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1820s At Barrow Bridge, an industrial village was started by Thomas Bazley and Robert Gardner  

 

1820 (Jul) In July 1820 Benjamin Hick (1790-1842) joined other leading industrialists Isaac Dobson, Thomas Hardcastle and Peter Rothwell together with engineer Joshua Routledge to form the Bolton Gaslight and Coke Company, providing gas for public buildings, street lamps and industrial lighting                                                                                                      

 

c. 1820 Carlisle's Cotton Mill built

 

1820 Thomas Bonsor Crompton patented a method of continuously drying paper

 

1820 Thomas Bonsor Crompton was only 28 when he patented his invention No 4509

 

1820 Bolton: The Waterloo Hotel opened in 1820 with Robert Brooks as its first landlord. The pub was situated on the corner of Waterloo Street and Blackburn Road though directories up to about the middle of the nineteenth century tend to give the address as Waterloo Place.

 

1820 (6 Jan) Bolton Yeomanry Cavalry re-formed

 

1820 (27 May) Jeremiah Marsden, master iron founder and kitchen range manufacturer, born in Shaw Street, Bolton.   ( see 1819)                         Mayor of Bolton: 1873-1874 and 1874 -1875 (Conservative).                  Died: Westminster Palace Hotel, London 27 April 1877

 

1820 George Devey (1820 – 1886), English architect notable for his work on country houses and their estates, born in London.    

Died 1886 in Hastings, Sussex.

 

1820s John Brown (d. 1826?), writer, became a resident of Bolton in Lancashire

After settling in Bolton, he began to write a history of the town, of which seventeen numbers were published in 1824–5. About this time he became friendly with the inventor Samuel Crompton, also a Bolton man, and, laying his History of Bolton aside, began to support Crompton's claims to a second remuneration from parliament for his invention of the spinning mule. In 1825 he wrote a pamphlet on the subject, and shortly afterwards moved to London, where he prepared a memorial (1825) addressed to the lords of the Treasury and a petition (1826) to the House of Commons. He was, however, completely unsuccessful, owing, as he wrote to Crompton, to secret opposition on the part of ‘your primitive enemy’, as he called the elder Sir Robert Peel. Brown's life in the metropolis was in all ways a failure, and in despair he committed suicide in his London lodgings, probably in 1826.

 

1821 (23 Apr) James Barlow, philanthropist and industrialist, born in Tottington, Lancashire, son of Thomas Barlow a hand loom weaver.

 

1821 (1 Dec) Cuthbert Brodrick, architect, was born at Summergangs, Hull, the sixth son of the ten children of John Brodrick, shipowner and merchant, and his wife, Hannah Foster.                                                                  Died 1905

 

1821 Edmund Ashworth (born 1800) joined the cotton-spinning firm of John and Edmund Ashworth, his father and uncle respectively.

 

1821 George Saxon born in Manchester

 

1821 Bolton Yeomanry Cavalry second troop formed

 

1822 Sir James Ramsden, British civil engineer, industrialist and civic leader, born.

Most probably in Bolton, Lancashire (although the census records are inconsistent on this point) 

Died 19 Oct 1896

 

1823 (3 Jan) Robert Whitehead, English engineer, born at Mount Pleasant, Bolton-le-Moors, one of a family of four sons and four daughters of James Whitehead (1788-1872), a calenderer in the cloth finishing business and later a brewer in Bolton-le-Moors, and his wife Ellen, daughter of William Swift of Bolton.

He developed the first effective self-propelled naval torpedo.

 

1823 (3 Jan) Robert Whitehead (1823-1905) was born at Mount Pleasant.   He attended Bolton Grammar School from 1829-1837.

He invented the world’s first self-jet-propelled guided missile, the torpedo, which gained him international fame and fabulous fortune.                          His granddaughter was Agathe Whitehead (1891-1922). Her children were the Von Trapp singers.

