ECCLES, a parish in the hundred of SALFORD,
county palatine of LANCASTER, 4 miles (W.) from Manchester,
comprising the chapelries of Pendleton and
Worsley, and the townships of Barton, Clifton, and
Pendlebury, and containing 23,331 inhabitants. The
living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and
diocese of Chester, rated in the king's books at £6. 8.,
an<} in the patronage of the Crown. The church, dedicated
to St. Mary de Eccles, is in the later style of
English architecture, and belonged to Whalley abbey,
but at the dissolution it was made parochial. Independents,
Wesleyan Methodists, and Roman Catholics,
have each a place of worship, with a school attached.
There are manufactories for silk, nankeen, gingham, and
linen cloth; also a large cotton-mill, which affords employment
to about four hundred people. A school-room
in the church-yard was rebuilt by subscription in 1816,
and is partly supported by a bequest from James Bradshaw,
in 1800, of £8. 8. per annum, and partly from the
parish fund of benefactions; five hundred and thirty
children are taught at this school. The Manchester and
Liverpool rail-road passes close to the village. The abbot
and convent of Whalley established a small settlement
of monks at this place; a small portion of the building
remains, and forms part of a farm-house, bearing the
name of Monks Hall. Robert Ainsworth, author of the
Latin and English Dictionary, was born here in 1660.