Whitefield, Lancashire

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Whitefield
Lancashire

All Saints' Church, Stand in Whitefield
Location
Grid reference: SD815065
Location: 53°33’8"N, 2°17’57"W
Data
Population: 23,283  (2001)
Post town: Manchester
Postcode: M45
Dialling code: 0161
Local Government
Council: Bury
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Bury South

Whitefield is a town in Lancashire, on undulating ground above the Irwell Valley, along the south bank of the River Irwell, three miles south-southeast of Bury, and five miles north-northwest of the city of Manchester. Prestwich and the M60 motorway are just to the south.

Whitefield has been suggested as standing on the path of an ancient Roman road leading from Mamucium (Manchester) in the south to Bremetennacum (Ribchester) in the north. Throughout the Middle Ages, Whitefield was a division of the township of Pilkington, itself a part of the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham in the Salford Hundred. Pilkington and Whitefield have historic associations with the Earls of Derby.

Farming was the main industry of this rural area, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system.

The urbanisation and development of Whitefield largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution. The name Whitefield is thought to derive from the mediæval bleachfields used by Flemish settlers to whiten their woven fabrics, or else from the wheat crop once cultivated in the district. The construction of a major roads routed through the village facilitated Whitefield's expansion into a mill town during the mid-19th century.

Name

There are several theories for the origin of the place name, discussed in two local history publications. One, published in John Wilson's A History of Whitefield (1979), is that the name is derived from the Flemish weavers who used to lay out their fabrics to bleach in the sun (a process known as tentering). Although Wilson doubts this, believing it to be chronologically inaccurate, another theory relies on the fact that historically, Whitefield has been a farming community of open fields, and that the name is a corruption of "Wheat-fields". A third is that the name refers to a field of white flowers, evidenced by the existence of the area of Lily Hill Street.[1][2]

In Remains, Historical and Literary, Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester (1861), the will of a John Rhodes describes leaving ownership of land in Whitefield Moore in Pilkington, to his son.[3]

History

Early history

In Elizabethan times, Whitefield was mostly moorland and until the 19th century existed, along with the districts of Ringley, Unsworth and Outwood, as part of the Manor of Pilkington.[1] In the 15th century the Pilkington family who, during the Wars of the Roses, supported the House of York, owned much of the land around the parish. Thomas Pilkington was at this time lord of many estates in Lancashire including the Manor of Bury.[4][5] In 1485, King Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth. The Duke of Richmond, representing the House of Lancaster, was crowned Henry VII and according to tradition, Sir William Stanley placed the crown of England upon his head. As a reward for the support of his family, on 27 October 1485 Henry made Thomas Stanley the Earl of Derby. Thomas Pilkington was attainted, and in February 1489 Earl Thomas was given many confiscated estates including those of Pilkington, which included the township of Pilkington, and Bury.[5][6] With their seat at Knowsley Hall, the Earls of Derby were by and large absentee landlords who appointed agents to manage their interests in the area, unlike the Earls of Wilton whose lands at Prestwich bordered the area and who oversaw events on their estate and dispensed charity from Heaton Hall.[7]

Over the centuries, hamlets grew at Besses o' th' Barn, Lily Hill, Four Lane Ends (now the junction around Moss Lane and Pinfold Lane), Stand and Park Gate (now the junction around Park Lane and Pinfold Lane) before being swallowed by Whitefield,[1] Besses o' th' Barn was for some time known as Stone Pale and a small street of that name still exists.[8]

Geography

Whitefield lies on the west side of the conjunction of the M60 and M66 motorways, and south of the River Irwell. The larger towns of Bury and Middleton lie to the north and east respectively.

Localities within Whitefield include Besses o' th' Barn, Hillock, Lily Hill, Park Lane, Stand and to the south of the M60 motorway and separated by it from the rest of the township is Kirkhams.

Whitefield has some substantial areas which are not built upon, consisting principally of the lands owned by Whitefield Golf Club, Stand Golf Club and Philips Park.

The area has three medium-sized council housing estates , now largely privately owned under right-to-buy schemes. Hillock is an attractive estate, and is often regarded as the most successful of all Manchester Corporation's many overspill developments.

Much of the area is made up of middle class suburban commuter developments, with some attractive older terraced housing too, especially around Lily Hill Street and Nipper Lane, and it also encompasses an area of larger properties surrounding Ringley Road and Park Lane. In recent years the area has seen new construction work on infill sites, and some residential development of brownfield sites more generally.

