Where is horwich?

Horwich (/ˈhɒrɪtʃ/ HORR-itch) is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. within the Historic County Boundaries of Lancashire, It is 5.3 miles (8.5 km) southeast of Chorley, 5.8 miles (9.3 km) northwest of Bolton and 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Manchester. It lies at the southern edge of the West Pennine Moors with the M61 motorway passing close to the south and west. At the 2011 Census, Horwich had a population of 20,067.

Horwich emerged in the Middle Ages as a hunting chase. Streams flowing from the moors were harnessed to provide power for bleachworks and other industry at the start of the Industrial Revolution. The textile industry became a major employer and after 1884 the construction of the railway works caused the population of the town to increase dramatically. The old industries have closed and urban regeneration has been led by out of town developments, particularly at Middlebrook, which, since 1997 has been the base of Bolton Wanderers football club, who play at the University of Bolton Stadium, having moved from Burnden Park near Bolton town centre.

The name Horwich derives from the Old English har and wice, meaning the place at the grey wych-elm and in 1221 was recorded as Horewic. The name was recorded as Harewych in 1277 and Horewyche in 1327.

Horwich grew from its original 'bridge point settlement' on the River Douglas at what is now Scholes Bank. By the Middle Ages Horwich was a hunting chase, after the Norman Conquest held by Albert de Gresle between 1086 and 1100. In 1277 Robert Gresle, Baron of Manchester prosecuted Martin de Rumworth for carrying off deer in Horwich Chase which was described in 1322 as being within "a circuit of sixteen leagues with a yearly value in pannage, aeries of eagles, herons and goshawks, in honey, millstones, and iron mines, in charcoal-burning, and the like issues, 60 shillings; of which the vesture in oaks, elms and wholly covered with such, 160 marks." In 1294 Thomas Gresle, sixth Baron of Manchester obtained free warren over "Horewich". The local enforcement of Forest Law was through a Bailiff who served the Lord of the Manor and it was he who decided punishments. Trespassers in the forest were brought before the Manorial Court Leet.

By the 16th century, subsequent to the reformation land ownership had shifted from Church to the crown and was then sold to new owners, who transformed the town into an agricultural economy, and forests were cleared. Many of the farms from the period still existed until the housing boom of the 19th and 20th centuries, like many Lancashire towns the cotton industry was prominent as at least a secondary occupation in many households, weaving became a widespread occupation, and industries like bleaching, dying and paper making grew from the use of water power with the towns preindustrial plentiful access to flowing water. The town continued this path until the arrival of the railway workshops in the 19th century.

In 1598 a number of men were presented at the court leet for tithing and in 1621 the court leet recorded "paid for hue and crye that came from Horwich after the man who made an escape forth of ye stocks for stealing certain lynen cloth 8d". The earliest map of Horwich is dated 1620 and is known as 'The Platt of Horwich', naming the landowner as Sir Thomas Barton, of the Barton family of Holme Hall in the manor of Holme Newark and Smithills Hall, Bolton. A plague pit is noted on the map, with victims of a 1623 outbreak, interred in a mass grave under what is now Lever Park Avenue. By the 17th century, the amount of woodland in the Horwich forest was reduced by house building and for fuel. Horwich Moor was enclosed between 1815 and 1818. Race meetings were held between 1837 and 1847 at the 'Old Lords estate', an area next to the Rivington border, named after 11th Baron Willoughby. Four Barons Willoughby of Parham are interred at Horwich Parish Church.

The manor became the property of the Andertons of Lostock Hall, Lostock, who purchased it in 1599 from Nicholas and Elizabeth Mosley. These lands were confiscated by The Crown in 1715 after the Battle of Preston. They were leased to the Blundells whose coat of arms is displayed above the door at the Blundell Arms on Chorley Old Road.

The Pilkington family were notable in the town's history, prior to the Ridgways. The town coat of arms incorporates the Pilkington Cross, in recognition of the founder of the Rivington and Blackrod High School, James Pilkington, Bishop of Durham and the prominent role in the local history of the family. Richard Pilkington, a leading non-conformist and owner of Horwich Manor, and his family feature in the town's history from the post Protectorate to the industrial revolution being benefactors and founders of a number of places of worship. Another William Pilkington (1765–1831) became a physician and apothecary in St Helens. It is this branch that links Horwich to the founders of Pilkington Glass, his sons being Richard (1795–1869) and William (1800–1872).

In the 1770s brothers, John and Joseph Ridgway, land agents to the Blundells, moved their bleach works from Bolton to Wallsuches. Their works was the oldest and one of the few stone-built mills in the Bolton borough. The firm was one of the earliest users of chemical bleaching using chlorine. In 1798 the firm installed a Boulton and Watt steam engine.

