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1860s In the early 1860s the town’s mayor, Alderman James Wolfenden, championed the idea of a new town hall on the site of the old pot market. What is now Victoria Square was, at that time, the town’s market place.

 

1860s The Railway Tavern opened in the 1860s.

 

Up to 1860, Rothwell’s built more than 200 locomotives, including 40 broad gauge engines for the Bristol and Exeter Railway.

 

1860 (1 Jan) John Cassidy, Irish sculptor and painter, born in Littlewood Commons, Slane, County Meath, the son of Patrick Cassidy, a farmer and his wife Jane, nee McGorisk

Statue of Sir Benjamin Dobson in Victoria Square, Bolton

Died 19 Jul 1939 in hospital in Whalley Range, Manchester

Buried at Southern Cemetery, Manchester

 

1860 (12 Apr) In 1860 John Horrocks Ainsworth invited an independent inspection of his works after becoming incensed at adverse comments about conditions in cotton works and the report of 12th April, 1860 was very complimentary,                                    "In no one building is there a lack of anything that could add to the comfort and happiness of those in his employ….we found health everywhere visible and bright eyes and merry faces bounding with health and blooming with beauty."                 

 

1860 (28 May) Samuel Chatwood’s first lock patent was taken out

 

1860 (14 Jun) John James Bentley, journalist and football administrator, was born at Chapel Town, Turton, Lancashire, the third of four sons of John Bentley, a grocer, and his wife, Ann Beavan.     A keen footballer, he became club secretary of Bolton Wanderers in 1885.                                                                              Died 1918

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1860 (14 Jul) The first meeting of the newly formed Southport branch of the RNLI was held.

 

1860 (24 Aug) Jesse Hartley (1780 – 1860), Civil Engineer and Superintendent of the Concerns of the Dock Estate in Liverpool, England between 1824 and 1860, died.

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1860 (Aug) St Edmund's Church was founded from Ss Peter and Paul Church. In August 1860, the foundation stone of St Edmund's Church was laid by the Bishop of Salford, William Turner on Grime Street (which was later renamed St Edmund Street).                                 It was finished in 1861. Originally, it had the school situated on the lower storey of the church. In the early twentieth century, the school was relocated, and the lower storey became the parish hall. In the 1960s, the hall was extended, and the church was reordered.

 

1860 (6 Sep) Farnworth Streets started to be lit by gas from September 6th 1860, Thomas Brown from Kearsley was the first lamplighter.

 

1860 James Knowles, Mayor of Bolton 1855-1857, a keen supporter of the National Lifeboat Institute, gave £190 to provide a new lifeboat for Southport – the “Jessie Knowles” named for, and launched by, his daughter – which took part in the saving of 75 lives before being replaced in 1874

 

1860 Farnworth streets were lit by gas.

 

1860 Henry Lee had bought a small weaving shed in the Daubhill area in 1860.

 

1860 Bleaching and Dyeing Works Act

The application of factory legislation to bleach-works, imposed a necessity for regular and stated hours of work, and still further stimulated the production of apparatus and arrangements for prompt and certain completion of the various operations.

 

1860 Over 2000 million yards of cloth were exported from Lancashire

 

1860 Two brothers, William and Joshua Leigh, started a company that primarily concentrated on buildings and property.

Paint making was a sideline

 

1860’s Bolton cotton manufacturers began to trade with cotton merchants in Alexandria, Egypt.

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1861 (17 Mar) On 17 March 1861, St Patrick’s Church in Bolton opened.                                                                              Originally, the school was founded around the same time and housed in a three-storey warehouse.

 

1861 (2 Apr) Chung Ling Soo was the stage name of the American magician William Ellsworth Robinson (1861 – 1918), who is mostly remembered today for his death after a bullet catch trick went wrong, born.                                                                                       Died 24 Mar 1918.

 

1861 (5 May) Thomas Hayton Mawson, British garden designer, landscape architect and town planner, born at Scorton, Lancashire

Died 14 Nov 1933.

 

1861 (10 Jul) Sir Thomas Evans Flitcroft (1861-1938) Mayor of Bolton: 1926-28 (Liberal), born: 31 Bury Street, Bolton 10 July 1861

 

1861 (19 Aug) John Charles Wright, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, born in Bolton, Lancashire

The son of Rev Joseph Farrall Wright (1827-1883) and his wife Harriet, nee Swallow

Died 24 Feb 1933                                                                       

 

1861 (20 Aug) Dr James Young born in Bolton, son of Bolton brewer and cotton spinner William Young.

Mayor of Bolton: 1911-13 (Conservative)

Died 28 Oct 1917

 

1861 (9 Sep) The new lifeboat “Jessie Knowles” came into service.

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1861 (12 Oct) The corner stone of Park St. Chapel, Bolton, was laid on October 12th, 1861, by Mr. Robert Knowles. (> 4 Mar 1863)

 

1861 (12 Dec) John Parkinson, architect, born in the small village of Scorton, Lancashire

At sixteen he was apprenticed for six years to J. J. Bradshaw, a contractor/builder in nearby Bolton, where he learned the meaning of craftsmanship and gained a strong knowledge of practical construction. Simultaneously, he attended night school at Bolton’s Mechanics Institute, where he developed architectural drafting and engineering skills.

He emigrated to America where he designed a number of high-rise buildings including Los Angeles City Hall (1928)

Died 9 Dec 1935

 

1861 The Bolton Union Workhouse was founded, replacing former Bolton Workhouse, in Minerva Road, Farnworth, Bolton. It was known as Fishpool Workhouse, administered by the Bolton Board of Guardians.
Later renamed Minerva Day Hospital. 

 

1861 Egyptian Mill was built just off Blackburn Road in 1861.          It ceased to be used as a textile mill around 1960. It has been used for storage

 

1861 Bolton Institute workhouse built at Fishpool farm on the Farnworth border to replace a workhouse in Fletcher Street and a “Casual or Tramp Ward” on Kings Gate (King Street in the Bolton town centre?). This was not at this stage a hospital or infirmary. (see 1875)

 

1861 Elisha Sumner died

 

1861 The tomb of Samuel Crompton was erected

It was paid for by workers from Dobson and Barlow’s textile engineering firm

The gravestone reads: Beneath this stone are interred the mortal remains of Samuel Crompton, of Bolton, late of Hall i'th' Wood, in the township of Tonge, inventor of the Spinning Machine called the Mule; who departed this life on the 26th day of June 1827, aged 72 years. "Mors Ultimo Linea Rerum Est."

The Latin means “Death is the last boundary of human affairs”

For some reason they inscribed “72 years” when it should have read “74 years”

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1861 St Edmund's Church Bolton finished. (<Aug 1860)

 

1861 St Patrick's Church is a Roman Catholic Church in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. It was built in 1861 and is a Gothic Revival style building. It is situated on the corner of Great Moor Street and Johnson Street, to the west of Bradshawgate in the centre of the town.

 

1861-1863 James Rawsthorne Wolfenden - Mayor of Bolton

 

1861-1865 Cotton Famine

 

1862 (25 Jan) John Holden was born in Halliwell, the son and grandson of operative cotton spinners.

While attending St. Paul’s School, Astley Bridge, he became a half timer at Hesketh’s Mill.

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1862 (23 Mar) James Kenyon "Kenny" Davenport (1862 – 1908), English international footballer who played as an inside right, born in the Deane area of Bolton.                                                           Died 29 Sep 1908.

 

1862 (14 Jun) James Barlow laid the foundation stone of Edgworth Wesleyan Chapel

 

1862 (24 Sep) The Statue of Samuel Crompton, inventor of the Spinning Mule, by William Calder Marshall was formally presented to Bolton by Henry Ashworth and accepted by James Rawsthorne Wolfenden as Mayor.

