LITTLEBOROUGH, a chapelry in that part of the
parish of ROCHDALE which is in the hundred of SALFORD,
county palatine of LANCASTER, 3 miles (N. E, by
E.) from Rochdale, with which the population is returned.
The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Chester, endowed with £600
private benefaction, £800 royal bounty, and £1300
parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Vicar
of Rochdale. The chapel, dedicated to St. James,
was licensed for mass by the abbey and convent of
Whalley, in 147'6; it was rebuilt about!815, in the early
style of English architecture, and has received an addition
of four hundred and one sittings, of which three
hundred are free, the Incorporated Society for the enlargement
of churches and chapels having granted £300
towards defraying the expense. There is a place of
worship for Wesleyan Methodists, Here' was a small
Roman station, and several antiquities have been found
in the vicinity; the Roman road from Manchester to
York skirts the village.