Economy

In 1906 the following textile bleaching, dyeing and finishing businesses existed in Whitefield: John Brierley (at Spring Clough); W.E. Buckley & Co Ltd (Hollins Vale); R.& A. Chambers Ltd (Spring Waters); Thomas L. Livesey Ltd (Hollins Vale); Mark Fletcher & Sons Ltd (Moss Lane Mills, having been founded in Little Lever in 1854[9]); William Hampson (Besses); Kilner Croft Dyeing Co Ltd (Unsworth); Whitefield Velvet & Cord Dyeing Co Ltd (Crow Oak Works); and Philip Worrall (Hollins Vale).[10]

At the same time there were five cotton manufacturers in the area: J.G. Clayton and Nelson, Greenhalgh & Co (both at Albert Mills, on what was then Workhouse Lane); Lord, Frears & Bro. (Whitefield New Mill); Francis Mather (Whitefield Mill); and Worthington & Co (Victoria Mills, Unsworth). There were also two smallware manufacturers in the area, being Prestwich Smallware Co (on Hardmans Green, Besses) and the Victoria Smallware Co on Narrow Lane.[11] There were also at least two firms in the building trade: John Jackson & Son, builder and joiners, on Livesey Street; and F.M. & H. Nuttall, builders and stonemasons, who were on Moss Lane and later had their stoneyard adjoining the west side of Whitefield railway station.[12]

Whitefield's proximity to the M60 orbital motorway and city of Manchester has ensured that there are many small businesses and trading estates located locally. Whitefield has experienced several new commercial developments since the turn of the 21st century, for example with the replacement of Elms Shopping Precinct by a new gym and several new outlets and with a new Morrisons supermarket built in 2008 on land previously occupied by a public house, the bus station and a former retail premises which had seen several uses.

There used to be sweet factory on Stanley Road –Hall's, then arguably most famous for their "Mentho-Lyptus" product, sometimes spelled Menthol Lyptus – and there still is a large flooring company, Polyflor, in the Radcliffe New Road area; apart from these, most of the businesses are small.

Churches

Stand All Saints' Church (Church of England) is a 'Waterloo Church', having been built to give thanks for Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815,[13] is located just outside the town centre. The site was given by the Earl of Derby and the first stone laid by the Thomas Egerton, 2nd Earl of Wilton on 3 August 1822. It was consecrated on 8 September 1826.

The church was designed by Sir Charles Barry in the Gothic style of the 14th century.[14] The tower is 186 feet in height. The cost of the building was £14,987.[15] A clock was added to the tower in 1832 and then replaced in 1906.[16] The church forms the centrepiece of the All Saints' conservation area, designated by the local council in March 2004.[17]

  • Church of England: Stand All Saints
  • Methodist: Whitefield Methodist Chapel
  • New Jerusalem Church
  • United Reformed Church: Besses United Reformed Church
  • Roman Catholic: St Bernadette's (built in 1955)

There are also two synagogues. Whitefield Hebrew Congregation was built on land purchased from the Church of England, where originally a Church of England school had stood and which was demolished for the construction of the present synagogue.

Culture, education media and sport

Besses o' th' Barn Band, and subsequently its associated boys' band, has existed in the area since at least 1818, at which time it had converted from a string band to a reed band. Its founders were John, James and Joseph Clegg – three brothers who were manufacturers of cotton products at Besses o' th' Barn – and for this reason it was for a time known as Clegg's Reed Band. It has had its headquarters on Moss Lane since 1884. At the peak of its fame in the early 1900s this band, by now using brass instruments, undertook numerous prestigious engagements, including world tours lasting well in excess of 12 months at a time.[18]

Sport

  • Rugby Union: Sedgley Park R.U.F.C.

Outside links

 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Whitefield, Lancashire)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Wilson 1979, p. 1.
  2. ↑ Holt (1962)
  3. ↑ Chetham Society 1861, p. 115.
  4. ↑ Farrer & Brownbill 1911, pp. 88–92.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Coward 1983, pp. 13–14.
  6. ↑ Wilson 1979, p. 2.
  7. ↑ Wilson 1979, p. 17.
  8. ↑ Wilson 1979, p. 11.
  9. ↑ Wilson 1979, p. 57.
  10. ↑ Wilson 1979, pp. 52–53.
  11. ↑ Wilson 1979, p. 53.
  12. ↑ Wilson 1979, p. 56.
  13. ↑ Wilson 1979, pp. 25–26.
  14. ↑ Wilson 1979, p. 25.
  15. ↑ Butterworth 1841, p. 114.
  16. ↑ Wilson 1979, p. 26.
  17. ↑ Conservation Areas, Bury Metropolitan Borough Council, http://www.bury.gov.uk/Environment/LandAndPremises/Conservation/ConservationAreas/default.htm, retrieved 19 December 2008 
  18. ↑ Wilson 1979, pp. 54–55.
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