1890-1899 | bolton-encyclopedia

1890s In the 1890s, Bolton was home to several breweries

1890 (1 Feb) Bolton Wanderers record Cup Win 13-0 v. Sheffield United FA Cup R2 1.02.1890

1890 (1 Feb) In an FA Cup tie against Sheffield United on 1 February 1890, Cassidy scored 5 goals in a 13-0 rout, with a further 4 goals coming from Davie Weir.

1890 (Mar) Charles Allen Clarke (born 1863) produced his own paper, Labour Light, first published in March 1890

1890 (1 Jun) Eliza, of Wyresdale Park, Garstang, wife of Peter Ormrod died

St Peter's Churchyard, Scorton Village, Scorton, Lancashire

1890 (16 Aug) Vesta Tilley married Walter de Frece, music-hall entrepreneur and the son of a theatre owner, at Brixton Register Office.

1890 (13 Sep) Thomas Walmsley, Mayor of Bolton: 1869-71 (Conservative), died: Brooklyn, Green Lane, Great Lever, Bolton.

1890 (10 Nov) Elizabeth Anne Holt murdered A young woman who suffered sudden and dramatic death was Elizabeth Ann Holt who died November 10th 1890 aged 21 years. Elizabeth's short life is well documented - she lived with her widowed mother and sister at 352, Darwen Road, she was auburn haired and blue eyed, she was a teacher at Belmont School and a Sunday School teacher at Eagley; she was also the victim of a gruesome murder. Every Monday, Lizzie walked along Longworth Road to Belmont where she lodged until the following Friday. On Monday 10th November she failed to arrive at school and it was reasonably assumed she had stayed at home because of illness; her mother equally reasonably, assumed that she was safe in Belmont, so it was not until after she failed to arrive home the following weekend that her disappearance was discovered. Her sister Sarah Ann set out to make enquiries, and a lad from Longworth Hall Farm remembered seeing a broken umbrella along the roadside. Two men went to search the area and finding evidence that something had been dragged off the road and down a hillside they discovered Lizzie's partially buried body near a small copse of oak trees, her belongings scattered around her. After police examination, the body was taken to her mother's house on a farm cart, watched by the unsuspected murderer. According to Allen Clarke, 15,000 people gathered in and around Walmsley churchyard at the funeral, including the man who had caused her death. Several farmers remembered seeing Lizzie walking along Longworth Road; they also remembered seeing Thomas Mc Donald following her. He lived with his aunt at 244, Blackburn Road, Egerton and he had previous convictions for assaulting young women. He eventually confessed to following the young teacher, in order to ask why she had told lies about him by accusing him of following her on previous occasions. She struck out at him with her umbrella and he lost his temper. He knocked her down, stabbed her three times with his penknife, cut her throat and attempted unsuccessfully to rape her. For this horrific deed he was hanged at Liverpool, December 30th, 1890.

1890 (15 Nov) On the morning of November 15th, 1890, a schoolboy found the body of his teacher, Elizabeth Holt, at Longworth Lane, in Belmont, Lancashire. She had been beaten, kicked, raped, and her throat was cut. She had been missing for nearly a week.
Thomas McDonald, 32, was the prime suspect. He had a previous conviction for rape and had been out of prison for only seven months. Witnesses placed him a few hundred yards from Elizabeth when she was last seen alive.
He was convicted and hanged on Tuesday, December 30th, 1890, at Kirkdale Prison, after having confessed in the death-cell. “I got angry when she started telling people I was following her around,” he said

1890 (4 Dec) Alexander Pollock Donaldson (1890 – 1972), Scottish footballer, who played for numerous teams in England as well as the Scotland national team, born. He made a total of 139 league and seven FA Cup appearances for Bolton, scoring six goals. Died in 1972

1890 (30 Dec) Thomas McDonald hanged at Liverpool for the murder of Elizabeth Anne Holt.

1890 Alex Donaldson born in 1890 in Barrhead, East Renfrewshire.

1890 In 1890 Benjamin Alfred Dobson (1847–1898) went to Constantinople, in order to superintend personally the work at the Yedi Koule Cotton Spinning Mills, for which the machinery had been supplied by his firm.

