WALTON-le-DALE, a chapelry in the parish
and lower division of the hundred of BLACKBURN,
county palatine of LANCASTER, 2 miles (S. E.) from
Preston, containing, according to the last census, 5740
inhabitants, since which period the number has increased
to about 7000. The living is a perpetual
curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Chester,
endowed with £1400 private benefaction, £800 royal
bounty, and £1300 parliamentary grant, and in the
patronage of the Vicar of Blackburn. The chapel, dedicated
to St. Leonard, is principally in the later style
of English architecture. It is situated on an eminence
which commands fine views of the vale of Ribble on
one side, and of the vale of Darwent on the other. Both
these vallies are extremely picturesque, the banks of
their respective rivers being steep and richly clothed
with wood. The back ground of the Ribble is formed
by the high and extensive ranges of Longridge and Pendie
and that of the Darwent by Billinge hill, and an
abrupt elevation crowned with the ruins of Houghtoa
Tower, the ancient baronial residence of the family <»
that name. Here are three large cotton-manufactories,
and several printing-establishmentSj affording employment,
to the greater portion of the inhabitants. There
is a National school in the village, capable of containing
one hundred and fifty children of each sex, established
and wholly supported by voluntary contributions; the
building is also used as a Sunday school. Another
school-house was built by subscription among the inhabitants
in 1672; it is endowed with about £16 per
annum, for teaching all children who apply. In 1701,
the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Derwentwater, and
other leaders of the Jacobites, incorporated themselves
by the style of the " Mayor and Corporation of the
ancient borough of Walton," and held their meetings
in a small public-house here, concealing their real motives
under the guise of ludicrous transactions; they
kept a register, a mace, a sword of state, and other,
mock insignia of office: the society, notwithstanding
the diminution of the number of its members by the unsuccessful
rebellion of 1715, existed till about thirty years
ago, when it was entirely dissolved. Walton is distinguished
as the scene of a, great battle, fought August
17th, 1648, between Cromwell and the Duke of Hamilton
j also for a gallant achievement performed, in 1715,
by General, or Parson, Wood and his congregation, in
defending the passage of the Ribble against the Scottish
rebels.