 

1823 (7 Jun) The Corner stone of Holy Trinity Church, Bolton was laid by Rev Canon Slade, Vicar of Bolton

 

1823 (5 Jul) Newspapers: The Bolton Reflector began on 5th July 1823, price 3d, printed and published by John Yates, 82 Deansgate, later at 12 Deansgate. It ceased on 26th June 1827.

 

1823 (12 Jul) Newspapers: The Bolton Reflector was first printed and published by J Ogle, Market Street on 12th July 1823, price 3d. Only 19 were issued and it ceased on 22nd November 1823.

 

1823 (15 Aug) Mathieu Vallet died

Buried at All Saints’, Childwall- in the Grace family grave (Plot 796)

Remembered by “Valletts Lane”

 

1823 Benjamin Dobson (1823-1874) of Dobson and Barlow, born in Greater Bolton, son of Benjamin Dobson, machine maker, and his wife Frances

 

1823 Samuel Horrocks (1766-1842) was attacked and suffered head injuries outside his house in Golden Square by Andrew Ryding who was found not guilty of attempted murder on account of insanity and detained at her majesty’s leisure.

 

1823 A stranger attacked Samuel Horrocks with a large knife on his way to visit Thomas Miller. He managed to fend off his attacker but was badly injured. The man, Andrew Ryding was caught, taken to Lancaster court and found to be mad. The man was a cotton worker who may have had been angry with the men who owned the mills.

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1823 Business founded in Bolton by William Walker formerly of Haughton-le-Skerne, co. Durham. The original tannery was in King Street.

 

1823 William Walker and Sons, Bolton, tanners and leather curriers: The business was founded in Bolton in 1823 by William Walker, formerly of Haughton-le-Skerne, Co. Durham. The original tannery was in King Street.    Operations were transferred to Ridgway Gates in 1828. Tanning began at Rose Hill in 1850. The Railway Tannery, also at Rose Hill, opened in 1895. The firm also owned Bark Street Tannery, which it took over in 1864. The former Jackson's corn mill in Weston Street, Great Lever, was purchased for the manufacture of "Dri-Ped" leather in 1919. Subsidiary companies included Dri-Ped Ltd and Bolton Leathers Ltd. The origins of the Walker Property Co. Ltd lie in the purchase of land in Deansgate, Manchester, in 1876, upon which the Grosvenor Hotel was built.

 

1823 Henry Ashworth (born 1794) married Letitia Binns (1798–1868), daughter of a Liverpool leatherseller and mother of six sons and five daughters.

 

1823 The Westminster Review, a quarterly British publication, was founded by Jeremy Bentham and James Mill.

 

1823 In 1823 there were 28 cotton mills in Bolton, driven by steam engines and employing over 4,000 workers.

 

1823 Rev Franklin Baker, M.A. became pastor.

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1823-1825 Holy Trinity was designed by Philip Hardwick and built in 1823–25

 

1824 (30 Jul) The Trustees of Little Bolton held their first meeting in the partially completed town hall which officially opened Feb 7th 1828

 

1824 (23 Sep) Franklin Baker (born 1800) accepted the pulpit at Bank Street Chapel, Bolton, and was ordained on 23 September 1824.

 Circumstances were not auspicious. When the Revd John Holland (1766–1826) had retired in 1820, one faction of the congregation carried the appointment of the Revd Noah Jones (1801–1861) of Walmsley, a recent convert from Congregationalism; the other faction withdrew to establish a new congregation in Moor Lane, where the Revd George Harris (1794–1859), from Renshaw Street, Liverpool, abundantly satisfied the seceders' desire for aggressive Unitarian preaching, and drew in audiences that quickly overshadowed the older congregation.
The growth did not survive Harris's departure for Glasgow in 1825, and in 1843 Moor Lane reunited with Bank Street, where Baker had steadily rebuilt the congregation; it was further reinforced by amalgamation with a Christian Brethren congregation, influenced by Joseph Barker (1806–1875), in 1855

 

1824 (29 Sep) Windham Sadler (1796-1824), British balloonist, was killed in a balloon accident following a difficult ascent at Bolton

He had crossed the Irish Sea by balloon in 1817

He was the son of James Sadler (1753-1828), the first English balloonist and the second person to make a balloon ascent in England

 

1824 (9 Oct) Newspaper: The Bolton Chronicle printed and published by Thomas Cropp, began on 9th October 1824, price 7d. Ownership passed through several hands until it was produced by James Hudsmith, 26th October 1850 at 12 Folds Street, after his death production was continued by his Executor at Knowsley Street, with the price now 2d.

