Hindsford is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

of Atherton in the

Metropolitan Borough of Wigan The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest town, Wigan, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Atherton, Greater Manchester, Atherton, Ashton-in-Ma ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England. It is situated to the west of the Hindsford Brook, an ancient boundary between the townships of Atherton and

Tyldesley Tyldesley () is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Lancashire, it is north of Chat Moss near the foothills of the Wes ...

cum

Shakerley Shakerley is a suburb of Tyldesley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. It was anciently a hamlet in the northwest of the township of Tyldesley cum Shakerley, in the ancient parish of Leigh. The boundary between S ...

, and east of the Chanters Brook in the ancient parish of

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staffor ...

History

Historically History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, Hindsford developed in the middle of the 19th century when large

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven ...

s were built on both sides of the Hindsford Brook in Hindsford and Tyldesley by James Burton and Sons. Rows of

terraced housing A terrace in agriculture is a flat surface that has been cut into hills or mountains to provide areas for the cultivation for crops, as a method of more effective farming. Terrace agriculture or cultivation is when these platforms are created s ...

were built for the influx of workers, many from Ireland. Field Mill, Lodge Mill and Westfield Mill were on the Hindsford bank. Lodge Mill and Westfield Mill closed in the 1920s but the site of Atherton Mill was used by Ward and Goldstone who made electrical items. The Fletchers owned a

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

mine at

Chanters Colliery Chanters Colliery was a coal mine which was part of the Fletcher, Burrows and Company's collieries at Hindsford in Atherton, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England. Geology Chanters Colliery exploited the Midd ...

from the 1850s but coal had been mined in that area for centuries. The company became

Fletcher, Burrows and Company Fletcher, Burrows and Company was a coal mining company that owned collieries and cotton mills in Atherton, Greater Manchester, England. Gibfield, Howe Bridge and Chanters collieries exploited the coal mines (seams) of the middle coal measures ...

in 1874 and in 1875 the company who owned Atherton Collieries employed a Dutch architect to design cottages for the workers in the coal mines. The colliery had access to a dozen seams including the Arley mine at 1,832 feet, it closed in 1966. There was a brickworks at Swan Island.

Religion

Many Roman Catholics from Ireland came to work in the mills and collieries of Atherton and Tyldesley. One was John Holland of the

Tyldesley Coal Company Tyldesley Coal Company was a coal mining company formed in 1870 in Tyldesley, on the Manchester Coalfield in the historic county of Lancashire, England that had its origins in Yew Tree Colliery, the location for a mining disaster that killed 25 m ...

who provided the materials to build Sacred Heart Church on land donated by Lord Lilford. The church was consecrated by Bishop Goss of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Liverpool () is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church that covers the Isle of Man and part of North West England. The episcopal see is Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. The archdiocese is the centre of ...

in 1869. The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

in Atherton built a mission church at Swan Island in 1873. Hindsford became an independent parish in 1884 and in 1889 the foundation stone for St Anne's Church was laid. The church was completed in 1901 and cost £9,000.

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* * {{refend Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan Areas of Greater Manchester Atherton, Greater Manchester

History

Religion

See also

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