Horwich Vale Printworks, founded in 1799 by the River Douglas, printed cloth using machines and handblocks. On the slopes of Winter Hill, stone was quarried and there were several small collieries and a firebrick and tile works. In 1896 the Montcliffe Colliery was owned by Adam Mason and Son and managed by Joseph Crankshaw and Joseph Kenwright. It employed 26 men underground and seven surface workers getting coal and fireclay from the Mountain coal seam. Crankshaws pipeworks used the fireclay and had had several beehive kilns at their works at Tiger's Clough. In the mid-19th century, cotton mills were built by W. & W. Bennett and Peter Gaskell.

Ridgways provided land for the early 19th century Club Houses, a grid pattern development of streets of stone built cottages south of Church Street. Some had basements for hand loom weaving. In 1851 the occupants were crofters, stovers and bleachers.

In 1881 the population of 3,761 lived in 900 houses and had remained stable for fifty years, the arrival of the railway works and other industries including W.T. Taylor's cotton mill resulted in a considerable change to Horwich leading to a rapid increase in population, creating a boom in population by 1891 to 12,850 people, Horwich became a railway town in this period of the Industrial Revolution.

Coming with this increased population was a need for more houses, schools, and retail and service industries to provide for this new population. Large areas of former farmland was built on with the creation of vast numbers of brick terraced house streets of Victorian and Edwardian types of two-up two-down for the working class who had arrived from across Britain and Ireland, still used in the 21st century. Many new streets near Horwich Locomotive Works were named after famous engineers of the time. Local government in Horwich meets and is administered from a typical Victorian-style building which became known as Horwich Public Hall, a gift to the town by Peter Martin of The Street, Rivington in 1879 and still in use. The post-war years saw a boom in the builds of Council Houses.

In 1937 the de Havilland Aircraft Company built a factory that supplied aircraft to Cobham's Flying Circus. During World War II the factory manufactured variable pitch propellers for Spitfires, making it a target for German bombers, who in July 1942 attempted to raid the factory by employing some of Germany's best pilots and crews in two Junkers JU 88 bombers in a mission using the Rivington reservoirs as landmarks to navigate at low level flying over the water then rooftops of Lever Park to find its target. The raid went off course due to low clouds. The company was taken over by Hawker Siddeley and subsequently British Aerospace, the site was halved and moved to the south side of Hall lane Lostock when taken over by MBDA in 1997 it is still in 2013 making missiles and the site is now used for integration and test purposes. Horwich works was very active in armament production in the first and second world wars, in recognition George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth visited the town in 1940.

In the period of the railway works from spring 1884 to 1983 Horwich changed drastically. The site first opened as the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) works, leading to a large complex for building and maintaining locomotives, the site replaced one at Miles Platting.

Horwich Works was built on 142 hectares of land bought for £36,000. The first workshop, Rivington House opened in February 1887. It is 106.7 metres long by 16.8 metres wide. The long brick built workshops had full-height arched windows and were separated by tram and rail tracks. Work to construct the three-bay, 463.3 metres long, 36 metres wide, erecting shop began in March 1885. Inside it were 20 overhead cranes. By November 1886 the first locomotives arrived at the works for repair.

The first Horwich built locomotive, Number 1008, left the works in 1887 and is preserved at the National Railway Museum.

In the First and Second World War, the works played a part in the war effort manufacturing tanks and munitions. The war led to women being employed in manufacturing at the site, but this did not continue in post-war years with occupational inequality persisting.

The L&YR amalgamated with the London and North Western Railway in 1922 becoming a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, (LMS) in 1923.

Horwich Works continued to build and repair locomotives for the LMS until the company was nationalised in 1948 by the Transport Act 1947, becoming British Railways. In 1962, British Railways transferred control of its main works to British Railways Workshops Division, with its headquarters in Derby. In 1970 it was renamed British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) and remained the towns most significant employer.

Production changed and the last steam locomotive built at Horwich Works left on 27 November 1957, after which the works produced shunting diesel trains until 28 December 1962. It was reduced to repairing engines and maintaining railway wagons. On 18 February 1983 BREL announced that the works would close at the end of the year. Protest marches and spirited trade union resistance failed to alter the decision and at 1 pm on Friday, 23 December 1983 Horwich Works closed after 97 years. The town went through a period of high unemployment afterward, The freehold of the railway works site was transferred from British Rail to Bolton Council in the mid-1990s.

A proposal to demolish the works and build 1,700 homes and a school was submitted to Bolton Council in early 2010. The initial phase of the development commenced in 2019.

Asbestos used to insulate steam engines and railway carriages linked to mesothelioma has been a legacy affecting former workers and their families with asbestos dust also being carried in clothing. The redevelopment of the site required it to be cleared of contaminants before building commenced. Part of the site is planned for demolition for the creation of a link road in 2019, linking the Middlebrook Retail Park, M61 and Horwich Railway Station.

