TURTON, a chapelry in the parish of BOLTON, hundred
of SALFORD, county palatine of LANCASTER; 4
miles (N.) from Great Bolton, containing 2090 inhabitants.
The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Chester, endowed with £288. 9.9.
private benefaction, £200 royal bounty, and £200 parliamentary
grant, and in the patronage of the Lords of
the Manor. The chapel is dedicated to St. Bartholomew.
There is a place of worship for Unitarians. The
chapelry is bounded by two rivulets tributary to the
Irwell; these supply the power for various cottonspinning,
bleaching, dyeing, and printing works, of which
the most extensive are the Egerton spinning and dye
mills, worked by a powerful water-wheel: at these establishments
about one thousand persons are employed.
The weaving of cotton, by hand-looms, is extensively
carried on by the cottagers. A manorial court is held
twice a year; and there are fairs for cattle, horses', &c.,
on the 4th and 5th of September, at the village of Chapel
Town. Humphrey Cheetham, Esq., in 1746, endowed a
small school for clothingand teaching ten boys: a schooland
the copper head of an old British standard, have
been discovered. Turton Tower, an embattled structure,
four stories high, has been the residence of the Orrells'
the Cheethams, and the Greames, but is now occupied
as a farm-house.