Sunday 12 December 2010

Photo walk - some of the places we noticed , Historic Horwich ,Fleet street, Horwich Parish Church and School, 2.54 Miles

http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-kingdom/horwich/803129216514438017
the route taken
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/historyben/profiles/4878432.Horwich_profiled___a_look_at_your_area/

Horwich

HORWICH, a chapelry, in the parish of Deane, union of Bolton, hundred of Salford, S. division of the county of Lancaster, 4 miles (W. N. W.) from Bolton, on the road to Chorley and Preston; containing 3773 inhabitants. The ancient forest of Horwich, sloping down the sides of Rivington Pike, long since disappeared. It was sixteen miles in circumference; and from its capacious dimensions, and its abundant supply of timber for buildings and for fuel, it became a manufacturing station at a very early period: as remote as the reign of Henry VIII. we read of yarn spun in Horwich. The chapelry is situated for the most part in a luxuriant valley, gradually rising through the village towards Bolton, and is separated from Anderton by the river Douglas; it comprises 3230 acres. The population is chiefly engaged in extensive bleaching-works and cotton-mills. The bleach-works of Messrs. Joseph Ridgway and Company were commenced about 1781; and the print-works of Messrs. Chippendale and Company, employing 500 persons, about the same time. Of three cotton-mills, the two largest belong to Messrs. W. and W. Bennett, and Peter Gaskell, Esq. A good stonequarry is wrought. Here is a station of the Bolton and Preston railway. The living is a perpetual curacy, with a net income of £240; patron, the Vicar of Deane. The present chapel, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was erected by the Church Commissioners in 1831, at an expense of £5848, in lieu of the old chapel; it is in the early English style, with a square tower, and contains a monument by Westmacott, which cost £1500, to the late Joseph Ridgway, Esq., who was a large proprietor of land here. There are three places of worship for dissenters. Attached to the chapel are, an infants', a Sunday, and a national school. Two heaps of stones on Wildersmoore Hill are intended, it is said, to record the death of two boys in the snow, on going to the grammar school at Rivington

taken from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51048

http://www.horwichmethodistmission.org.uk/

St Johns Methodist church Horwich

stone houses often found on the main streets

from the second world war people - removed railings as part of the war effort these are the tail tail signs of this ,the loco works and the local industry produced anything from Tanks to planes in the second world war

turn right to public right of way

go up the steps

the path goes straight ahead

turn right behind lever park school
http://www.leverpark.bolton.sch.uk/

the path has recently been cleared and goes between the lever park school and the golf course
http://www.theinternetgolfclub.com/golfclubs/horwich-golf-club.asp

Old railway sleeper at end of the path

up the hill

take the left of the two paths - near to stone wall

the Winter Hill mast , two lads in front of the mast - style of stone wall found around this part of Horwich

The pike

Wilderswood is seen below the Pike

two of my Blogs for this area you can see

http://jakeofwinterhill.blogspot.com/2010/10/two-lads-to-winter-hill-to-rivington.html

http://jakeofwinterhill.blogspot.com/2010/11/spooky-wilderswood-in-dark-at-4-to-6-c.html

a old stile-there is a old line of a hedge to the right

keep to the right hand path -towards the buildings in distance

Montcliffe quarries can be seen , Winter Hill mast on left hand side
http://jakeofwinterhill.blogspot.com/2010/08/montcliffe.html
http://jakeofwinterhill.blogspot.com/2010/09/burnt-edge-colliery-and-hedgehog.html
two of my Blogs for this area you can see

looking back towards blackrod

path leads to lane - right is a old farm -stone is used for the roof turn left

route is to the left towards fleet street

Historic fleet street

1777 - some of the houses are dated at

stone drain -blocked by leaves

go past the Monkey puzzle tree

down the lane, to the right is the Ridgmont cemetery behind the wall

one house with slate and one with a tile roof

Stocks park (see below why)

Stocks ! enough said !

some of the club houses see below!

what does the plaque say ?

In 1777, the Ridgway family leased the Wallsuches site and within a few years their bleachworks employed the majority of people from Horwich as well as from Blackrod and Adlington. The town grew rapidly from 300 people when the Ridgways arrived to 3,500 in 1831. From the family home at Ridgmont, the Ridgways chaired many local bodies for the benefit of the community. They built Holy Trinity Parish Church and School and helped with the provision of workers' housing. The latter was through the lease of Chapel Field on which employees who joined a building club were allowed to build their own houses. The streets running off Church Street are still known as the Club houses
taken from
http://www.horwich.gov.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=36

http://www.about-horwich.co.uk/horwich/Horwich_Parish_Church.html

http://holytrinityhorwich.com/default.aspx

an old door way

Old post office -1807

Horwich School

old cellars

bay window houses -club houses ?

old police station -now a vets

CC horwich bridge

Bridge Inn

Horwich Conservative Club 1887

entrance to Horwich Old station park

VR post Box

Gorton Cottage home of Formerly the home of the prominent industrialist and benefactor Andrew Peak (1810 to 1889)
taken from http://www.horwich.gov.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=58&Itemid=80