ELTON
Elton, 1275.
This L-shaped township stretches westward from
Bury for about 3 miles, and northward for 2½ miles,
and has an area of 2,553 acres. (fn. 1) The part near Bury
has long been urban, and indistinguishable from Bury
proper except by the Irwell's course. The surface in
the western limb rises gradually till 800 ft. is attained
in the north-west corner at Bowstone Hill; in this
portion are Elton proper and Walshaw Lane. The
northern limb, bounded on the east by the Irwell,
also rises to the west, over 400 ft. being attained;
this portion contains Brandlesholme in the centre,
with Woodhill to the south and Summerseat to the
north. The population of the registration district
was 13,997 in 1901.
From Bury Bridge the roads spread out to the north,
north-west, west, and south-west, to Haslingden,
Blackburn, and Bolton. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's Bolton and Bury line crosses the
south-eastern corner. The Bury and Bolton Canal,
opened in 1796, starts in this township near Bury
Bridge, and proceeds along the western bank of the
Irwell; there is a large reservoir for it on the border
of Elton and Radcliffe.
In 1666 there were seventy-five hearths to contribute to the tax, including Thomas Greenhalgh's
house with twelve, Thomas Symonds's, six, and Roger
Kay's of Woodhill, six. (fn. 2)
The cotton manufacture is the chief industry, with
bleaching and dyeing; there are iron-foundries and
paper-works.
The Wellington Barracks are the dépôt of the
20th Regimental District Lancashire Fusiliers.
The recreation ground was the gift of Mr. Henry
Whitehead of Haslem Hey.
Elton has now disappeared as a township, the greater
part having been added to the borough of Bury, but
part to Ainsworth and other townships. (fn. 3)
Manors
There does not appear to have been
any manor of ELTON, although in the
13th century a family occurs bearing the
local surname. (fn. 4) Elton was considered a hamlet of
Bury, and its manorial history is involved in the
latter's. (fn. 5)
The estate of BRANDLESHOLME in Elton,
however, was called a manor. Its early possessors (fn. 6)
gave way to the Greenhalghs, who retained it till
the beginning of the 18th century. But little is
known of this family, who are said to have sprung up
in Tottington, (fn. 7) until the 16th century. Henry de
Greenhalgh and Alice his wife made settlements of
their estate in Bury and Tottington in 1397 and
1398. (fn. 8) Thomas Greenhalgh died at Brandlesholme
on 18 July 1576, holding the manor, with various
messuages and lands, of Henry, Earl of Derby, as lord
of Bury, in socage by a rent of 2s. a year. John his
son and heir was about twenty-six years of age. (fn. 9) John
Greenhalgh was buried on
21 January 1614–15; (fn. 10) but
his son Thomas had died in
1591, (fn. 11) leaving an infant son
John to succeed his grandfather. The family were in
the service of the Earls of
Derby, (fn. 12) and John Greenhalgh
was in 1640 appointed Governor of the Isle of Man; (fn. 13) and
holding this office at the time
of the Civil War, his estates in
Lancashire were seized by the
Parliamentary authorities. He
died in the island 16 September 1651, (fn. 14) and was
succeeded by his grandson Thomas, son of Richard
Greenhalgh, born in 1633. (fn. 15)
Greenhalgh of Brandlesholme. Argent on a bend sable three hunting borns stringed of the field.
Thomas Greenhalgh recorded a pedigree in 1664, (fn. 16)
and married Elizabeth elder child of Dr. Henry
Bridgeman, Dean of Chester and Bishop of Man, by
whom he had a large family. (fn. 17) He was sheriff of the
county in 1667–8. (fn. 18) In his will, dated 1692, John
his son is named as the heir, (fn. 19) but appears to have died
without issue, as Henry, another son, is described as.
