HELENS (ST.), a market-town and chapelry in the
township of WINDLE, parish of PRESCOT, hundred of
WEST-DERBY, county palatine of LANCASTER, 4 miles
(N.E. by E.) from Prescot, 48 (S.) from Lancaster, and
198 (N.w.) from London. The population is returned
with Windle. This town, originally an inconsiderable
village, began to assume some importance about fifty
Years since; its enlargement and prosperity are chiefly
attributable to the introduction of different branches of
manufacture, but especially to that of glass, which had
been established in the vicinity. In 1773, an incor.-
porated company, styled the British Plate-Glass Company,
erected an extensive manufactory at Ravenhead,
in the township of Sutton, near this town, which
having failed, was .succeeded by another company,
formed in 1794, whose manufactory covers an area- of
nearly thirty acres, and is surrounded by a lofty .stone
wall, on the outside of which are the habitations of the
workmen: the erection of this building cost nearly
£40,000. This establishment is the largest of the kind
in England, and affords employment to upwards of
three hundred workmen: the first artisans were brought
from France, and the glass now produced is in all respects
equal, and in many superior, to the French and Venetian
plates. In 1789, a steam-engine was constructed for
grinding and polishing plate-glass, which performs the
work of one hundred and sixty men, and with greater
exactness. Plates of glass measuring one hundred and
forty inches by seventy-two, and concave and convex
mirrors, thirty-six inches in diameter, are made here; the
produce of the manufactory, consisting of crown, plate,
and flint glass, is chiefly sent to the company's warehouse
in London. In the same township, and in that
of Eccleston, are three other.manufactories for crown
and flint glass, and bottles: there are also several potteries,
breweries, and a cotton-mill in the neighbourhood;
many of which are worked by steam. The cheapness
and abundance of good coal, and the proximity of Liverpool,
have greatly contributed to the success of these
manufactories. About 1780, extensive works for smelting
and refining copper were established here by the
proprietors of the Parys mine, in Anglesea, who also had
one on a smaller scale near the Sankey canal, but both
these were discontinued in 1815. A customary market
is held on Saturday; and there are fairs on the Monday
and Tuesday after Easter-week, and on the first Friday
and Saturday after September 8th. At the courts leet and
baron of the lord of the manor of Windle, held in November,
peace officers are annually appointed for this district.
The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Chester, endowed with £ 600 private .benefaction,
£400 royal bounty, and £600 parliamentary
grant, and in the patronage of Trustees. The chapel
was originally dedicated to St. Helen, but on being
enlarged in 1816, it was dedicated anew to St. Mary.
There are places of worship for the Society of Friends,
Independents, and Wesleyan Methodists, and a chapel
for Roman Catholics; to the first of these is attached
a liberal endowment, the interest of which is appropriated
to charitable purposes. A free school is endowed
with property producing £26 per annum, for
the gratuitous instruction of twenty-five poor children
within the town, in reading, writing, and arithmetic: the
appointment of the master and the management of the
revenue of the charity are vested in the Trustees of the
chapel. A charity school was founded in 1714, by a
bequest from Sarah Cowley, who gave an estate at Hardshaw,
near St. Helen's, directing the proceeds to be applied
towards educating the children of poor parents belonging
to Windle: the property includes coal mines,
and, under a decree of the court of Chancery in 1826, a
fund is in process of accumulation, in order to provide
against the time when the coal mines shall be
exhausted There is a Roman Catholic free school; and
it is computed that in the various Sunday schools instruction
is afforded to about one thousand two hundred
children. The Sunday school in connexion with the
established church was erected by subscription and the
proceeds of a bazaar, in 1829, at an expense of nearly
£1000. In 1823, a charitable fund was established
for the relief of poor married women in child-birth, or
of widows who have lost their husbands during pregnancy.
A savings bank was opened in 1819.