1890 Mere Hall Art Gallery opened

1890 John Somerville joined Bolton Wanderers.

He was born in Ayr, Scotland and played for Ayr.

1890 The passion for wrestling in Bolton didn’t begin until 1890.

Bolton Olympic Wrestling Club originated when local lads discovered and enjoyed a new style of wrestling known as Lancashire-catch-as-catch-can.

The town’s parks, and a field behind The Gibraltar Rock public house on Deane Road, became their arenas, and old flock mattresses were sewn together as a substitute for the canvas of a proper ring.

Enthusiasm spread and the young wrestlers obtained cellars in Noble Street in which to hold their bouts. Later, they amalgamated with the YMCA.

1890-91 Bolton Wanderers finished in 5th place in the First Division with 25 points.

1891 (28 Jan) Nora Chadwick [née Kershaw], literary scholar, was born at Great Lever, near Bolton, Lancashire, the elder of the two children of James Kershaw (1867/8–1917), cotton manufacturer and mill owner, and his wife, Emma Clara, née Booth. Died 1972

1891 (Jan) The Bolton Trotter, launched. Its popularity boosted by the regular inclusion of ‘Tum Fowt’ sketches, the Trotter claimed, at its peak, a readership of some 20,000. By September 1893, however, declining sales and financial difficulty had forced the paper's closure.

1891 (2 Mar) Turton railway station renamed (Turton and Edgworth)

1891 (28 Mar) The highest attendance for a League match was 14,000 for a game against Blackburn Rovers on 28 March 1891.

1891 (14 Apr) Walter James Rowley (1891 – 1976), English footballer around World War I and a manager during and after World War II. He spent some 47 years playing and coaching in the Football League. Died 22 Mar 1976.

1891 (26 May) Lucy Mary Shepherd Cross (nee Birley), wife of Herbert, died

1891 (Sep) The Turkish baths, Great Moor Street, opened in September, 1891. [closed in 1980]

1891 (15 Dec) James Billington: His first commission outside Yorkshire was at Shepton Mallet on the15th December 1891 where he hanged Henry Dainton for the murder of his wife at Bath.

1891 Agathe Whitehead (1891-1922) born. The granddaughter of Robert Whitehead (1823-1905). Her children were the Von Trapp singers.

1891 James Billington (born 1847) succeeded James Berry as chief executioner of Great Britain and Ireland.

1891 In 1891 the Rose Hill Doubling Mill had 8,020 spindles and Higson and Biggs' Victoria Mill had 40,000 spindles. Bolton Road Mill housed 564 looms weaving shirtings and Perseverance Mill had 600 looms manufacturing twills, sateens and plain cotton cloth. The looms in John Chadwick's Silk Mills produced broad silks, tie silks, scarves and handkerchiefs. The Lancashire Hosiery Company produced vests. Thomas Welch was a calico printer at the Green Vale Print Works.

1891 Horwich was transformed into a town of 12,850 people.

A rapid increase in population from 3,761 in 1881 was caused by the arrival of the railway works and W.T Taylor's cotton mill.

1891 When Dr Bucke visited Bolton in 1891 he brought with him Walt Whitman’s stuffed canary as a gift to James Wallace. The canary was the subject of Whitman’s poem 'My Canary Bird' and was first published in the New York Herald on 2 March 1888: 'My Canary Bird' Did we count great, O soul, to penetrate the themes of mighty books,
Absorbing deep and full from thoughts, plays, speculations?
But now from thee to me, caged bird, to feel thy joyous warble,
Filling the air, the lonesome room, the long forenoon,
Is it not just as great, O soul? Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

1891 Bolton Old Links Golf Club, originally named Bolton Golf Club, began in 1891 as a small nine-hole course in Green Lane Bolton It transferred to Smithills in 1896 (>1908)

1891 The Whitehead Torpedo Factory at Ferrybridge, Wyke Regis, South Dorset built

1891 Wingates Band signed its first professional conductor, Mr William Rimmer from Southport

1891 Ellis Marshall committed suicide at the One Horseshoe in Manor Street in 1891. He had been landlord there for 18 years from 1873.