With the closure of Horwich Locomotive Works and other heavy industries, the town went through a period of hardship until the development of the Middlebrook Retail Park and the arrival in the town of Bolton Wanderers Football Club, which revived the service and retail sectors, alongside this the town is now known for sub-urban residential accommodation with the benefit of access to the motorway and other transport links. The economic area is centered around the Middlebrook area, this is planned to expand with new industrial areas being built toward Blackrod.

Horwich was within the county boundaries of Lancashire from the 12th century and was a township in the historic ecclesiastical parish of Deane, in the Hundred of Salford. In 1837 Horwich joined with other townships and civil parishes to form the Bolton Poor Law Union and took joint responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in that area and built a workhouse in Farnworth. The Horwich Local board of health was established in 1872 and was superseded by Horwich Urban District of the administrative county of Lancashire in 1894. Under the Local Government Act 1972 Horwich Urban District was abolished in 1974 and its area became a successor parish of the newly created Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester and was removed from the county of Lancashire.

On 9 January 1974 Horwich was granted a Town Charter by the Earl Marshal, giving Horwich the status of a town, a town council and the ability to elect a Mayor. An official coat of arms was granted and assigned on 6 December 1974 by the Earl Marshal.

Horwich is covered by two electoral Wards of the Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council, the Horwich South and Blackrod, and Horwich North Wards. Each Ward elects three councillors to the Metropolitan Borough Council. Horwich Town Council, formed in 1974, has eight Wards; Vale, Bridge, Lever Park, Church, Claypool, Brazley, Central and Fall Birch which elect 14 representatives to the Town Council.

Horwich is part of the Bolton West Constituency. Its Member of Parliament is Chris Green who won the parliamentary seat at the 2015 General Election.

Suburban localities in Horwich include Wallsuches and Middlebrook.

Horwich extends to 3,230 acres (13.1 km2) and measures 3 miles (4.8 km) from north to south and 2 miles (3.2 km) west to east. The River Douglas flowing in a south westerly direction forms part of its northern boundary. The landscape to the north is dominated by Winter Hill, Rivington Pike and the West Pennine Moors. The highest point is 1,475 feet (450 m) on the moors in the north from where the ground slopes down towards the south and west, where the lowest land is about 350 feet (110 m). On Wilders and Horwich Moors the underlying rock is Millstone Grit, and in the intermediate slopes are found the Lower Coal Measures of the Lancashire Coalfield. The Middle Coal Measures are found in the southwest of the township.

Red Moss, 1.5 km south of the town centre, is a 47.2 hectares (117 acres) Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) which was designated in 1995 because of its biological interest. Red Moss is the best example of lowland raised mire in Greater Manchester and is one of 21 SSSIs in the area. The site is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside.

At the 2001 UK census, Horwich had a population of 19,312 of which 9,370 were male and 9,942 were female. The 2001 population density is lower than Bolton at 12.5 people per hectare compared to 18.7 in Bolton. At the 2011 UK census, Horwich's population increased to 20,067 of which 9,777 were male and 10,290 were female. The 2011 census recorded a total of 9,013 households, of which were 1,979 detached houses, 2,642 semi-detached houses, 3,254 terraced houses, 971 purpose-built flats, 160 other flats (including bedsits), and 7 caravans (or other mobile or temporary structure).

Until the late 18th century, Horwich was a small rural community. In 1774, it had a population of 305, comprising 156 females and 149 males. After 1780 the population increased as the Industrial Revolution brought changes to the town but remained constant until 1885 when the locomotive works were built more than trebling the population in ten years.

Many of Horwich's traditional industries, Horwich Works and W.T. Taylor's cotton mill closed in the late 20th century. Regeneration was led by the construction of the University of Bolton Stadium for Bolton Wanderers at Middebrook in 1995. The development which stretches into neighbouring Lostock, attracted industrial and commercial users including Hitachi, generating jobs to replace those lost in the old industries and the area is now dominated by small and medium enterprises. E.ON and RBS have set up offices close the University of Bolton stadium. Watson Steel Structures founded in 1933 and BAe's successor company, Matra BAe Dynamics operates from the Middlebrook area. Georgia Pacific has a paper manufacturing plant close to the University of Bolton Stadium. Halbro, manufacturers of sportswear and equipment for both codes of rugby, is based on Chorley New Road.

There are Tesco and Asda stores on the outskirts of town and Aldi and Iceland stores closer to the town centre. The Horwich indoor market building was closed and demolished in 2009, but the traditional town centre has many small, specialist shops and businesses, including a greengrocers, butchers, florist and gift shops. Free parking is available across the town and there is a post office and library in the town centre.

Public transport is co-ordinated by Transport for Greater Manchester. The nearest railway stations are at Blackrod and Horwich Parkway adjacent to the University of Bolton Stadium where there is a Park and Ride facility with trains to Bolton, Manchester and Preston. Blackrod station is nearer the town centre. The original Horwich railway station was closed in the Beeching cuts to passenger traffic on 27 September 1965, goods traffic continued until 1966, the line was fully closed in 1967.