Wolfenden had also been a leading figure in having the statue commissioned and his name is recorded on the rear of the plinth.

 

1862 (23 Oct) Robert Heywood made the gift of a free recreation ground at Lever Street, Bolton – Heywood Park, popularly known as “Bobby Heywood’s Park”

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1862 A statue of Samuel Crompton (1753-1827) was erected in Nelson Square.

Samuel Crompton’s was the first public statue to be erected in Bolton. But the unassuming inventor of the spinning mule never earned the recognition he deserved during his lifetime.

 

1862 Col Ernest William Greg, born in Styal, Wilmslow, Cheshire    Sewing cotton manufacturer. Director of James Chadwick and Brother Ltd, Eagley Mills.                                                                    Chairman of Turton Urban District Council: 1926-28                 Died: 4 September 1934.

 

1862 Statue of Samuel Crompton dedicated in Nelson Square                                                                                              

 

1862 English firm of architects Bradshaw Gass & Hope founded by Jonas James Bradshaw (1837-1912) They have practiced from their current offices in Silverwell Street, Bolton, since 1871. The firm was probably the first ‘modern’, truly multidisciplinary practice with separate departments of Architects, Quantity Surveyors, Structural and Services Engineers.

 

1862 William Rimmer, composer and conductor of brass band music, born in Southport.                                                        His father was bandmaster of the Lancashire Volunteer Rifles

Died 1936 Southport

 

1862-1867 Between 1862 and 1867 Tootal Broadhurst Lee Ltd.  built Sunnyside Mills which worked in the textile industry until 1980.  

 

1863 (24 Jan) Thomas Ridgway Bridson, cotton bleacher, died of heart disease at his home at Mornington House, Southport.

 His body was taken by special train to Bolton, and then by hearse to Holy Trinity Church, Horwich, where it was interred in the family vault.

 

1863 (26? /28? Feb) Charles Allen Clarke, journalist, author and dialect writer, born at 58 Parrot Street, Bolton, Lancashire, the eldest of nine children of Joseph Clarke, a cotton mule spinner, and his wife, Martha, née Marsh, also a factory worker. The journalist Thomas Clarke (1884–1957) was his youngest brother.

Educated St Matthew’s School; Hulton Secret School, Bolton

Died 12 Dec 1935 St Ives Avenue, Blackpool, Lancashire.

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1863 (4 Mar) Park St Chapel, Bolton was opened, the preacher being the Rev. C. Priest, president of the Conference. (<12 Oct 1861)

 

1863 (3 Apr) George Herbert Woodhouse was born in Bolton, the son of George Woodhouse, architect of Bolton, and his wife Ellen Pigott.                                                                                  He died in Eastbourne on 23 April 1925

 

1863 (21 Dec) Annie Elizabeth Finney Barlow born in Edgworth, Lancashire, the youngest child of textile magnate James Barlow.

Began to take an interest in Egypt, which she visited in 1887

She donated her finds to the Chadwick Museum

Died 26 Jun 1941

 

1863 St Stephens School, Kearsley Moor was established

(>1877)

 

1863 Jeremiah Marsden (born 1820) entered into partnership with Henry Chandler & Co, Cotton Spinners, Hope Mills Folds Road.

 

1863 Alfred Heaton Cooper, landscape painter and book illustrator, born in Swinton, Lancashire

Brought up in Bolton from 1867

Died 1929 Cross Bow, Ambleside

 

1863 In 1863, Miss Helme was prosecuted for allowing her pub to be open before midday on a Sunday. Opening hours in those days were quite liberal the exception being on a Sunday morning when people were expected to be at church and pubs were forced to close.

 

1863 Sans Pareil  was used by John Hargreaves as a stationary boiler at the Coppull Colliery, Chorley until 1863

 

1863-1867 Alfred Barnes (1831-1893), Chairman of Farnworth Local Board:1863-1867 (Liberal).