1891-92 Bolton finished in third place in the First Division obtaining 36 points in 26 games.

1892 (18 Jan) Marian Allen (born Eleanor Marian Dundas Allen, British writer, the author of the moving poem now known as "The Wind on the Downs" published in a small 63-page book of poems of the same name, born at Toxteth Park (now St Scholastica's School), Glebe, Sydney, Australia, the daughter of George Boyce Allen, a barrister, and Isabella Dundas Allen. Died 12 Sep 1953.

1892 (19 Mar) Mawdsley Street Technical School opened on 19th March 1892

1892 (29 Mar) David Gratrix (1840-1892), a 51-year-old furniture dealer and former Bolton councillor, was attempting to halt a runaway horse when he was knocked down and injured. His wife said she had been there in the family shop and seen a horse “coming up Manchester Road at a great speed”. David had rushed into the street to try to stop the animal and in doing so was knocked down and injured. He was taken into their shop and then to the Royal Infirmary. A girl named Emma Horsley witnessed the accident. She saw another man also try to stop the horse. The horse was pulling a lurry — a carriage — explained carter Edward Devine who was employed by Messrs J Cooper and Sons. He had taken the horse and empty lurry to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Company’s goods’ yard. He went inside leaving the horse for 10 minutes. When he came out he found the horse had run away with lurry attached. He said when he took charge of it two years previously it had been a very quiet animal. The frightening scene shocked all who witnessed it and sadly David died from the shock of the accident “and congestion of the lungs”. He died in Bolton Infirmary on Sunday, April 17 at about 10.30pm. The inquest concluded that David had died from accidental death. David was just 34-years-old when elected to office. The former Conservative councillor had served on Bolton Council for five year but was no longer a serving councillor at the time of the tragedy. During his time as an elected official he represented East Ward. This ward took in the Church Wharf, Turton Street, Mill Hill Tonge Bridge area of town.

1892 (Mar) Bob Roberts remained at Bolton until March 1892, when he moved to Preston North End where he played five league matches at the end of the 1891–92 season.

1892 (17 Apr) David Gratrix (1840-1892), a Bolton Councillor, died. Lost his life endeavouring to stop a runaway horse in Bradshawgate, Bolton.

1892 (Apr) Pike's Lane hosted the first "inter-league" match between The Football League XI and the Scottish Football League XI, in April 1892

1892 (2 Jul) Jack Hylton (1892 – 1965), English pianist, composer, band leader and impresario, born John Greenhalgh Hilton. Died 29 Jan 1965

1892 (15 Nov) Billington executed serial poisoner Thomas Neill Cream.. Billington claimed that Cream's last words as he fell were "I am Jack ...", and that this was a confession to having been Jack the Ripper. Cream had, however, been confined in Chicago's Joliet State Penitentiary at the time of the Ripper murders.

1892 The Hulton Colliery Company sank Chequerbent Colliery in 1892

1892 Marks and Spencer opened a store in Bolton in 1892 as a Penny Bazaar spending 12 years in Bolton's famous Market Hall on a plot of around 260 square feet — a far cry from the massive operation it is today in Deansgate.

1892 Marks and Spencer opened a stall in the Market Hall

1892 Robert Whitehead’s granddaughter Marguerite de Hoyos married the son of the German Chancellor, Herbert von Bismarck

1892 Jack Hylton, singer and bandleader, born in Great Lever

1893 (2 Feb) Richard (Dick) Pym, footballer, born in Topsham

1893 (25 Feb) William (Billy) Jennings, footballer, born in Barry, Wales

Died 1968

1893 (13 Mar) Bolton Wanderers’ James Turner continued to impress as a wing-half and he won his first international cap for England against Wales. Also in the team that day was Billy Bassett, John Goodall, Bob Holmes, Charlie Perry, Jack Reynolds, Fred Spiksley and John Sutcliffe. England won the game 6-0.