 

1824 Robert Leake, British liberal politician, born

Member of Parliament for Radcliffe-cum-Farnworth 1885-1895

Died 1 May 1901

 

1824 James Kay (born 1774) developed a successful wet spinning process for flax, helping industrialise linen spinning in the British Isles.

 

1824 The Belmont Reservoir was built

 

1824 Railway: In 1824, William Hulton decided on the construction of a railway to speed delivery of coal from his mines to Bolton.

 

1824 The Elizabethan manor house Lostock Hall was demolished.                 It was built for the Anderton family in 1563.                                             The gatehouse still remains, which is now a Grade II* listed building.

 

1824-1860 Jesse Hartley (1780 – 1860), Civil Engineer and Superintendent of the Concerns of the Dock Estate in Liverpool, England between 1824 and 1860,

 

1825 (11 Feb) February 11th. Business in Parliament. First reading of Bill.  

 

1825 (31 Mar) the Bolton and Leigh Railway obtained its Act of Parliament to build a line “from the Manchester Bolton and Bury canal at Bolton to the Leeds and Liverpool canal at Leigh”, allowing steam haulage and stationary steam-hauled incline planes.

George Stephenson was employed as chief engineer

The single-track line built to carry goods, mainly coal and cloth from the cotton mills was 7.5 miles (12km) long

 

1825 (25 Jun) William Romaine Callender, cotton spinner and politician, was born at 7 Nelson Street, Chorlton Row, Manchester, the elder son of William Romaine Callender (1794–1872), merchant and calico printer, and his first wife, Hannah, the daughter of Samuel Pope from Exeter, probably a solicitor.  He set up Callender & Sons, merchants and manufacturers, with his sons William Romaine Callender (from 1847) and Samuel Pope Callender as partners. This became one of Manchester's leading cotton spinners and merchants, acquiring in 1862 the mills of Thomas Bazley in Water Street, Manchester, and the Dean mills, Halliwell, Bolton.                                     Died 1876.

 

1825 William Romaine Callender (junior) (1825 – 1876), British businessman and Conservative politician, born the son of William Romaine Callender of Mauldeth Hall near Manchester and his wife, Hannah Pope of London.                                                                                        Died 22 Jan 1876.

 

1825 The University of Bolton traces its origins back to 1825 with the founding of Bolton Mechanics' Institute.

 

1825 Robert Dalglish commenced the surveying and engineering of the Bolton and Leigh railway, Lancashire’s first public railway

 

1825 John Bowring was appointed editor to the Westminster Review

 

1825 In 1825 James Ormrod died (aged 56) and Peter Ormrod (d.1875) became head of the eminent firm along with James Cross (d.1889), a local justice of the peace.

 

1825 James Ormrod, cotton spinner, of Chamber Hall, died

A founding partner of the Bolton Bank

Peter Ormrod succeeded to the partnership on the death of his father.

 

1826 (23 Mar) James Brandwood, (1739-1826) Quaker minister, died, unmarried

Buried in the Quaker burial ground in Westhoughton.

 

1826 (11 Sep) Holy Trinity Church, Bolton, consecrated

 

1826 (Sep) St Johns, Farnworth’s Parish Church, was consecrated by the Bishop of Chester.

 

1826 Thomas Wilkinson (1826-1916), philanthropist, born.                        He gave his house on Belmont Road to be used as Wilkinson Sanatorium.

 

1826 George Blair died in Bolton, Lancashire

Founder of the Mill Hill Bleach Works

 

1826 Little Bolton Town Hall built

 

1826 Bolton Yeomanry Cavalry reduced to one troop

 

1826 St Johns Church Farnworth built

 

1826 Thomas Bazley (born 1797) went into partnership with Robert Gardner, and they took over mills in Manchester and Halliwell

 

1826 The Exchange Building on the corner of Victoria Square and Newport Street was erected by the Bolton Exchange Company – a group of local businessmen – and originally housed the Bolton Exchange and subscription library. (>12 Oct 1853)

 

1826 John Holland, Unitarian preacher, died

 

1827 (26 Jun) Samuel Crompton died

 

1827 Samuel Crompton died at his house in King Street, at the age of 74

 

1827 Rev Joseph Farrall Wright born

Vicar of Christ Church, Bolton and co-founder of Bolton Wanderers football club

 

From 1827, Farnworth Wakes started in September an annual holiday period when a fair visits the town

 

1828 (18 Sep) Samuel Oldknow Jnr (1756–1828), English cotton manufacturer, born, the eldest son of Samuel Oldknow Sr and Margery Foster, died at Mellor Lodge, Derbyshire.

 

1828 Thomas Bonsor Crompton (born 1792) built the Farnworth Paper Mills on the banks of the River Croal

 

1828 The first steam driven weaving equipment to appear in Farnworth arrived. It was owned by pioneering mill owner Mr. J.R. Barnes

 

1828 In conjunction with Enoch Taylor, Thomas Bonsor Crompton patented a rotary paper cutter for sheeting paper from the roll.

 

1828 The Bolton and Leigh Railway which opened in 1828.

 

1828 After 1828 the pits at Chequerbent were served by the Bolton and Leigh Railway.

 

1828 Bolton Leigh railway opened but no evidence of a regular passenger service until joined with Manchester Liverpool railway 1831

 

1828 James Dorrian (1828-1895) was born in County Down, Ireland

 

Bolton and Leigh Railway

The Bolton and Leigh Railway was built in 1828 and claims to be the first public passenger railway.

The Bolton to Leigh railway started at Great Lever in Bolton, near to the Bolton Bury Manchester canal and terminating in Leigh near the Leeds Liverpool canal. George Stephenson carried out the survey.

The promoters of the railway were:- 

  • Cotton manufacturers: John Mawdsley, Thomas Holmes, William Morris.

  • Spinners: Thomas Bolling, Edward Bolling, William Bolling.

  • Bleachers: Richard Ainsworth, Peter Ainsworth, George Blair.

  • Calico printers: H. Duckworth.

  • Reed makers: William Pratt, Richard Taylor.

  • Vitriol and Bleaching power manufacturer: John Rainforth.

  • Iron founders: Joseph Cole, Isaac Dobson, Benjamin Dobson, Benjamin Hick, James Hilton, Peter Rothwell, William Swift, Thomas Thompson.

  • Colliery owners: William Hulton, John Booth.

  • Brewer: Matthew Carr Dawes.

  • Gasworks engineer and manager: Ralph Spooner.

  • Merchants: Will Bowker, Will Tickle, James Tickle.

  • Linen draper: Johnson Lomax.

  • Slate and Timber Merchants: James Gray.

  • Chemist: James Scowcroft.

The Bolton and Leigh Railway:  The first locomotive on the line was called the Lancashire Witch an 0-4-0 locomotive, which pulled wagons up a 1 in 33 gradient up Daubhill.

 

The Bolton and Leigh Railway: Early locomotives included Sans Pareil

 

1828 (7 Feb) Official opening of Little Bolton Town Hall. Little Bolton became a Parish in 1662

 

1828 (7 Feb) Little Bolton town hall officially opened.

 

1828 (29 May) The Bolton and Manchester Railway opened

 

1828 (2 Jun) Thomas Bazley (born 1797) married Mary Maria Sarah (1801–1897), the daughter of Sebastian Nash, a calico printer, of Clayton Mills.