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1864 (Mar) Bolton: Messrs. Musgrave and Sons took up the cotton spinning business, beginning with the erection of the No. 1 Atlas Mill, fronting Chorley Old Road, Halliwell, which was first put in operation about March, 1864; and the venture proving successful, fresh mills were added, the last extension to the spinning department being in 1887, when a sixth factory, for about one hundred thousand mule spindles, was constructed, which has been popularly called the 'Jubilee Mill.'

 

1864 (8 Jun) Jeremiah Marsden (born 1820) married Anne Whittaker (born Abt 1833) at Park Street Wesleyan Chapel, Bolton, Lancashire.

 

1864 (Jul) Robert "Bob" Roberts (1864 – 1932) , Welsh professional footballer, born.                                                                     He played at wing half for several clubs, spending most of his career with Bolton Wanderers in the English Football League. He made a total of ten appearances for Wales.                                              Died 15 Mar 1932.

 

1864 (Sep) In September, 1864, John Redmayne passed his preliminary examinations at the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow.

 

1864 (12 Oct) Central Park/Farnworth Park opened.

Gifted to the town by Thomas Barnes, MP

 

1864 (Oct) Farnworth Park was opened amid great festivities in October 1864 by William Ewart Gladstone. A gift from Thomas Barnes (1812 - 1897) to commemorate his father and celebrate the coming of age of his only child, James Richardson Barnes, and was inspired by seeing children playing in the dirty, busy streets of the town. Some sources say that around 50,000 people attended the opening, while others indicate 100,000.

 

1864 The London and North Western Railway built the Tyldesley Loopline in 1864,

 

1864 Sans Pareil was restored and presented to the Patent Office Museum (what became the Science Museum) in 1864 by John Hick.

 

1864 St James church, New Bury founded.

 

1864 Bury’s Victorian public baths, which was situated in St Mary’s Place, Bury. The building was built in 1864 and served Bury & Elton Amateur Swimming Club  well until 1976.

 

1865 (21 Nov) Albert Ward (1865 – 1939), English first-class cricketer, born in Waterloo, Leeds, Yorkshire, England.                  He played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club in 1886, and for Lancashire between 1889 and 1904.                      Died 6 Jan 1939.

 

1865 (22 Dec) Fish market opened

It was built alongside the market hall

Demolished around 1930

 

1865 (30 Dec) St. James's Church, New Bury was consecrated 

 

1865 The last Ainsworth family member left Moss bank House in 1865; it was then let out to various tenants

 

1865 Bridge Street Fish Market opened alongside the Market Hall.

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1865 George Munro & Co. bought the Bay Horse in Deansgate.

 

1865 James Brogan, Scottish footballer, born in Beith, Scotland.       He played for the majority of his career at Bolton Wanderers. He played mostly as an inside-left or outside-left.

 

1865-1868 Harrison Blair - First Chairman of Kearsley Local Board

 

1865-1870 James Rawsthorne Wolfenden built Marsh Fold Mill  1865-1870.

 

1866 (24 May) Bolton Park, now named Queen's Park, which was opened on May 24th 1866 by Lord Bradford.

 

1866 (24 May) Lord Bradford opened Bolton Park on 24 May 1866. It was renamed in 1897 in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

 

