Radcliffe, Lancashire
Historical Description
Radcliffe, a town and a parish in Lancashire. The town stands on the river Irwell, near the influx of the Roach, adjacent to the Bolton and Bury Canal, 2½ miles SSW of Bury, 7 from Manchester, and 193 from London, and is governed by an urban district council of twenty-four members; took its name from a red cliff on the opposite side of the Irwell. Acreage of parish, 2200; population, 20,021, including the portion within Bury borough. Radcliffe carries on cotton-spinning, calico-printing, gingham, fustian, nankeen, and check-weaving; machine-making, ironfounding, and small-ware manufacture; has several collieries, a post, money order, and telegraph office under Manchester, and two stations on the L. & Y.R. There are four churches, ten dissenting chapels, and a Catholic chapel. The Earl of Wilton erected a market-house in 1851; the market day is Friday. The parish church is ancient, of various dates, and restored in 1872; consists of chancel, nave, aisles, transepts, and a low massive— tower; and includes a chapel restored in 1845. St Thomas' Church, at Radcliffe Bridge, was built in 1819 at a cost of £5000; was rebuilt in 1865 at a cost of £14,000; is in tha Perpendicular English style, and contains 1200 sittings* The ecclesiastical parish of St Andrew was formed in 1878, and the church, built in 1877, is in the Gothic style. The manor belongs to the Earl of Wilton. Radcliffe Tower, now a ruin, was formerly a considerable manorial mansion. The living of St Bartholomew is a rectory in the diocese of Manchester; net value, £1300 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Wilton. St Thomas and St Andrew are vicarages in the diocese of Manchester; gross values, £340 and £250 respectively. Patron of St Thomas, the Earl of Wilton; of St Andrew, the Rector of Radcliffe. Populations, 7400, 8343, and 3695.
Radcliffe-cum-Farnworth Parliamentary Division, of Lancashire was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, and sends one member to the House of Commons. Population, 72,931. The division includes the following :-Bolton (part of) - Farnworth, Little Hulton, Kearsley; Bury (part of)-Radcliffe (so much of the parish as is not in the municipal borough of Bury), Pilkington. Radcliffe Bridge. See preceding article. Radcliffe-upon-Trent, a village and a parish in Notts. The village stands on the river Trent, with a station on the Nottingham and Grantham branch of the G.N.R., 5½ miles. E of Nottingham, and 123 from London, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Nottingham, a county police station, and a ferry over the Trent. The parish comprises 2173 acres; population, 1868. There is a parish council consisting of thirteen members. The manor belongs to Earl Manvers. Malting is extensively carried on. A flower show is held in the village once a year. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Southwell; gross value, £280 with residence. Patron, Earl Manvers. The church was rebuilt in 1879 at a cost of over £6000, is in the Gothic style, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, W porch, and a massive tower. There are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels, a cemetery formed in 1869 and under the control of the parish council, a reading-room and library, and charities amounting to £125.
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 | Radcliffe St. Mary | |
Hundred | Salford | |
Poor Law union | Bury |
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 Radcliffe from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Radcliffe (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Lancashire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Radcliffe 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: