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The Market Cross in Churchgate
was erected in 1912 at the expense of George Harwood, MP for
Bolton from 1895 until 1912. The present cross rises twenty feet
above its ten-feet diameter base and was unveiled on 16th October
1909. The stone came from Merrivale Quarries, near Princetown,
Devon. It replaced an earlier cross erected in 1486 which was
removed in 1786. Coachmen claimed that it caused congestion.
The old cross now stands in the grounds of Bolton School.
Also close to the site of
the cross stood The PILLORY, a wooden frame supported by an upright
post. Criminals would have their head and hands held in the holes
in the frame whilst the punishment was administered. In 1817
a man was pilloried and flogged by the BELLMAN. Fortunately this
form of punishment was abolished in 1837 |
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On the 15th October, 1651, JAMES,
EARL OF DERBY was executed at the Cross. His sentence had been
decided before his trial. According to the FARRINGTON PAPERS,
an official in London wrote to some of his Cromwellian friends
in Hamburg on the day of the trial and said, "Derby will
be tried at Chester and die at Bolton". After the execution
when the Earl's body lay in the coffin the following lines were
thrown into it, written by an unknown hand, "Wit, bounty,
courage, all three in one lie dead; a Stanley's hand, Vere's
heart, and Cecil's head". |
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JOHN WESLEY preached at the
cross on the 28th August, 1748, and he records his experience
in his Diary as follows:-
"At one I went to the
Cross at Bolton.
There was a vast number of people, but many of them utterly wild.
As soon as I began preaching they began thrusting to and fro;
endeavouring to throw me down from the steps on which I stood.
They did so once or twice; but I went up again and continued
my discourse. They began to throw stones; at the same time some
got upon the Cross behind me to push me down, on which I could
not but observe how God overruled even the minutest circumstances.
One man was bawling at my ear, when a stone struck him on the
cheek and he was still. A second was forcing his way down to
me, till another stone hit him on the forehead, it bounded back,
the blood ran down and he came no further. The third being got
close to me, stretched out his hand and in the instant a sharp
stone came upon the joints of his fingers, he shook his hand,
and was very quiet till I concluded my discourse and went away." |
Around the base of the cross
bronze shields convey a number of the principal dates in Bolton's
history:
1253 A.D. Bolton a Free Borough by Charter
1256 Charter for Market by Henry III to Bodelton (1)
1337 Flemish clothiers settled (2)
1513 'Lusty Lads from Bolton-i'th-Moors' (Ballad of Battle of
Flodden Field)
1540 'Bolton-upon-Moor standeth mostly by cottons and coarse
yarns' (Leland) (3)
1623 Lectureship founded for sermons at Cross
1631 Population 500 (4)
1641 Grammar School founded (5)
1643-4 During Civil War Bolton besieged thrice and taken once
with much slaughter
1651 James, seventh earl of Derby beheaded near this spot
1661 'Bolton hath a market on Mondays which is very good for
clothing and provisions and is a place of great trade for fustians'
(Blome's 'Britannia')
1753 Crompton, Inventor of the Spinning Mule, foundation of modern
Cotton Industry, born in Bolton
1760 Arkwright, founder of the Cotton Factory system, kept a
barber's Shop in Bolton
1763 Cotton Quiltings & muslins first made in Bolton (6)
1791 Canal to Bolton opened
1828 First Railway from Bolton opened
1832 First Parliamentary election, Population 41,195
1838 Charter of Incorporation
1842 Parliamentary enquiry about extreme distress in the town
1852 Adoption of Free Libraries Act
1861 Population 70,396
1872 First Extension of Bolton
1877 Further extension, Population 106,214
1898 Bolton again extended
1901 Population 168,215 |
(1) It was in 1251 that Henry
III granted a charter for a free warren, a market, and a fair
at Bolton.
(2) A statement often quoted, but according to the 'Bolton Survey'
(1353) 'There is a disputed tradition that some of the Flemish
weavers, invited to England under Edward III's Act of 1337, settled
in Bolton. Many Flemish weavers settled in East Lancashire about
the middle of the sixteenth century'.
(3) 1558, not 1540.
(4) Population probably higher than the figure given.
(5) Grammar School not founded in 1641 but pre-1516. Re-founded
in 1657.
(6) Muslins not made locally until the 1780s. Joseph Shaw of
Anderton had attempted and failed in 1764 to establish muslin
manufacture in the region. Samuel Oldknow commenced manufacture
of British muslins at Anderton in 1783. |
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For further information |
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Bolton Town Centre A modern History by Gordon Readyhough |
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Bolton Town Centre
History Trail Bolton
& District Civic Trust |
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