Sharples, Lancashire

Description
Sharples, a township in Bolton-le-Moors parish, Lancashire. It lies 2 1/4 miles N of Bolton station, on the L. & Y.R. and L. & N.W.R., and its post town and money order and telegraph office is Astley Bridge, under Bolton. It contains the villages of Belmont, Banktop, Sweet Loves, High Houses, Gale, Folds, Piccadilly, Water Meetings, Old Houses, and part of Astley Bridge. Acreage, 5051; population, 6981. There are cotton mills, calico print-works, and extensive bleach-works. Eden's Orphanage School at Astley Bridge was erected in 1879, at the cost of over £12,000, and was enlarged in 1885 and again in 1890. The township forms with, and under the name of, Astley Bridge an ecclesiastical parish. Population, 6239. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Manchester; net value, £290 with residence. Patron, the Crown and the Bishop alternately. There are Baptist, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan chapels at Astley Bridge. Belmont was constituted a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1861. Population, 818.