Frequent buses operate between Horwich and Bolton. The 575 is operated by Arriva North West, with Arriva services terminating in Wigan. Stagecoach Lancashire provide service 125 between Preston and Bolton via Chorley and Adlington. Bus links to Middlebrook Retail Park are provided by Diamond Bus North West services 516 (Evening and Sunday services only), 517 and 518 which all between Horwich and Leigh via Westhoughton and Atherton. Service 576, which operates from Bolton to Wigan via the Middlebrook and Blackrod areas in Horwich also runs in the evenings.

Horwich is situated close to the motorway network with access at junction 6 of the M61 motorway. The A673 Bolton to Preston road passes through the town which is accessed by the B6226 and B5238.

Manchester Airport is 50 minutes by direct train from Horwich Parkway railway station.

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company built the Railway Mechanics Institute in 1888. It became the Technical College but has been demolished.

Horwich secondary school students years attend either Rivington and Blackrod High School, a Specialist Technology College which was originally the Rivington & Blackrod Grammar School on a site in Rivington close to the boundary with Horwich, or St Joseph's RC High School on Chorley New Road. The oldest school building is the old Horwich Parish School which was built as a National, Infant and Sunday School in 1793 and now used as a parish hall and is a Listed building. Horwich Parish Church of England Primary School occupies the listed premises built in 1832.

Our Lady's school was built in 1886 on Chorley New Road and Holy Family Primary School on Victoria Road in 1894. Holy Family was the first Lancashire County Council school to be granted aided status under the 1944 Education Act. The schools merged on the Victoria Road site as St. Mary's RC Primary School.

Prior to the reformation a chapel of ease existed dedicated to St Mary's Church in Deane. In 1565 the commissioners for "removing superstitious ornaments" took various idolatrous items from the chapel. The local population were forced by various means to conform to the Church of England and as with all other towns and villages across the country Catholicism was suppressed and it was not until 1886 when Father Hampson opened St Mary's Roman Catholic Church on Chorley New Road that the local Catholic population had a formal place of worship. The presbytery there was built by Father McGrath in 1906.

After the English Civil War, with the contrivance of the vicar of Deane, the Chapel of Horwich was used by nonconformists and in 1669 a conventicle, meeting of nonconformists, was reported at Horwich and the ringleaders were prosecuted. In 1672 a nonconformist service was held at Old Lord's Farm, the home of the puritan Major Thomas Willoughby, a soldier of the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, who later become 11th Baron Willoughby of Parham. In 1716 Bishop Gastrell of Chester recovered the chapel for the established church. The chapel was replaced in 1782 and rebuilt as Holy Trinity Church, a Commissioners' Church, in 1831. Until 1853 became a parish in its own right with Holy Trinity as the parish church. After the non conformists were ejected from Horwich Chapel, Richard Pilkington built "New Chapel" between 1716 and 1719. It was enlarged in 1805. In 1890 the Unitarian Free Church was built on Church Street. In the 18th and 19th centuries other nonconformist churches and chapels were built.

Lee Lane Congregational Church, founded in 1754, closed in 2005 and was converted into a flats. It was originally built in 1856 on the site of an earlier build known as Horwich Lee Chapel built in 1774 on the site of an earlier house, also owned by Thomas Willoughby and was used for meetings from 1682 by Presbyterian members splitting away from the Rivington Unitarian Chapel as its doctrine changed.

The Independent Methodist chapel in Lee Lane was built in 1867, Methodism had been practised from 1810. Primitive Methodists had a chapel on Horwich Moor and where a Baptist church was built in 1890.

Bolton Wanderers F.C. play at the University of Bolton Stadium having moved from Burnden Park near Bolton town centre in 1997. Indoor facilities for sports training and major racket sports tournaments are provided at Bolton Arena, which was used for badminton events in the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Several of the town's sporting organisations have origins in the sport and social clubs of Horwich Locomotive Works. Horwich RMI Harriers and Athletic Club founded in 1924, is based at Middlebrook and participates in road, fell and cross country races, track and field athletics. Horwich Cycling Club was founded in 1934 as the Horwich Wheelers. It is involved in the organisation of the Horwich Carnival Road Races, held in the town centre. Horwich RMI Cricket Club was founded in 1892. The club plays in the Bolton Cricket League which it joined in 1934.

