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Wigan, Lancashire

Historical Description

Wigan, a union and market town, a township, and a municipal, parliamentary, and county borough, in Lancashire. The town stands on the river Douglas, at a convergence of railways, and on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, 15½ miles S by E of Preston, 12 from Warrington, and 195 from London. It is said to have been in the time of Henry VIII. " as big as Warrington, but better built;" was the scene in 1651 of the Earl of Derby's defeat by Lilburne; was visited in 1745 in his march southward by Prince Charles Stuart; numbers among its natives Bishop Woolton, who died in 1573, and Dr Leland, the author of " Deistical Writers;" was chartered by Henry III., sent members to Parliament twice in the time of Edward L, and sent two from the time of Edward VI. until the Redistribution of Seats Act in 1885, when the representation was reduced to one member. In 1890 the borough was divided into ten wards, and is governed by a mayor, recorder, 10 aldermen, and 30 councillors; is a seat of sessions and county courts, has a separate commission of the peace and also a separate court of quarter sessions. Three newspapers are published. The town is famous for a great and rich coal-field around it; sends away vast quantities of coal and other minerals and merchandise, both by railway and by canal; carries on cotton-spinning in numerous factories, some of them among the largest in England; carries on also the manufacture of calicoes, checks, stripes, ginghams, table-cloths, and other cotton fabrics; has likewise some extensive oil and grease works, several iron-forges, iron and brass foundries, and railway waggon, bolt, screw, and nail works, and large breweries. It occupies several acclivities; consists partly of old, irregular, narrow, crooked streets, and partly of new and well-aligned streets, with many good houses; comprises a main street nearly 1½ mile long, with streets diverging from it to the right and to the left; and has a head post office, three railway stations, four banks, several bridges, Conservative and Reform clubs, the latter erected in 1893; two theatres, a monumental pillar to Sir T. Tyldesley, who was killed during the Civil War at the battle of Wigan Lane, seven churches, an English Presbyterian church, two Congregational chapels, three Baptist chapels, four Roman Catholic chapels, three Primitive, an Independent and United Free Methodist, Wesleyan, New Jerusalem, Welsh Presby-terian, and Christian Brethren chapels. There are borough courts, a public hall, a market hall, a spacious market square, a county police station, a workhouse, a free public library, opened in 1878; a boys' reading room, the gift of Sir F. S. Powall, opened in 1894; a volunteer drill hall, opened in 1884; an hospital for infectious diseases; the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary and Dispensary, opened in 1873 by the Prince of Wales, and enlarged in 1885 and 1890-95; baths erected by the corporation in 1882; a grammar-school founded in 1619 and rebuilt in 1879, with an endowment of £200 per annum, and an exhibition of £50 per annum tenable for three years; and a cemetery of 18 acres. The parish church of All Saints is in the Late Perpendicular style, and was restored in 1847. It consists of chancel with aisles and two chapels, a nave, aisles, S porch, and tower with eight bells, and contains several stained windows and some interesting monuments. The market days are Monday and Friday. Fairs are held on the day before Holy Thursday for cattle, on Holy Thursday for horses, followed by a three days' pleasure fair on the last Wednesday in June, and from the third Wednesday in Oct. till the following Monday, Charities amount to about £700 per annum, including £140 for apprenticing. The Corporation are lords of the manor.

The township is conterminate with the town and borough. Acreage, 2188; population, 55,013. The parish includes twelve other townships. It is ecclesiastically divided into All Saints, St George, St Catherine, St James, St Thomas, St Andrew, St Michael and All Angels, Abram, Billinge, Haigh, Hindley-All-Saints, Hindley St Peter, Ince-in-Mackerfield, Upholland, and Pemberton. All Saints (population, 7283), a rectory; net value, £1600 with residence: St George's (constituted in 1843; population, 13,942), a vicarage; gross value, £443: St Catherine's (constituted in 1843; population, 14,458), a vicarage; net value, £316 with restidence: St James' (constituted in 1863; population, 5640), a Ticarage; gross value, £400 with residence: St Thomas' (constituted in 1852; population, 9786), a vicarage; gross value, £376: St Andrew's (constituted in 1871; population, 1840), a vicarage; gross value, £230: St Michael's (constituted in 1881; population, 4162), a vicarage; gross value, £350, all in the diocese of Liverpool. Patron of All Saints', the Earl of Bradford; of St James', N. Eckersley, Esq.; of the others, the Rector of Wigan.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyLancashire 
Ecclesiastical parishWigan All Saints 
HundredWest Derby 
Poor Law unionWigan 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Lancashire Archives, have images of the Parish Registers for Lancashire online.


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Wigan from the following:


Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Lancashire is available to browse.


Maps

Online maps of Wigan are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Lancashire newspapers online:

DistrictWigan
RegionNorth West
CountryEngland
Postal districtWN1
Post TownWigan

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