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Orrell

ORRELL, a township, in the parish and union of Wigan, hundred of West Derby, S. division of Lancashire, 3ΒΌ miles (W.) from Wigan, on the road to Ormskirk; containing 2478 inhabitants. In the Domesday survey, this place is returned as being exempt from danegeld, and fines for wounding and rape. In the 32nd of Edward I., Robert de Holland had a charter of free warren here, and three years afterwards he endowed the priory of Holland with lands in Orrell. An heiress of the family married Sir John Lovell, ancestor of Francis, Viscount Lovell, who was attainted in the reign of Henry VII., when the manor was granted to the Earl of Derby, whose representative is the present lord. The township comprises 1481 acres, of which 487 are arable, 973 pasture, and 21 woodland; it stands elevated 160 feet above the Wigan canal, and has a good and rich soil. The river Douglas flows on the north; and the Liverpool and Bury railway passes through a part of the south-west side of the township. Orrell Hall, a mansion in the Elizabethan style, is now a farmhouse. Orrell Mount was until lately occupied as a nunnery of French Benedictines. The nuns of this establishment quitted France in October 1792, in the midst of the tragical scenes of the revolution, and fixed themselves at Heath, in the West riding of Yorkshire, whence they removed to this place in 1821; they have lately left, and taken up their residence at St. Mary's Priory, Princethorp, near Coventry. The Independents have a place of worship, with a school attached; there is also a national school. Here is a fine mineral spring, which discharges about 300 gallons per minute.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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