1866 (25 Jul) Shopkeeper Alfred Langshaw died suddenly aged 28 years. He was a chemist, druggist and grocer with premises on Deansgate, separated from the Blue Boar Inn by Dukes Alley Entry.  One of the products which he handled in the normal course of his business was naptha, also known as coal spirit; this was a highly inflammable substance when in contact with a naked flame. There was no law to prevent its being stored close to dwellings (as there was for petroleum) and Alfred kept a 100-gallon cask of it in a shed at the back of his shop. It was delivered to him in 30-gallon drums which he stood temporarily in Dukes Alley Entry while he transferred the contents by a system of tubes into his storage tank. Just across the entry was a small cottage inhabited by John Spencer an ex-sawyer now crippled, and his wife Ann. On the afternoon of 25th July,1866 a large fire was burning in the cottage grate so that Mrs. Spencer could carry out her trade as a washerwoman.                           Alfred Langshaw was transferring naptha from a drum in Dukes Alley Entry when he was interrupted in order to bandage William Cross’s injured hand. The naptha overflowed, gas fumes spread from it into the cottage and were ignited by the domestic fire. Flames spread to the naptha running down the entry. Alfred tried to put out the fire, helped by William Cross and some other men, but the whole barrel exploded, killing Langshaw, Cross and the Spencers. The fire was brought under control by the fire brigade, but several people were badly burned. Alfred Langshaw's body was identified only by the truss he wore, his watch and pocket knife.                               Many witnesses gave evidence at the inquest the following day and the jury returned a verdict of 'accidental death', though if Langshaw had not been killed, the coroner would have advised the jury to bring in a verdict of manslaughter against him.        Mrs Langshaw was left with two small sons, one aged 4 years and the other, four months. The younger child, Walter, died three months later, and was buried with his father.

 

1866 (23-25 Aug) Thomas Henry Rushton (1845-1903) played for XXII of Bolton against the All England XI, scoring 5 and 0

 

1866 (3 Nov) Joseph Sharman (1841-1916) and Mary Ann Butler were married on 3 Nov 1866 in Registry Office, Bolton, Lancashire.

 

1866 (30 Nov) Sarah Jane [Jennie] Baines (nee Hunt), suffragette and social reformer, was born in Birmingham, the daughter of James Edward Hunt, gun maker, and his wife, Sarah Ann, née Hunt.           At twenty she was assigned to caring for women charged in court and was appointed evangelist to an independent working men's mission in Bolton                                                                      Died 20 Feb 1951

 

1866 Lostock became a civil parish

 

1866 James Seddon (born 1852) apprenticed as stonemason to Bolton Corporation

 

1866 Rothwells was awarded a £54,700 contract to build eight gigantic steam beam engines, pumping engines and twelve steam boilers for Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s vast rebuild of the main sewerage system in London. These survived until the early 1930s when they were replaced with diesel engines.

 

1866 Queen’s Park opened

Built on the valley slope of the River Croal.

Originally called Bolton Park. In honour of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Year it was renamed in 1897.

 

1866 Master iron manufacturer Thomas Walmsley (1812-1890) founded Atlas Forge in Bolton 1866.

 

1866 or 1869 Thomas Walmsley and Sons was a company that manufactured wrought iron. It was founded in 1866 or 1869 by Thomas Walmsley at the Atlas Forge on a site bounded by Bridgeman Street and Fletcher Street in Bolton, then in Lancashire, England.

 

1867 (20 Feb) William Thomasson OBE JP (1867 – 1940), British trade unionist, born in Bolton, Lancashire, England, to John and Jane Thomasson.                                                                             Died 19 Mar 1940.

 

1867 (19 Mar) Tuesday – The first edition of “The Bolton Evening News”.

 Britain’s first community evening halfpenny newspaper.  Founded by the Tillotson family – with the front page entirely devoted to adverts. Launched by W F Tillotson in Mawdsley Street

 

1867 (19 Mar) Newspapers: The Bolton Evening News the first evening daily paper for Bolton began on 19th March 1867 by John Tillotson and son price 1/2d. It was enlarged on 10th July the same year and has continued ever since as a most successful speculation by W F Tillotson at his extensive premises in Mawdsley Street.

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1867 (Dec) William Inglis (1835-1890) was appointed the engineering manager of, and ultimately a partner in, the Soho Iron-Works, Bolton, Messrs. Hick, Hargreaves and Co. 

