Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for HINDLEY

HINDLEY, a town, a township, two chapelries, and a sub-district in Wigan parish and district, Lancashire. The town stands adjacent to the Wigan and Bolton railway, 2½ miles ESE of Wigan; is a seat of cotton manufacture; and has a post office‡ under Wigan, a railway. station with telegraph, two churches, five Independent chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, three national schools, an endowed grammar school, charities £85, and a fair on the first Thursday of Aug. There are extensive cotton mills, and a large and prosperous co-operative store. All Saints church was built in 1766, on the site of a previous edifice; is a plain brick structure; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with a belfry; and contains a font and mural monuments. St. Peter's church was built in 1864; is a handsome edifice in the pointed style; and consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with porches and a lofty tower and spire.-The township is returned statistically as conterminate with the town; but includes the hamlets of Platt-Green or Platt-Bridge and HindleyGreen, which have stations on the Wigan and Tyldesley railway 1½ and 3¾ miles from Wigan, and the hamlet of Hindley Common, which is 4 miles from Wigan, and has a post office under Wigan. Acres of the township, 2, 522. Real property, £32, 550; of which £14, 130 are in mines. Pop. in 1851, 7, 023; in 1861, 8, 477. Houses, 1, 630. The property is subdivided. The chief landowners are the Earl of Ellesmere, Lord Kingsdown, Sir H. de Trafford, Messrs. Hargreaves, and J. Walmsley, Esq. Coal is extensively worked. A "burning well" is here, emitting inflammable gas, produced by the decomposition of mineral substances in the substrata.- The chapelries are All Saints and St. Peter; the former parochial, the latter of recent constitution, and both p. curacies in the diocese of Chester. Value of A. S., £300;* Patron, the Rector of Wigan. Value and Patron of St. P., not reported.—The sub-district contains also the townships of Ince-in-Mackerfield and Abram. Acres, 6, 801. Pop. in 1851, 11, 661; in 1861, 17, 654. Houses, 3, 336.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a township, two chapelries, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Hindley Tn/CP/Ch       Wigan RegD/PLU       Lancashire AncC
Place: Hindley

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