In March 1990, Horwich and Crowborough, East Sussex entered into a unique twinning arrangement when they became the first towns within the United Kingdom to sign a town twinning charter. It was signed by the Mayors of Horwich and Crowborough at a ceremony in the Public Hall, Horwich on 22 March 1990 and the Town Hall, Crowborough on 27 March 1990. On the 25th anniversary of the Town Twinning, in March 2015, the Mayor of Horwich, Cllr. Richard E W Silvester and the Mayor of Crowborough, Cllr. Ronald G Reed signed 25th Anniversary celebratory Town Twinning documents in Crowborough Town Hall on Tuesday 10 March 2015 and in Horwich Public Hall on Thursday 19 March 2015, to re-new the twinning agreement. Horwich Cycle Club members travelled down to Crowborough on Friday 15 May 2015 and cycled with members of Wealden Cycle Club over that weekend as part of the celebrations.

Search the name of a city:

Horwagen, Horwich, Horw, Horwood, Lovacott and Newton Tracey, Horwitz

Here you will find the location of Horwich on a map. To see how it currently looks like outside, below are some pictures of the area from online web cameras. You can also find the distance to the main cities in the region and to cities in the rest of United Kingdom.

All places in the world called "Horwich".

World CitiesCities in United Kingdom that are also found in other countries in the world.

Where is Horwich relative to other places?

Top 10 cities in Bolton and distance from Horwich.

Top 10 cities in United Kingdom and distance from Horwich.

Advice and information about traveling and security in United Kingdom.

With a travel advise, tourists can be informed about security risks during traveling or vacation in a foreign country. Be informed about the risks of kidnapping, armed robbery, bombings, natural disasters or war. Know which areas are unsafe in United Kingdomo. Be vigilant, or avoid certain areas when on vacation in United Kingdom.

Alerts and advice

Horwich is a small town in Lancashire, 5 miles southeast of Chorley, and almost 6 miles northwest of Bolton. It is at the southern edge of the West Pennine Moors with the M61 motorway passing close to the south and west. According to the 2001 Census, Horwich had a population of 19,312.

Horwich emerged in the Middle Ages as a hunting chase. Streams flowing from the moors were harnessed to provide power for bleachworks and other industry at the start of the Industrial Revolution. The textile industry became a major employer and after 1884 the construction of the railway works caused the population of the town to increase dramatically. The old industries have closed and urban regeneration has been led by out of town developments, particularly at Middlebrook, which, since 1997 has been the base of Bolton Wanderers football club, who play at the Reebok Stadium since moving from Burnden Park near Bolton town centre.

The name Horwich derives from the Old English har wice, meaning “grey wych-elm” or “grey village”. In 1221 was recorded as Horewic. The name was recorded as Harewych in 1277 and Horewyche in 1327.

In the Middle Ages Horwich originated as a hunting chase for the barons of Manchester. It was held by Albert de Gresle between 1086 and 1100. In 1249 Henry III granted Thomas Gresle free warren over his lands in "Horewich". The barons appointed foresters and trespassers in the forest were brought before the court baron or court leet for punishment. In 1277 Robert Gresle the 7th baron prosecuted Martin de Rumworth for carrying off deer in Horwich Chase which was described in 1322 as being within "a circuit of sixteen leagues, and is yearly worth in pannage, aeries of eagles, herons and goshawks, in honey, millstones, and iron mines, in charcoal-burning, and the like issues, 60 shillings; of which the vesture in oaks, elms and wholly covered with such, 160 marks."

In 1598 a number of men were presented at the court leet for tithing and in 1621 the court leet recorded "paid for hue and crye that came from Horwich after the man who made an escape forth of ye stocks for stealing certain lynen cloth 8 d." By the 17th century the amount of woodland in the Horwich forest was reduced by house building and for fuel. Horwich Moor was enclosed between 1815 and 1818 and race meetings were held between 1837 and 1847.

The manor became the property of the Andertons of Lostock Hall, Lostock, who purchased it in 1599 from Nicholas and Elizabeth Mosley. These lands were confiscated by the crown in 1715 after the Battle of Preston. They were leased to the Blundells whose coat of arms is displayed above the door at the Blundell Arms on Chorley Old Road.

The Pilkingtons were farmers who became gentry, Richard Pilkington was owner of rights in the Horwich Manor. William Pilkington (1765–1831) became a physician and apothecary in St Helens and his sons Richard (1795–1869) and William (1800–1872) were the founders of Pilkington Glass.

Horwich yarn was mentioned in records from the reign of Henry III. In the 1770s brothers, John and Joseph Ridgway, land agents to the Blundells, moved their bleach works from Bolton to Wallsuches. Their works was the oldest and one of the few stone-built mills in the Bolton borough. The firm was one of the earliest users of chemical bleaching using chlorine. In 1798 the firm installed a Boulton and Watt steam engine.

Horwich Vale Printworks, founded in 1799 by the River Douglas, printed cloth using machines and handblocks. On the slopes of Winter Hill, stone was quarried and there were several small collieries and a firebrick and tile works. In 1896 the Montcliffe Colliery was owned by Adam, Mason and Son and managed by Joseph Crankshaw and Joseph Kenwright. It employed 26 men underground and seven surface workers getting coal and fireclay from the Mountain coal seam. Crankshaws pipeworks used the fireclay and had had several beehive kilns at their works at Tiger's Clough. In the mid 19th century cotton mills were built by W. & W. Bennett and Peter Gaskell.

