RIBCHESTER, a parish comprising the township
of Alston with Hatherall, in the hundred of AMOUNDERNESS,
and the townships of Dilworth, Dutton, and
Ribchester, in the lower division of the hundred of
BLACKBURN, county palatine of LANCASTER, and containing
4198 inhabitants-, of which number, 1760 are
in the township of Ribchester, 6 miles (N. N. W.) from
Blackburn. The living is a discharged vicarage, with
the perpetual curacy of Stidd annexed, in the archdeaconry
of Richmond, and diocese of Chester, and in the
patronage of the Bishop of Chester. The church is
dedicated to St. Wilfrid. This was a place of consequence
in the time of the Romans, the Coccium of
Antoninus, ranking as one of their first cities in Britain;
in proof of which, numerous relics of antiquity have
been and are still met with, such as ruins of temples,
statues, coins, altars, and inscriptions. There are several
cotton manufactories, also quarries of slate and stone,
and the streams of the rivers Calder, Holder, and
Ribble, wind through the parish. John Dewhurst, in
1771, founded a free school for poor children of the
townships of Ribchester, Dutton, and Hathersall; the
income is £19 a year.