of Brandlesholme in 1728. On his dying intestate,
administration was in that year granted to his daughters Fanny and Anne. (fn. 20) The manor descended to
Elizabeth wife of Samuel Matthews, who in 1732,
and again in 1742, made settlements of it. (fn. 21) In
1770 Joseph Matthews and Elizabeth Matthews,
widow, were two of the vouchees in a recovery of
Brandlesholme and the other estates. (fn. 22) About
that time it was sold to Richard Powell of Heaton
Norris, a merchant. In 1849 Brandlesholme
belonged to his grandson, Captain Henry Folliott
Powell. (fn. 23)
BRANDLESHOLME HALL stands on high ground
a mile and a half north of Elton, to the west of the
road to Holcombe Brook, and
is now a house of little or no
interest, modern rebuilding and
repairs having deprived it of
all its architectural features. It
was formerly a good specimen
of the half-timber gabled houses
of the district, built on a low
stone base, and erected probably in the 16th century with
a later stone wing with mullioned windows at the north
end. The greater part of the
external timber-work, however,
appears to have perished or
have been otherwise destroyed before the middle of the
last century, when the house seems to have been in a
more or less dilapidated state, the principal front, which
faces the east, being then patched with plaster and
modern sash windows introduced. (fn. 23a) In 1852 the
south end was taken down and rebuilt in brick and
stucco, no attempt being made to reproduce the former
style, and the rest of the building being very much
dilapidated was repaired in 1908 in a manner more
resembling in style the work of 1852 than that of the
original building. Externally, therefore, the house,
which has long been divided into two, preserves
nothing of its ancient appearance, a portion of stone
walling on the north, some brickwork at the back
(west), and a few stone slabs on the roofs, which
have been renewed with blue slates, being all the old
work now left. The interior, however, exhibits a
good deal of the timber construction, and the hall
preserves its wide open fireplace and original oak
ceiling beams. In another room is a portion of a
ceiling with well-moulded oak beams, and other
portions of old timber-work still remain. But the
general aspect of the house, inside as well as out, is
wholly modernized, and new rooms have been added.
On the north-east is a stone barn, and in a corner of
the grounds on the south-west side at the end of a
terrace approached by eight stone steps are the remains of a small stone building, locally said to have
been a chapel, but more probably a summer-house,
with the initials H.G. (Henry Greenhalgh) and the
date 1709 on the door-head.
Powell of Brandlesholme. Gules a lion rampant within a bordure engrailed or.
The Hospitallers owned Haslem Hey, which about
1540 was tenanted by Edward Earl of Derby, at a
rent of 12d. (fn. 24) The Holts of Stubley held it of the
earl. (fn. 25)
CHAMBER HALL, on the border of Bury, appears
to have been at one time the residence of a Greenhalgh family, (fn. 26) and then of the Kays. (fn. 27) The place
was leased to Robert Peel, who there established his
great cotton-printing works. His son, the celebrated
statesman, was born in the house or in an adjacent
cottage. (fn. 28) It is a question debated locally whether
Sir Robert or his younger brother was born in this
cottage during some repairs or additions at the hall;
these additions, which were probably the new brick
front, may not have been begun till after Sir Robert's
birth. (fn. 29) The hall was used as a Baptist college from
1866 to 1874. (fn. 30)
It was situated about 400 yds. directly north
of Bury market-place, on low ground at the
foot of the plateau on which the old town of Bury
was built, and not far from the left bank of the
Irwell. The railway, going north from Bury, passed
close to it on the east, and its surroundings, which
had been growing less attractive for the last
thirty years, were somewhat squalid. In 1825,
however, the house is described as standing 'amid
fertile fields,' (fn. 31) and the position was no doubt originally a pleasant one. Of the 17th-century house only
a small portion remained, at the back or north side;
the front part, which was built of brick and dated
from the latter part of the 18th century, forming the
larger and principal portion of the building. The
old house was of three stories, was built of thin rough
coursed stones with dressed angle quoins, and retained
its old mullioned and transomed windows with label
mouldings, one at the east end on the third floor
having eight lights. The roof was covered with stone
slates, and in the north wall was a stone with an
inscription very much worn, dated 1611. The later
addition was of the same height but of two stories,
breaking the west gable of the old building, and
had a very plain brick elevation, with a central doorway and two sash windows on each side on the ground
floor, and five similar windows above. (fn. 32) The house
was pulled down in February 1909, the inscribed
stone above referred to being placed in the Bury
Museum.
Somerset, now Summerseat, was held by the Rawstornes under the lord of Brandlesholme. (fn. 33)
Woodhill was long the residence of a family named
Kay. (fn. 34) Roger Kay, the refounder of the grammar
school, was of this family. (fn. 34a)
The principal landowners in 1789 were: Powell
for Brandlesholme, Peel for Chamber Hall, Richard
Bridge, Mrs. Nuttall for Woodhill, and Mrs. Johnson
for Seddon's. (fn. 35)
In connexion with the Established Church, All Saints'
was built in 1843, and had a separate district assigned
to it in 1844. (fn. 36) St. Stephen's, built in 1881, had a
district assigned to it three years later. (fn. 37) The patronage of these churches is vested in the rector of Bury
and the vicar of All Saints' respectively. Christ
Church, Walshaw Lane, was built in 1892 as a
memorial to Jesse Haworth of Walshaw Mill, who
died in 1897, by his sister Miss Nancy Haworth and
his nephew the Rev. John Gorell Haworth.
The Wesleyan Methodists have two churches in
Elton; the United Methodist Church one; and
the Primitive Methodists also one, built in 1868. (fn. 38)
For Roman Catholics the school-chapel of Our
Lady of Good Counsel and the Guardian Angels was
built in 1886, and a church in 1892.