Ridgways provided land for the early 19th century Club Houses, a grid pattern development of streets of stone built cottages south of Church Street. Some had basements for hand loom weaving. In 1851 the occupants were crofters, stovers and bleachers. In 1881 the population of 3,761 lived in 900 houses, and had remained stable for fifty years. A rapid increase in population over the next ten years was caused by the arrival of the railway works and W.T. Taylor's cotton mill. In the late 19th century, brick terraced houses, in streets named after famous engineers, were built near to Horwich Works on both sides of Chorley New Road (the A673) on company land. By 1891 Horwich was transformed into a town of 12,850 people.

In 1937 the de Havilland Aircraft Company built a factory which supplied aircraft to Cobham's Flying Circus and manufactured propellers. The company was taken over by Hawker Siddeley and subsequently British Aerospace, BAe, but is now closed.

In spring 1884 the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) began construction of a large complex for building and maintaining locomotives to replace its works at Miles Platting. Horwich Works was built on 351 acres of land bought for £36,000. The first workshop, Rivington House opened in February 1887. It is 350 feet long by 55 feet wide. The long brick built workshops had full-height arched windows and were separated by tram and rail tracks. Work to construct the three-bay, erecting shop (1,520 feet long, 118 feet wide) began in March 1885. Inside it were 20 overhead cranes. By November 1886 the first locomotives arrived at the works for repair. The first Horwich built locomotive, Number 1008, left the works in 1887 and is preserved at the National Railway Museum.

In the First World War|First and Second World Wars, the works played a part in the war effort manufacturing tanks and munitions.

The L&YR amalgamated with the London and North Western Railway in 1922 becoming a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, (LMS) in 1923. Horwich Works continued to build and repair locomotives for the LMS until the company was nationalised in 1948 by the Transport Act 1947, becoming British Railways. In 1962, British Railways transferred control of its main works to British Railways Workshops Division, with its headquarters in Derby. In 1970 it was renamed British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL).

The last steam locomotive built at Horwich Works left on 27 November 1957 and the last diesel built there left on 28 December 1962. It was reduced to repairing engines and maintaining railway wagons. On 18 February 1983 BREL announced that the works would close at the end of the year. Protest marches and spirited trade union resistance failed to alter the decision and at 1 pm on Friday, 23 December 1983 Horwich Works closed after 97 years. The freehold of the railway works site was transferred from British Rail to Bolton Council in the mid-1990s.

A proposal to demolish the works and build 1,600 homes and a school was submitted to Horwich Town Council in early 2010. Middlebrook Retail Park could be extended as part of the development.

Horwich was anciently a township in the parish of Deane, in the Hundred of Salford. In 1837 Horwich joined with other townships and civil parishes to form the Bolton Poor Law Union and took joint responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in that area and built a workhouse in Farnworth. The Horwich Local Board of Health was established in 1872 and was superseded by Horwich Urban District, which lasted until 1974.

A Coat of Arms was granted to the newly erected Town Council on 6 December 1974.

Suburban localities in Horwich include Wallsuches and Middlebrook.

Horwich extends to 3,230 acres, 3 miles from north to south and 2 miles west to east. The River Douglas flowing in a south westerly direction forms part of its northern boundary. The landscape to the north is dominated by Winter Hill, Rivington Pike and the West Pennine Moors. The highest point is 1,475 feet on the moors in the north from where the ground slopes down towards the south and west, where the lowest land is about 350 feet. On Wilders and Horwich Moors the underlying rock is Millstone Grit, and in the intermediate slopes are found the Lower Coal Measures of the Lancashire Coalfield. The Middle Coal Measures are found in the southwest of the township.

Red Moss, just south of the town centre, is a 117 acre “Site of Special Scientific Interest” which was designated in 1995 because of its biological interest. Red Moss is the best example of lowland raised mire in south Lancashire. The site is managed by the local Wildlife Trust.

It is not known when Horwich's first chapel was built. It was a chapel of ease to St Mary's Church in Deane, but in 1565 the commissioners for "removing superstitious ornaments" took various idolatrous items from the chapel. In 1669 a conventicle, meeting of nonconformists, was reported at Horwich and the ringleaders were prosecuted. A chapman, Philip Martindale, was among those whose estates were sequestrated for 'delinquency' by Parliament during the Civil Wars. In 1672 a nonconformist service was held at Old Lords Farm, the home of Thomas Willoughby. After the Civil War, with the contrivance of Thomas Willoughby and the connivance of the Vicar of Deane, the chapel was used by nonconformists.

In 1716 Bishop Gastrell of Chester recovered the chapel for the established church. The chapel was replaced in 1782 and rebuilt as Holy Trinity Church, a Commissioners' Church, in 1831. Until 1853 became a parish in its own right with Holy Trinity as the parish church.