1893 (28 Mar) The opening of Nelson Park in the middle of Nelson Square by William Nicholson as Mayor

The opening is marked at the Bradshawgate entrance by two handsome plaques bearing the Borough Arms (and the name of John Turner Brooks who was himself Mayor in 1913-1914)

The Park now contains two major monuments (>1862) (>1920).

1893 (24 Apr) The foundation-stone of Christ Church was laid by Lord Stanley, M.P. (the present Earl of Derby) on April 24th, 1893.

1893 (3 Sep) Alfred Barnes, Chairman of Farnworth Local Board: 1863-1867, 1878-80 (Liberal), died at Greenbank, Glynne Street, Farnworth.

1893 (5 Oct) John Charles Wright (born 1861) married Dorothy Margaret Isabel, daughter of Colonel the Honourable Ivo de Vesci Fiennes and the granddaughter of the 16th Baron Saye and Sele.

1893 Thomas Hampson (1839 – 1918) published History of Rivington in 1893

1893 John Harwood born in Bolton

Invented and produced the first automatic wrist watch in the world

Died 1964.

1893 In 1893, the Miners' Federation of Great Britain found itself involved in a struggle against mine owners who wanted a 25% cut in miners pay. The action resulted in widespread lockouts and involved 300,000 miners. The mine owners were eventually forced to give in and restore the wage cuts.] All the pits in Little Lever were affected for the full 15 weeks that the action lasted and the Fletcher family were amongst the owners who most strongly supported the cut in wages

1893 The lending library SW corner of Victoria Square (now replaced by Wellsprings) opened

1893 The Miners Federation of Great Britain found itself involved in a struggle against mine owners who wanted a 25% cut in miners pay

1893, Keir Hardie founded the Independent Labour Party (ILP).

1893 The school leaving age raised to eleven

1893 John Bentley became president of the Football League.

1893 Bury & Elton Amateur Swimming Club was founded in 1893, and swam out of the old Bury’s Victorian public baths, which was situated in St Mary’s Place, Bury. (<1864)

1893-94 Bolton Wanderers beat Small Heath (4-3), Newcastle United (2-1), Liverpool (3-0) and Sheffield Wednesday (3-2) to reach the 1894 FA Cup Final. Unfortunately, Bolton lost to Notts County 4-1 in the final at Goodison Park.

1893-1895 Sarah Reddish was regional organizer for Women’s Cooperative Guild in the north of England

1894 (2 Feb) John Hick (born 1815), English Conservative Party politician, died MP for Bolton 1868 to 1880.

1894 (24 Feb) Pike’s Lane: The ground's record attendance of 20,000 was set for an FA Cup third round match against Liverpool on 24 February 1894

1894 (21 May) The official opening of the Manchester Ship Canal on 21 May 1894,

1894 (13 Jul) Christ Church was consecrated by the Bishop of Manchester

1894 (27 Aug) Grand Theatre & Cirque opened

Architect: Frank Matcham

(>Sep 1963)

1894 (29 Aug) The New Grand Cirque of Varieties was opened on 29th August 1894 presenting James Newsome & his Circus Company and the show ran for eight weeks.

1894 (28 Sep) Simon Marks and Tom Spencer opened their Penny Bazaar in Manchester

1894 (Sep) Magee Marshall & Co., Ltd, purchased Wigan Brewery, in King Street, Wigan, which was sold by order of the High Court as a result of a ruling in the case of Morris v Morris (1872)

1894 (26 Oct) John Henry “Jack” Jones, British Labour Party politician, born

MP for Bolton 1945-1950

Died 31 Oct 1962 road accident

1894 (31 Oct) Bolton's first power station opened on 31st October 1894 from Spa Road.

1894 Eagley Mills is a complex of former cotton mills in Eagley, Bolton, England. The third and largest mill, No 1 Spinning Mill, was built in 1894.

1894 Local Government Act.

1894 Jim Cassidy scored Bolton’s consolation goal in the 1894 FA Cup Final - Bolton were 4-0 down to Notts County when, with three minutes to play, County’s goalkeeper George Toone came out to meet a Bolton attack only to slip while attempting to clear and leave Cassidy with one of the easiest cup final goals of all time.