 Their only child, Thomas Sebastian (1829–1919), was educated at Cambridge, entered the family firm, and in 1855 married the daughter of his father's partner, Elizabeth Gardner, before becoming a gentleman of leisure in Gloucestershire, and passing his declining years at Bournemouth and Torquay.

 

1828 (Jun) Lancashire Witch made its first run on the Bolton and Leigh railway

These are the promoters of the Bolton and Leigh railway:

Cotton manufacturers: John Mawdsley, Thomas Holmes, William Morris. Spinners: Thomas Bolling, Edward Bolling, William Bolling. Bleachers: Richard Ainsworth, Peter Ainsworth, George Blair. Calico printers: H.Duckworth. Reed makers: William Pratt, Richard Taylor. Vitriol and Bleaching power manufacturer: John Rainforth. Iron founders: Joseph Cole, Isaac Dobson, Benjamin Dobson, Benjamin Hick, James Hilton, Peter Rothwell, William Swift, Thomas Thompson. Colliery owners: William Hulton, John Booth. Brewer: Matthew Carr Dawes. Gasworks engineer and manager: Ralph Spooner. Merchants: Will Bowker, Will Tickle, James Tickle. Linen draper: Johnson Lomax. Slate and Timber Merchants: James Gray. Chemist: James Scowcroft.

 

William Swift

An iron founder, of Bolton

1828 One of the promoters of the Bolton and Leigh Railway

Presumably a member of Thompson, Swift and Cole

 

1828 (1 Jul) Bolton to Leigh Railway opened

 

1828 (1 Aug) 7.5 miles of freight railway opened.

 

1828 (1 Aug) The Bolton and Leigh Railway: The 7.5 miles of freight railway opened on August 1st 1828.

 

1828 (1 Aug) The first section of the Bolton to Leigh railway opened between Derby Street and William Hulton’s Collieries at Pendlebury Fold near Chequerbent

 

1828 Lancashire Witch (0-4-0) was the very first steam locomotive built by Robert Stephenson and Company at Newcastle-on-Tyne

It was used on the Bolton and Leigh railway and also on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway

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1828 The first steam weaving mill in Farnworth was opened in 1828 by James Rothwell Barnes, later becoming a spinning mill

 

Abt 1829 David Magee (or McGee) was born in Bolton

Died 1875.

 

1829 (29 Jul) George Woodhouse (1829 – 1883), English architect who practiced from offices in Bolton, and Oldham, then in the county of Lancashire, born at Lindley, near Huddersfield, the son of John Woodhouse (1788-1862) and Sarah Moor (1788-1875).                                          He collaborated with William Hill on the designs for Bolton Town Hall.         Baptised on 13 August 1829 in Zion Methodist New Connexion Chapel, Lindley.                                                                                        Died 3 Sep 1883.

 

1829 (19 Aug) Edward Moran, American artist, born in Bolton

Died 8 Jun 1901

 

1829 (Oct) The Rainhill Trials were an important competition run in October 1829, to test George Stephenson's argument that locomotives would provide the best motive power for the then nearly-completed Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR). Five locomotives were entered, running along a 1 mile (1.6 km) length of level track at Rainhill, in Lancashire (now Merseyside).

Stephenson's Rocket was the only locomotive to complete the trials, and was declared the winner. The directors of the L&MR accepted that locomotives should operate services on their new line, and George and Robert Stephenson were given the contract to produce locomotives for the railway.

Sans Pareil nearly completed the trials, though at first there was some doubt as to whether it would be allowed to compete as it was 300 pounds (140 kg) overweight. However, it did eventually complete eight trips before cracking a cylinder. Despite the failure it was purchased by the L&MR, where it ran for two years before being leased to the Bolton and Leigh Railway.

 

1829 Bolton Exchange was opened.

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1829 Mr Gee, the landlord of the Antelope Inn in Churchgate,  was fined £5 for allowing gambling on his premises. 

 

1829-1837 Robert Whitehead (1823-1905) – Bolton Grammar School from 1829 to 1837

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