WHEELTON
Quelton, 1276; Whelton, 1292: these are the
usual forms; Quilton, 1313; Wheleton (xv cent.).
Wheelton stretches south-east from the valley of
the Lostock, the north-west boundary, over a hill
rising to 650 ft. above sea level, across the valley in
which Brinscall lies, and up to very near the summit
of the Great Hill, 1,200 ft., on the border of Anglezarke in Bolton parish. The total area is 1,696 (fn. 1)
acres, and the population in 1901 numbered 1,375.
The village lies by the Lostock, in the north-west
corner, and has the hamlet of Wheelton Stocks to the
north-east.
The principal road is that through the village,
going from Chorley to Blackburn. The Leeds and
Liverpool Canal goes near it, through the Lostock
valley. The railway from Chorley to Cherry Tree
runs north-east through the centre of the township.
The soil is partly light and clayey, the subsoil
rocky; wheat and barley are grown. The excellent
stone quarries have long been known and worked.
There are large cotton mills and bleaching and calico
printing works.
Forty-one hearths were charged for the hearth
tax in 1666; the largest house, that of Henry
Hoghton, had eight. (fn. 2)
The township is governed by a parish council.
Daniel Henry Haigh was born at Brinscall Hall
in 1819, his father being a calico printer. Intended
for the Anglican ministry he was influenced by the
Tractarian movement and received into communion
with the Roman Church in 1847, being afterwards
ordained. He became the chief English authority
on Runic inscriptions, and was the author of numerous
antiquarian essays. He died at Erdington, near
Birmingham, in 1879, being the founder of the
Benedictine house there. (fn. 3)
Manor
WHEELTON was formerly a part of
Gunolfsmoors, (fn. 4) and held by the lords of
Hoghton as part of their moiety of a
knight's fee. (fn. 5) They acquired lands in the township
from the Wheelton family, (fn. 6) but do not seem to have
accounted their estate to be a separate manor. Roger
de Stanworth by his marriage with one of the co-heirs
of Withnell acquired also a large part of Wheelton, (fn. 7)
and this seems to have been given to Stanlaw Abbey. (fn. 8)
Thus at the suppression of Whalley Abbey the 'manor
of Wheelton' was among its possessions, and was in
1539–40 sold to Sir Richard Hoghton, (fn. 9) after
which it was enumerated in the list of Hoghton
manors, but no separate tenure is recorded. (fn. 10) It
appears to have been sold in the 18th century, and
to have descended with Withnell.
John de Clayton is said to have granted to Edmund
de Lacy, lord of Clitheroe, the services of his tenants
in Wheelton. (fn. 11) Henry de Lea in 1288 held an
oxgang of land in Wheelton of Edmund Fitton by a
rent of 2d. yearly. (fn. 12) In 1284 he had obtained a
charter of free warren in his
demesne lands of Wheelton
upon Gunolfsmoors. (fn. 13) In
1321 Richard de Hoghton
and Sibyl his wife required
John Fitton as mesne lord to
acquit them of the service
demanded for Withnell and
Wheelton by the Earl of
Lancaster. (fn. 14)
Whalley Abbey. Gules three whales hauriant, from the mouth of each the head of a crozier issuant or.
The place occurs very
rarely in the records, and no
family of importance appears
to have resided within it. (fn. 15)
The tenant of the Whalley
Abbey land about 1538 was
Thomas Haydock. (fn. 16) A messuage called the Ford
was in 1566 held by Hugh Swansey of Whittle of
Thomas Hoghton by a rent of 12d., (fn. 17) and later by
John and Oliver Pearson. (fn. 18) Other landowners
occurring in the inquisitions are Browne (fn. 19) and
Chorley. (fn. 20) The Andertons of Lostock (fn. 21) and Liveseys
of Livesey also had land there about 1600. (fn. 22)
The estate of John Whittle the elder was confiscated under the Commonwealth. (fn. 23) William Blacklidge, yeoman, and James Critchley, linen-weaver, as
'Papists,' registered small estates in 1717. (fn. 24) In 1783
the chief contributors to the land tax were John
Wilcock, widow Blacklidge and Edward Simpson,
who together paid over a third of the tax. (fn. 25)
The Free Church of England has a school-chapel,
St. Paul's, in Wheelton village; it was built in 1871,
as the result of a dispute between the vicar of Heapey
and a portion of his congregation.
A Wesleyan chapel was built in 1842.