1894 In 1894 the Kay Street Arms was one of three pubs raided by police looking for evidence of betting. The other pubs were Uncle Tom’s Cabin on Egyptian Street and the Milk Street Tavern. All three were raided the night before a big race meeting at Kempton Park. Inspector Rhodes found a grand total of 309 betting slips at the Kay Street Arms. There was a book containing 113 betting slips inside Maine’s coat; a cigar box contained 93 slips of paper relating to 212 bets; a teapot in the kitchen contained 53 slips relating to 119 bets and a satchel in the dresser contained 43 slips relating to 106 bets. Maine and his customers were frog-marched to the town hall where they were given bail. At his trial he was found guilty of allowing betting on licensed premises and fined £25 – the equivalent of almost £3000 today. The guilty verdict marked the end of Cornelius Maine’s stint in the licensed trade.

1894 On the death of his father, John, Sir James Lees Knowles succeeded to the chairmanship of Andrew Knowles & Sons, coal mines and also to many large properties and estates in the region.

1894 The original Market Hall was altered to provide shops on Knowsley Street and Corporation Street

1894 Lostock became part of the Bolton Rural District

It was dissolved in 1898

1894 The Grand Cirque built in Churchgate

It provided a venue for travelling circuses in the 19th century.

1894 Bolton Wanderers F.C. reached the final of the FA Cup for the first time, but lost 4-1 to Notts County at Goodison Park

1894 Bolton Evening News – first daily newspaper in Britain to produce a photograph by the half tone process

1894 The Clarion Club was formed.

It was different to other clubs in that it aimed to combine the pleasures of cycling with the promotion of socialism. The club was named after the socialist Clarion newspaper, and members would often hand out the paper on their weekend rides.

1894 Michael Marks went into partnership with Tom Spencer in 1894

1894-1895 At the end of the 1894–95 season the club moved to Burnden Park. Pike's Lane was unpopular with players and supporters due to a poor pitch and inadequate spectator facilities

1894-1895 Bolton Wanderers finished 10th in the First Division

1894-1895 Benjamin Alfred Dobson -Mayor of Bolton

1895 (23 Jan) Herbert Shepherd Cross married Patty Penelope, the daughter of James Hortor, gentleman, of Edinburgh.

1895 (6 Feb) William Gray (1814 – 1895) English Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1857 to 1874, died.

1895 (2 Apr) John Reid Smith, footballer, born in Pollockshaws

Bolton Wanderers

Died Sep 1946

1895 (4 Apr) Charles Hallows, Lancashire and England cricketer, born in Little Lever, near Bolton, Lancashire

He scored 20,926 runs in 383 first class matches

Died 10 Nov 1972 in Bolton, Lancashire

1895 (4 Apr) Charles Hallows, a first-class cricketer who played for Lancashire and England, born in Little Lever, near Bolton, Lancashire. Died 10 Nov 1972 in Bolton, Lancashire.

1895 (13 Apr) The last match at the ground was played on 13 April 1895, as Bolton beat West Bromwich Albion 5–0 with 10,200 spectators in attendance. The site was later used to build terraced housing.

1895 (Apr) Bolton Wanderers played an away game against Bury in the Lancashire Senior Cup. After Bolton’s James Taylor made a strong tackle against an opponent the home crowd rushed on the field and attacked him and the referee was forced to abandon the game.

1895 (29 Jul) Monday The Horwich Cycling Club held its first organized sports on the Recreation Ground

A.V. Roe, a premium apprentice on the Loco Works won the 3-mile handicap.

1895 (Aug) Burnden Park completed

The second home of Bolton Wanderers, the venue was apparently built on beer crates to aid the drainage. They moved here from Pikes Lane Stadium, Deane.

The name Burnden has its roots north of the English border and is derived from two Old English words used in the Scottish Lowlands, 'burn' meaning brook and 'dene' or 'denu' meaning valley. The name means the stream in a valley (the River Croal).

1895 (16 Sep) Herbert Fletcher died of heart attack at Ladyshore Colliery.

