Holland, Up
The township comprises 4654 acres, of which about 2000 are arable, 2200 pasture, 250 woodland, and 204 common or waste; the surface is beautifully undulated, the soil generally good, and the scenery from the higher parts panoramic. The Dean river separates the township from Orrell, and flows into the river Douglas through a picturesque ravine called Dean Wood; on the north side are the river Douglas, separating the township from Standish, and the Leeds and Liverpool canal. The population is employed in agriculture, in the collieries and quarries here, in making nails, and in hand-loom weaving. Up-Holland is the head of a chapelry including the townships of Dalton and Billinge Higher-End, with parts of Orrell and Winstanley: the living is a perpetual curacy, net income, £165, with a house rebuilt in 1822; patron, the Rector of Wigan, who receives a tithe rent-charge from the township of £275, and certain impropriators one of £642. The chapel, dedicated to St. Thomas à Becket, is an ancient edifice with a fine tower, the nave and aisles being in the early or decorated English style; it has six noble arches, and a handsome east window. This chapel belonged to a priory of Benedictine monks, founded here in the beginning of the fourteenth century, and the revenue of which at the Dissolution was valued at £78. 12.: part of the walls of the priory remain. A grammar school is endowed with £65 per annum left by Peter Wallthew, in 1668.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.