HORWICH, a chapelry in the parish of DEAN,
hundred of SALFORD, county palatine of LANCASTER,
4 miles (W. N. W.) from Great Bolton, containing
2873 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in
the archdeaconry and diocese of Chester, -endowed with
£400 private benefaction, and £400 royal bounty, and
in the patronage of the Vicar of Dean. A new district
church, or chapel, has been recently erected by the
commissioners for building churches. There are places
of worship for Independents, Presbyterians, and Wesleyan
Methodists. Bleaching and cotton-spinning are
carried on here to a considerable extent. Two stone
pillars on Wildersmoore hill are intended, according to
tradition, to record the death of two boys in the snow,
on going to the grammar school at Rivington.