1895 (1 Oct) Disasters at the Shakerley pits included: 1 October 1895 five men including the colliery manager and undermanager died at the Wellington Pit after an explosion of firedamp possibly caused by a safety lamp

1895 Joseph William Foster (1881 – 1933) developed a spiked running shoe in 1895.

1895 Atkinson’s were taken over by Boardman’s United Breweries of Manchester in 1895

1895 The Gardeners Arms situated on Valletts Lane opened in 1895 [It changed its name to Arkwrights Ale House in the 1980s. It closed in June 2014.]

1895 Albert Ward sports shop established on Bradshawgate, closed 1974

1895 Burnden Park opened

Bolton Wanderers played home games here from 1895 to 1997

1895 Gregory and Porritts founded

Founded by two local families, the firm originally traded from Bolton Market Hall before making a move to premises in Great Moor Street in 1925.

1895 Joseph William Foster founded a company together with his two adult sons, named J.W. Foster and Sons Ltd.

1895 'Fernclough' mansion at Heaton, near Bolton, Lancashire sold by J C Cross to Edmund Peel Potter for £4750

1895 In 1895, ‘The Town Talk Polish Company,’ was founded.

1895 - Founded in Bolton by Percy Ritherdon

Ritherdon & Co was founded in Great Moor St, Bolton by the current Managing Director’s great grandfather, Percy Ritherdon. The company moved to North Bridge Mill, White Lion Brow shortly after that and remained there until just after the Second World War.

Percy’s interest in chemistry and magic led to a unusual range of Ritherdon products: initially concentrating on electroplating and enamelling for the Edwardian bicycle boom, but also on making tricks for magicians. Percy worked closely with the magician Chung Ling Soo for several years in the early 20th Century and there was a locked workshop at North Bridge Mill where a select group of Ritherdon employees worked on the very precise fabrication of these magical tricks.

More details on Percy Ritherdon’s collaboration with Soo and some of the tricks that Ritherdons made, are given in Jim Steinmeyer’s book The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, the “Marvelous Chinese Conjurer”.

1895-1896 Bolton Wanderers finished 4th in the First Division.

1895-1900 John James Bentley (born 1860) was editor of the Athletic News.

By the middle of the 1890s John James Bentley (born 1860) was combining the roles of referee, journalist, editor, Football Association (FA) councillor, and president of the Football League

1896 (3 May) Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith (1896 – 1990), English children's novelist and playwright, born in Whitefield, near Bury in Lancashire, England. She was an only child. Her parents were Ernest and Ella Smith (née Furber). Ernest was a bank manager; he died in 1898, when Dodie was two years old. Known best for the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956). Died 24 Nov 1990.

1896 (May) Caroline Martyn (1867-1896) spoke with Keir Hardie at a huge ILP and Clarion gathering at Hardcastle Craggs

1896 (9 Jun) James Billington hanged Henry Fowler and Albert Milsom at Newgate prison for beating to death 79-year-old widower Henry Smith

1896 (10 Jun) Amelia Dyer was hanged by James Billington at Newgate Prison on Wednesday, 10 June 1896. Asked on the scaffold if she had anything to say, she said "I have nothing to say", just before being dropped at 9 am precisely.

1896 (7 Jul) The hangman who carried out the execution of Thomas Wooldridge was a “barber” from Farnworth, near Bolton called James Billington.

Wooldridge, a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, had killed his wife in a fit of jealousy

The 1896 execution of one of Billington's victims, Charles Thomas Wooldridge, was immortalised by Oscar Wilde in his The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Wooldridge, known as "C.T.W" in the poem, was a trooper serving with the Royal Horse Guards in Windsor who had killed his wife Laura with a cut-throat razor during a fit of jealous rage. Wilde recounts that the condemned man seemed resigned to his fate on the gallows, and Wooldridge even petitioned the Home Secretary requesting that he not be reprieved, despite a plea for clemency submitted by the jury at his trial and various petitions organised by the residents of Berkshire. He told the prison chaplain that he wanted to die in payment for his crime, and he was allowed to carry his regimental colours to the gallows. Given a longer drop than usual, the force of his fall when the trapdoor was released stretched his neck by "an almost incredible eleven inches".

