BLACKLEY, a chapelry in the parish of MANCHESTER, hundred of SALFORD, county palatine of LANCASTER, 3 miles (N. N. E.) from Manchester, containing 2911 inhabitants.. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Chester, endowed with £200 royal bounty, and £600 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Warden and Fellows of the Collegiate Church of Manchester. The chapel, dedicated to St. Peter, was, previously to the Reformation, a domestic chapel belonging to Blackley Hall, and, after a period of disuse, was purchased by the inhabitants, in 1610: it has lately received an addition of four hundred sittings, half of them free, toward defraying the expense of which the Incorporated Society for the enlargement of churches and chapels gave £400. There are places of worship for Wesleyan Methodists and Socinians. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in weaving, printing, bleaching, and dyeing cotton. A school, in connexion with the established church, has an endowment of £5 per annum, and is further supported by contributions: the schoolroom was built in 1794.