After being ejected from Horwich Chapel, Richard Pilkington built "New Chapel" for the nonconformists between 1716 and 1719. It was enlarged in 1805. In the 18th and 19th centuries other nonconformist churches and chapels were built. Horwich Lee Chapel was formed in 1754 by Presbyterian members of the congregation of Rivington Unitarian Chapel. A chapel was erected in 1856, replacing one built in 1774. It became Lee Lane Congregational Church and closed in 2005. A preacher from Bolton introduced Methodism in the early 19th century and a chapel opened in about 1810. The Independent Methodist chapel in Lee Lane was built in 1867, "the congregation having originated some years earlier in a gathering of teetotallers". Primitive Methodists had a chapel on Horwich Moor and a Baptist church was built in 1890.

Several of the town's sporting organisations have origins in the sport and social clubs of Horwich Locomotive Works. Horwich RMI Harriers and Athletic Club founded in 1924, is based at Middlebrook and participates in road, fell and cross country races, track and field athletics.

Harewych, 1277; Horewyche, 1327.

The township of Horwich has an area of 3,254½ acres, (fn. 1) and measures about 3 miles from north to south, by 2 miles across. The highest point, 1,475 ft., is in the extreme north; from this the ground slopes downward to the south, but most rapidly to the west, where about 350 ft. is reached. Along the southwestern border the Coal Measures occur, on Wilders and Horwich Moors the Millstone Grit, and in the intermediate slopes the Gannister Beds or Lower Coal Measures.

A little to the south of the Rivington Reservoirs lies the town of Horwich, built at the junction of two roads from Bolton, which are the principal ones traversing the township. To the south-east of the town are the great locomotive works of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, the main industry of the place. The company has a short branch from the Bolton and Preston line, with a terminus at Horwich, opened in 1870. There is an electric tramway to Bolton. The Thirlmere aqueduct passes through the township.

To the hearth tax of 1666 the largest house contributing was that of Thomas Anderton, with six hearths; the total number was seventy-six. (fn. 2)

The population in 1901 numbered 15,084.

Great bleach works and cotton mills have long been carried on here, also calico printing. There are firebrick and tile works, important stone quarries, and several collieries. The northern part of the township is moorland; the chief crop is grass.

A local board was formed in 1872; (fn. 3) this in 1894 became an urban district council, the township being divided into four wards, each returning three members. The meetings are held in the Public Hall, built in 1878. The Railway Mechanics' Institute was built in 1887–8.

There is a weekly newspaper.

The moor was inclosed in 1815–18. (fn. 4) The Horwich race meetings lasted from 1837 to 1847. (fn. 5) Paceeggs used to be collected by the children on the Sunday before Easter. (fn. 6)

The two pyramidal cairns called the Two Lads are variously supposed to mark the resting-places of two sons of early kings, or of two boys who lost their way on the moor and died of exposure. (fn. 7)

HORWICH was the forest or chase of the barons of Manchester, (fn. 8) by whom it had been afforested perhaps as early as the reign of Henry I. Hence it first appears in the records as the scene of poaching raids, headed sometimes, it would appear, by neighbouring gentry. (fn. 9) Various surveys have been preserved, (fn. 10) that of 1322 being very full. It states that in Horwich there were sixteen plots of pasture, not measured because of their extent in wood and open ground, and two of these plots made a vaccary or booth. After describing the eight vaccaries, the extent proceeds: 'The wood of Horwich contains a circuit of sixteen leagues, and is yearly worth in pannage, aeries of eagles, herons and goshawks, in honey, millstones, and iron mines, in charcoal-burning, and the like issues, 60s.; of which the vesture in oaks, elms, and wholly covered with such, 160 marks. The said wood is so thoroughly several that no one may enter there without licence, and of every beast found there without licence the owner shall give for that trespass 6d., by fixed custom.' (fn. 11)

In course of time the woods were cleared and Horwich became an ordinary agricultural township; but the survey of 1473 gives only four tenants' holdings. (fn. 12) Among the tenants were the Heatons of Heaton and other neighbouring families. (fn. 13) In the Subsidy Lists of 1541 (fn. 14) and 1622 (fn. 15) no landowners are named in Horwich.

