Eccles, Lancashire
Historical Description
Eccles, an ancient parish and a municipal borough, incorporated in 1892, in Lancashire. The parish lies on the Manchester Ship Canal, and on the Manchester and Liverpool railway, 4 miles W of Manchester, and has a station on the railway, and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Manchester. Eccles, Monton, and Winton, form a district governed by a mayor and corporation. The parish is lighted with gas by the Salford Corporation, and supplied with water by the Corporation of Manchester. It is in reality a suburb of these boroughs. Area of the parish, 22,004 acres; population, 29,633. A town-hall was erected in 1881 by the local board at a cost of about £5000. The Eccles Junior Liberal Club was erected in 1890, and the Barton-upon-Irwell Liberal and Conservative Clubs in 1879 and 1881 respectively. There are two weekly newspapers. Many of the inhabitants are employed in cotton and silk mills, and the town is noted for its cakes. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Manchester; gross value, o£900 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church belonged anciently to Whalley Abbey, contains monuments of the Breretons and the Booths, and is in good condition. The Church of St Andrew's is a building in the Early English style, erected by subscription and consecrated in 1879; it contains a memorial window, erected in 1886, to Dr Eraser, the late Bishop of Manchester. The living is a perpetual curacy; gross value, £400 with residence, in the gift of trustees. Trinity Church (Reformed Church of England) is an iron building erected in 1886. There are Congregational, Baptist, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, New Connexion, Primitive, and United Welsh Methodist chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, and a Friends' meetinghouse. Ainsworth the lexicographer was a native, and the Eight Hon. W. Huskisson, after sustaining a deadly accident at the opening of the railway, died in the parsonage.
Eccles Parliamentary Division of South-east Lancashire was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 78,102. The division includes the following:- Manchester (part of)-Barton-upon-Irwell, Clifton, Flixton, Pendlebury (such part as is not included in the municipal borough of Salford), Urmston, Worsley.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Lancashire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Eccles St. Mary de Eccles | |
Hundred | Salford |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Registers of Eccles 1564-1632, are available to browse online.
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 Eccles from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Eccles (St. Mary de Eccles))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Lancashire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Eccles are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Lancashire newspapers online: