Ince-in-Makerfield or Ince is a town 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 ...

, in

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. The population of the Ince ward at the 2011 census was 13,486, but a southern part of Ince was also listed under the Abram ward (north of Warrington Road in this ward). Adding on this area brings the total in 2011 to 15,664. Within the boundaries of the historic county of

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 ...

, Ince is contiguous to

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

and is a residential suburb divided by a railway line into two separate areas, Higher Ince and Lower Ince. From 1894 Ince was an urban district of the

administrative county An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until 1973 in Northern Ireland, 2002 in the Republic of Ireland. They are now abolished, although most Northern ...

of Lancashire and in 1974 became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan.

Toponymy

The name ''Ince'' may be of

Cumbric Cumbric is an extinct Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North", in Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands. It was closely related to Old Welsh and the ot ...

origin and derived from ''ïnïs'', meaning 'island' or, as is likely in this case, 'dry land' ( Welsh ''ynys'').

History

The earliest mention of the manor of Ince and the Ince family dates from 1202, at which point it was under the barony of Newton in Makerfield (Newton le Willows). There were four halls in Ince. Both the manor of Ince and the original hall on Warrington Road were held by a family of the same name, who also owned the manor of Aspull and had close ties to the Hindley family. The lineage was replaced by the Gerard family by marriage in the reign of Henry IV, who adopted the name Gerard family of Ince, and the manor remained with them for several centuries until William Gerard sold it to the Earl of Balcarres at some point between 1796 and 1825. It was of

timber frame Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

d construction. A branch of the Gerard family lived at New Hall from about 1600 until the line died out with marriage to the Andertons of Euxton, who adopted the name Ince Anderton and temporarily inhabited the hall from 1760 to 1818 before moving to Euxton Hall. The third, also known as Ince Hall, was originally a timber and plaster building built in the reign of James I off Manchester Road. It originally had a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

, Italian chimneys and an oak panelled interior but in 1854 was heavily damaged by fire and rebuilt in plain brick of no architectural merit and modernised inside. All three halls were still standing in 1911 but none remain today. Ince-in-Makerfield Town Hall, designed by Heaton Ralph and Heaton, was completed in 1903. The township covered 2,221 acres. The underlying rocks contained strata of cannel and

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 ...

and many collieries were sunk. The early pits were 120 to 900 feet deep, and subsequently to 1,800 feet. Its coal pits included Moss, Ince Hall, Rose Bridge and Ince Collieries. Mining left a legacy of spoil heaps and flashes. Stone was also quarried and used to build bridges on the railway. Ince became heavily industrialised in the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

. The

Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...

, the North Union and Liverpool and Bury railways passed through the township and a

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 ...

was built.

Transport

Ince is served by Ince railway station on the

Manchester to Southport line Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, however to distinguish it from Ince & Elton in Cheshire. On destination boards it is displayed as Ince(Manchester) Ince was once criss-crossed by railway lines on the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

's Warrington to Wigan, Eccles to Wigan, Wigan to St Helens and Springs Branch to Haigh, and Aspull lines, the

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company before the Railways Act 1921, 1923 Grouping. It was Incorporation (business)#Incorporation in the United Kingdom, incorpo ...

's Bury to Liverpool line and the

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its Great Central Main Line, London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company ...

line from Glazebrook to Wigan (on which Lower Ince station was located, between 1884 and 1964), as well as local colliery lines. The

passes through Higher Ince, and 16 of the Wigan flight of locks are within the township.

Industry

Ince had a railway wagon works until 1980. First opened in the 1870s by Richard & John Olive, it became the Ince Waggon & Iron Works Co. in July 1883. In January 1933 it came under control of the Central Wagon Company, who owned it until closure. As the need for new build wagons diminished in the 1960s, the company continued to repair wagons but also diversified to scrap redundant British Railways rolling stock (wagons and carriages) and steam locomotives. It is recorded that they cut up qty 315 BR steam locomotives from the mid to late 1960s.

References

Bibliography *

External links