House on Wigan Road, now a Christian fellowship,[38] and a Tin tabernacle off Bolton Road. There is a Pentecostal church on Bolton Road and a large United Reform Church (The Bethel) on the remaining stub of the old Leigh Road.[39]
Following the move to St. George's, The Hoskers, The old Hart Common Church and School was sold on and remains as Hart Common Church in the capable hands of the Hindley Christian Fellowship.
Local landmarks
Snydle Water TowerPretoria Pit Disaster memorial, Ditchfield Gardens
The former Snydle water tower, built by Westhoughton Council in 1914, is now converted to a private dwelling that is visible from the M61 motorway.
A memorial created by local sculptress Jane Robbins to the miners killed in the 1910 Pretoria Pit Disaster was unveiled on 19 December 2010 in the Ditchfield Gardens in Market Street, almost 100 years after the disaster.
The Parochial Church of England school building, built in 1861 opposite St Bartholomew's church is a Grade II listed building, as are houses 110 and 112, Market Street.
Transport
The M61 motorway passes through the north of the town which is served by junctions 5 and 6. The A58 (Park Road/Cricketers Way/Wigan Road), and the A6 (Manchester Road/Chorley Road) cross the town as do the B5236 (Church Street), the B5235 (Bolton Road/Mill Street/Leigh Road), and the B5239 (Dicconson Lane).
In the late 1980s a station was planned at Dobb Brow but was not built.[41]Lostock and Horwich Parkway stations, to the north, also serve the town. The annual usage of the town's two stations (Daisy Hill and Westhoughton), at almost 400,000 passengers in 2009/10 (439,130 in 2010/11), is greater than that of many major UK towns [42] and is regarded as impressive for a town with a population of just 23,000 (19 journeys per annum, per head of population).
Westhoughton is served by several bus services, linking it with Bolton, Wigan and Leigh. The most frequent service is the 540 between Bolton and Wigan run by Stagecoach Manchester and operates every 15 minutes during the day, Monday to Saturday and every 30 minutes in the evenings and on Sundays. Additional weekday journeys run between Bolton and Daisy Hill. Other bus services are the 516 and 517 Leigh – Horwich (South Lancs Travel plus First/Maytree Travel on 516); 521 Blackrod – Little Lever (SLT); 559 Bolton – Aspull (Maytree) and 715 Bolton – Wigan (Arriva North West/Maytree).
Media
Westhoughton Library, Library Street
The weekly Horwich and Westhoughton Journal was published (by The Bolton News) from 1925 until 1980, and had an editorial and revenue office in Market Street.[43]
The town's Carnegie library is at the rear of the Town Hall.[44] Its Carnegie Hall is used for meetings and other activities.[45] A small museum has exhibits that relate to the Pretoria Pit Disaster.
^ abcFarrer, William; Brownbill, J, eds. (1911), "Westhoughton", A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 5, Victoria County History, British History Online, pp. 20–25, retrieved 31 August 2010
^Billington, W.D. (1982). From Affetside to Yarrow : Bolton place names and their history, Ross Anderson Publications (ISBN 0-86360-003-4).
