BLACKROD, a chapelry in the parish of BOLTON, hundred of SALFORD, county palatine of LANCASTER, 4 miles (S. S. E.) from Chorley, containing 2436 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Chester, endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Vicar of Great Bolton. The chapel is dedicated to St. Catherine. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. This is the site of a Roman station, named Coccium by Antonine, and Rigodunum by Ptolemy, which was situated on the Watling-street. The spinning of cotton, and the printing of calico, are carried on within the chapelry, its trade being facilitated by a branch of the Lancaster canal, which crosses it A fair for toys and pedlary is held on the first Thuisl day after July 12th. A respectable free grammar school under the superintendence of trustees, is endowed with about £140 per annum, being the produce of various benefactions. John Holmes, in 1568, founded an exhibition at Pembroke College, Cambridge, for a scholar on this foundation; the fund having accumulated three exhibitioners are now appointed, receiving respectively £60, £70, and £80, per annum, for four years. The house for the master was rebuilt in 1798.