 

1867 The Reform Act was eventually passed by a Conservative government led by Disraeli. It gave the vote to all property owners and renters as long as their property or rent was worth a certain amount. One in three men — including the “respectable” working class — could now vote in urban areas.

 

1867 Admiral Sir William Edmund Goodenough GCB MVO born

Senior Royal Navy officer of World War One

Gave a talk “The Navy At War” on 23 Oct 1941 at the Victoria Hall, Bolton

Died 1945

 

1867 Tyldesley Coal Company opened Shakerley Colliery near Shakerley Little Common in 1867, which had the first iron headgear in the country but finished operating in 1878.

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1867-1869 James Barlow – Mayor of Bolton (Liberal)

 

1868 (19 Feb) Edmund Ashworth (1833-1901) married Margaret Elizabeth Hick (1847-1929), daughter of John Hick (of Hick Hargreaves engineering).

 His sister, Rebecca Maria Ashworth, became John Hick's second wife in 1874 and was therefore also Edmund's mother-in-law.

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1868 (22 Apr) The opening services were held at the Astley Bridge Methodist Church, Seymour Road. The preacher being the Rev. J. Rattenbury, a leading Wesleyan Methodist minister of his day. 

 

1868 (12 Aug) James Barlow opened the New Post Office

 

1868 (28 Aug) James Barlow opened the Corporation Gas Offices

 

1868 (8 Sep) Newspapers: The Bolton Daily Chronicle began 8th September 1868 by the Executor of the late James Hudsmoth, price 1/2d and, being established as a temporary publication only for the purpose of the general election, ceased on 31st December, but was founded as a permanent evening daily on 8th August 1879 and was still having a wide and successful circulation in 1881.

 

1868 (25 Nov) Charles James Darbishire along with his brother Samuel Dukinfield Darbishire gave a public playground off Waterloo Street to the town. This was Darbishire Recreation Ground

Also known as Bobby Legs Park among local children because of a particularly tall and diligent park keeper called Robert.

 

1868 (1866?) old Parish Church demolished.

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1868 An Anglo-Saxon cross found during the construction of St Peter's Church in 1868. 

 

1868 Joseph Sharman founded the Compton Brewery, Mill Street, Bolton Greater Manchester in 1868.

 

1868 The largest and longest lasting chemical works in Little Lever was in Church Street, located on land between the canal and Lever Hall farm. It was established in 1868 by F.W. Graham.

It failed and was rescued by a partnership of Crompton and Potter. Edmund Peel Potter became the sole owner and expanded the business, manufacturing acid and alkali for the cloth bleaching industry.

 

1868 Bolton Evening News- founder member of the Press Association

 

1868-1874 John Hick - MP for Bolton

 

1869 (14 May) Captain Sir Arthur Henry Rostron, born in Astley Bridge, north of Bolton

Educated at Bolton School from 1882-1883 and the Astley Bridge High School

Was a captain for the Cunard Line and was master of the ocean liner RMS Carpathia when it rescued the survivors from the RMS Titanic in 1912

Died 4 Nov 1940 of pneumonia at Southampton, England

 

1869 (5-7 Aug) Thomas Henry Rushton (1845-1903) played for XXII of Bolton against the All England XI making 30, the top score for his side.

 

1869 (1 Sep) On 1 September 1869, the process began whereby every beerhouse in Bolton had to re-apply for their licence.

 

1869 (30 Oct) The corner-stone of All Saints Church, Little Bolton laid

 

1869 (6 Nov) The foundation stone for the Parish Church of St Luke’s, Halliwell was laid by Mr. Peter Ainsworth, J.P., of Smithills Hall.

 

1869 (2 Dec) Jim Cassidy, Scottish footballer, born in Kilmarnock.    He played most of his career as a centre-forward for Bolton Wanderers in the late 19th century.