At the Court Leet of Manchester in 1598 the constables of Horwich presented a number of persons for tithing men. (fn. 16)

The Andertons of Lostock, successors of the Heatons, acquired the manor of Horwich and held it in the 17th century and onwards. (fn. 17) Henry Blundell was the chief landowner in 1788. (fn. 18) The minor family of Anderton of Horwich sprang from Thomas Anderton, a younger brother of Christopher Anderton of Lostock (1592), who settled in this township. His son Lawrence, who became a Jesuit, was the author of the famous hymn, 'Jerusalem, my happy home,' and, under the alias of John Brereley, of various controversial works, such as The Protestant's Apology for the Roman Church, printed at the secret press at Lostock. (fn. 19) Lawrence's brother Christopher was prothonotary of the common pleas at Lancaster by patent dated 1607. Administration of the goods of Thomas Anderton of Horwich, apparently son of Christopher, was granted in 1669 to his brother William. The horrible death of this William (Dr. Anderton of Wigan) is described by Oliver Heywood (Diaries, iii, 211). His will was proved in 1675; his executors were to bring up his son Thomas, aged eight, in the 'knowledge of the true Catholic church.' The guardianship was entrusted to Anne Anderton, widow (grandmother), and Anne Tootell (aunt).

Thomas Willoughby, a descendant of the second Lord Willoughby of Parham, married Eleanor daughter of Hugh Whittle of Horwich, and lived at Shaw Place in Charnock. Being erroneously supposed to be the heir male he was summoned to Parliament as Lord Willoughby of Parham. He died in 1692, and was buried at Horwich. His son, two grandsons, and a great-grandson followed him in the title. They were Presbyterians. The last of them, Hugh Willoughby, enjoyed the title from 1715 to 1765; he was president of the Society of Antiquaries in 1754. (fn. 20)

In 1322–3 the herbage of the wood called Le Twecheles, now Twitchills, could not be agisted, through the deficiency of cattle in the district, owingto the Scottish raid at midsummer, 1322. (fn. 21)

Among those whose estates were sequestrated for 'delinquency' by the Parliament in the time of the Civil Wars was Philip Martindale of Horwich, chapman. (fn. 22)

A chapel of ease existed at Horwich before the Reformation, for in 1552 it was found provided with the ornaments for saying mass. There were also three bells, 'which are the poor men's of the town, bought with their own money, and the said bells not yet hanged up.' (fn. 23) In 1565 the commissioners for removing superstitious ornaments reported to the Bishop of Chester that they had taken from this chapel 'vestment, alb, altar-cloth corporas, and other idolatrous gear.' (fn. 24) There was then a curate there, (fn. 25) but the chapel seems afterwards to have fallen into obscurity and is not mentioned again (fn. 26) till the survey of 1650, when Mr. Henry Pendlebury usually preached there on Sunday without any stipend beyond the people's offerings. (fn. 27) The recommendation to make Horwich a separate parish was not acted upon, and it is probable that down to the Revolution nothing more than a Sunday service was performed by the vicar or curate of Deane. In 1669 numerous meetings of Nonconformists were reported in this parish, and at Horwich Chapel there was a 'conventicle,' but the ringleaders had been prosecuted. (fn. 28)

After the Revolution, with the connivance of the vicar, the chapel was used by Nonconformists, but in 1716 Bishop Gastrell recovered it for the Established Church, and it has since been retained. There was a chapel stock of £190, in the hands of Nonconforming trustees, who refused to pay the interest when the chapel was taken from them. In 1723, however, £100 was given by the vicar of Deane and £100 by Lady Moyer, and in the following year £200 for the old chapel stock was recovered from the trustees by a decree of the Commissioners for Charitable Uses. (fn. 29)

The old chapel was rebuilt in 1779, (fn. 30) and the new one having fallen into decay was taken down when the present church of the Holy Trinity was opened in 1831 (fn. 31) on an adjacent site. It is in the decorated Gothic style, with western tower. A separate ecclesiastical district was assigned to it in 1853. (fn. 32) The patronage is vested in the vicar of Deane, and the income is £370 a year.

The following is a list of curates and vicars (fn. 33) :—

A school church was erected in 1889, and enlarged in 1897; this was in 1902 replaced by St. Catherine's, a chapel of ease. St. Elizabeth's iron mission church was built in 1902.

Methodism was introduced into Horwich by a preacher from Bolton about the beginning of last century. A room in a mill at Wilderswood was used for a time; but a chapel was opened in or about 1810. (fn. 40) The Independent Methodist chapel in Lee Lane was built in 1867, the congregation having originated some years earlier in a gathering of teetotallers. (fn. 41) The Primitive Methodists once had a chapel on Horwich Moor, (fn. 42) and the Independent Methodists also have a place of worship.

A Baptist church was built in 1890.

A large proportion of the population refused to conform at the Restoration, but nothing is known as to their ministers or organization, (fn. 43) until, as stated above, the chapel at Horwich came into their hands about the Revolution. (fn. 44) On being ejected in 1716 the Dissenters erected a meeting-house called the New Chapel; this was enlarged in 1805, and other alterations have been made more recently. It is now in the hands of the Congregationalists, though for a short period in the 18th century the ministers are said to have been Unitarian. (fn. 45) A second Congregational church, known as Horwich Lee Chapel, was erected in 1856, replacing one built in 1774. (fn. 46)

A Unitarian church was erected in 1896.