Description
Leigh, a market-town, union, and parish in Lancashire. The town is on the L. & N.W.R., with two stations, 7 1/2 miles SW by S of Bolton-le-moors, and 194 from London. There are also stations on the Wigan Junction Line of the M. S. & L.R. Leigh is also a meeting-place for branches of the Bridgwater Canal (now belonging to the Manchester Ship Canal Company) and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. It is a seat of petty sessions and county court, and has a head post office. Three newspapers are published weekly. Four banks have branches here, and the Leigh Savings Bank is a flourishing institution. Public baths were erected in 1881. There are also a town-hall, drill-hall, Liberal and Conservative clubs, an assembly room, and a large technical school and free library. A weekly market is held on Saturdays, and there are cattle fairs on 24 April and 7 Dec. The principal industrial pursuits are cotton-spinning and weaving, silk-weaving, matting and brewing, and there are corn mills, iron foundries, and agricultural implement works, in addition to extensive collieries. The town comprises practically the townships of Westleigh, Pennington, and Bedford, with a portion of Atherton. The Leigh Local Board, constituted in 1875, consists of eighteen members. There is a cemetery, formed in 1856 and enlarged in 1891, for the townships of Westleigh, Pennington, Bedford, and Astley. The workhouse, erected in 1851 and enlarged in 1883, has accommodation For nearly 400 inmates. There is a grammar school, with a small endowment, which possesses a small but interesting library. The parish church, now dedicated to St Mary but formerly to St Peter, was rebuilt, with the exception of the tower, in 1873. It comprises nave, aisles, chancel, and chancel aisles, with embattled western tower, and is Perpendicular in style. It contains some good modern oak carving and a fine painted reredos. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Manchester; net value,, £823 with residence. Patron, Lord Lilford. St Thomas', Bedford; Christ Church, Pennington; and St Paul's and St Peter's, in the township of Westleigh, are modern. St Thomas', Bedford, was built in 1840, and is a poor building of brick. The living is a perpetual curacy; value, £310 with residence, in the gift of the Vicar of Leigh. Christ Church, Pennington, was erected in 1854; value, £300 with residence. Patrons, Simeon's Trustees. St Peter's, Westleigh, was built in 1881; value, £176, in the gift of the Bishop and Chancellor of the diocese and the Vicar of Leigh. St Paul's, Westleigh, was built in 1847, and until 1892 was a chapel of ease to Leigh; it then became a separate benefice; value, , £157. Patron, the Vicar of Leigh. In addition to these there are several places of worship belonging to various denominations, the finest of which, architecturally, are those of the Wesleyan Methodists, Trinity Chapel, Westleigh, and King Street, the latter erected in 1870 at a cost of upwards of, £9000. St Joseph's, Bedford, is the principal Roman Catholic building, there being also chapels at Westleigh and Plank Lane.
The parish contains, in addition to the townships of Westleigh, Pennington, Bedford, and Atherton, already named, Tyidesley and Astley. Atherton and Tyidesley have each their local board. Lord Lilford is lord of the manors of Atherton and Pennington, and in part of Westleigh. Acreage of Leigh Local Board district, 6192; population, 28,708.
Leigh Parliamentary Division, or South-West Lancashire, was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 65, 167. The division includes the following:- Astley, Atherton, Bedford, Culcheth, Kenyon, Lowton, Pennington, Tyidesley-with-Shakerley, West Leigh.