 

1869 The Bark Street Tavern was very nearly shut down in 1869. That was when licensing magistrates were given the power to close down beerhouses. Previously, they were in business on payment of a two-guinea fee and other than that there was very little way of closing them down. But a good number were indeed closed down in Bolton in 1869 and the Bark Street Tavern was almost one of them.             At issue was the sale of alcohol on Sunday mornings. At that time, pubs were able to open pretty much when they pleased from Monday morning until midnight on Saturday night. But Sundays – and in particular Sunday mornings when people were expected to be in church - were a different matter.                                                     On 1 September 1869, the process began whereby every beerhouse in Bolton had to re-apply for their licence. With a surname close to the top of the alphabet, James Albinson’s was the one of the first cases to be heard. He stated that he had worked at Messrs Dobson’s for Mr William Taylor for 14 years and previously for his uncle, John Albinson (the 1861 census shows James Albinson as a junior partner in a small iron foundry).  But the police objected to James Albinson’s licence. They said the Bark Street Tavern had been troublesome, that the beerhouse had ‘watchers’ stationed there on a Sunday morning to watch out for any approaching officers. It was because of these watchers that the police constables were unable to get at the pub to ascertain whether or not any illegal drinking was going on. Men had also been congregating around the pub at times when they ought not to be. In his defence, Mr Albinson said that there were two yards at the pub – it was essentially two premises converted into one - and he said he would do whatever he could in order that the bench might remove the objection. But if James Albinson had been selling beer on a Sunday morning then his system of watchers had done their job effectively. He had never been fined for any illegal activity, nor was the beerhouse used by thieves and prostitutes, another reason licenses were objected to. The bench, which included a notable teetotaller in the shape of Mayor James Barlow, allowed the licence to stand

 

1869 In 1869, all the town’s beerhouses had to re-apply for their licences. The licence of the Papermakers was objected to on the grounds that Police Constables Dearden and Fletcher had seen prostitutes drinking at the pub.

An appeal on November of that year failed and Robert Lever went back to being a papermaker.

 

1869 Preston’s opens on Bradshawgate

 

1869 James Preston, a master Goldsmith and diamond merchant, opened his doors at 2 Deansgate, Bolton

It was to become one of the most successful and famous jewellery stores in the country (> 1905)

 

1869 James Barlow attended the first court session at the new County Court in Mawdsley Street

 

1869 Blackrod had seven pits.

 

1869 In 1869, the front cover of Illustrated London News reported on a near-tragedy at a performance of Pablo Fanque's Circus in Bolton. A tightrope walker, Madame Caroline, stumbled on the rope, and then hung suspended 60 feet in the air by her hands. The rope was lowered a few feet and then, at the exhortation of men who had amassed below, Madame Caroline fell safely into the hands of the crowd.

 

1869 Edmund Ashworth (1800-1881) advocated a self-governing constitution for India on the Canadian model. Speaking at the Temperance Hall in Bolton in 1869 he said "A nation grew rich by the industry of its people and not by the sword; and if they governed India by the sword, they would accomplish nothing."

 

1869 The Oak – also known as the Royal Oak – was situated at 73 Bury Old Road. The first mention we have of the pub is in 1869 when the landlord, Thomas Brooks, was re-applying for his beerhouse licence. The police raised a number of objections. Mr Brooks, they said, had been fined twice: once for 10 shillings, the second time for £5 plus costs. There was a gang of drunken men constantly in the vicinity of the pub many of whom occupied a private house next door. The pub was in the habit of serving on Sunday mornings and on one occasion Mr Brooks’s wife Jane had been seen taking a jug into the house in question one Sunday. But despite Mr Brooks’s application being rejected he won an appeal and was allowed to continue trading.

 

1869-1871 Thomas Walmsley (1812-1890)- Mayor of Bolton: 1869-71 (Conservative)

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1869-1871 Thomas Walmsley – Mayor of Bolton

He founded the Atlas Forge in Bridgeman Street. The concrete Statue of Atlas in St George’s Street originally stood there.

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