“Trespass Stone” which was laid on September 8th, 1996 to mark the centenary of the “Winter Hill trespass”

1896 (6 Sep) Sunday Winter Hill Mass Trespass Winter Hill is the highest point on the moors between the towns of Bolton, Preston and Blackburn. Most of the moors are part of the Smithills Estate, owned by the Ainsworths, an old Bolton family who profited from the slave trade in the 18th Century. In the summer of 1896, Colonel Richard Henry Ainsworth erected gates across access roads, fixed "Trespassers will be prosecuted" signs and hired men to warn people off the property. The public outcry led to a small advertisement appearing in the Bolton paper, paid for by the Social Democratic Federation. It invited the public to join a demonstration on Sunday morning, 6 September 1896, to test the right of way over Winter Hill.

A crowd of 1000 met in Bolton to listen to some speeches. Numbers increased tenfold as they marched up Halliwell road towards the edge of the moor. At the gate they were confronted by a small contingency of police. According to the Bolton Chronicle, "Amid the lusty shouting of the crowd the gate was attacked by powerful hands…… short work was made of the barrier, and with a ring of triumph the demonstrators rushed through onto the disputed territory. Plans were soon in place to repeat the procession. A song was commissioned.

"Will yo’ come o’ Sunday morning’,
For a walk o’er Winter Hill.
Ten thousand went last Sunday,
But there’s room for thousands still!"

"O the moors are rare and bonny,
And the heather’s sweet and fine,
And the road across this hill top,
Is the public’s - Yours and mine!"

Despite some rain the following Sunday, 2000 people came and listened to speeches. Again, the crowd grew as it set off for the moor, completely blocking Halliwell Road. This spontaneous movement of 1896 did not quite achieve what it set out to do. For years the right of access to Winter Hill was embroiled in the British Legal System. However less than 40 years later, better organised and more capable men set in train the events of Kinder Scout, which proved momentous to those who enjoy the freedom to roam our hills and moors.”

1896 (Sep) Members of the Bolton Socialist Club helped to organize a massive 10,000 strong trespass over Winter Hill in protest against the closure of the path across what Colonel Ainsworth claimed was his Grouse-moor

1896 (6 Dec) James Seddon donated and unveiled a window of 'The Good Shepherd' at St Thomas’s Church, Eskrick Street, Bolton in memory of his late wife.

1896 Joseph Sharman registered December 1896.

1896 The statue of John Fielding was sculpted in stone by local sculptor J. William Bowden and unveiled in 1896 by Lord James of Hereford, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

1896 The present Christ Church, Heaton designed by architect R. K. Freeman took a year to build and cost about £4,000 and was consecrated in 1896.

1896 In 1896 the Wigan Coal and Iron Company's Eatock Pits employed 484 underground and 89 surface workers whilst the Hewlett Pits, at Hart Common, employed 981 underground and 182 on the surface.

1896 The Bolton Clarion Club was formed.

1896 Aspull: In 1896 the Crawford, Kirkless, Moor and Woodshaw Pits in the township belonging the Wigan Coal and Iron Company employed over 1,000 workers.

1896 John German, ARP warden – first Boltonian to win the George Medal, born in Bolton

Won Military Medal in 1917. Lived in New Bedford, MA, USA 1919-1938 – returned to live in Deane 1938

Awarded George Medal 22nd October 1940 for carrying out his duties whilst injured himself during the bombing of Deane 1 September 1940

Returned to the USA and New Bedford in 1947.On his death he was given a full military funeral there

Died 1953 New Bedford, MA, USA.

1896 Christ Church Heaton, Bolton: In 1896 the present church was consecrated. It was designed by local architect, R. K. Freeman and took just over twelve months to build at a contract cost of around £4,000. The provision of essential furnishings cost nearly as much!

1896 Sarah Reddish (born 1850) travelled with the first women’s Clarion van tour.

The idea of Clarion Women’s Vans was put forward in the newspaper early in 1896. Female volunteers toured the country in them, holding open-air meetings, selling Socialist literature and handed out leaflets.

Clarion Van no 1 was named after Caroline Martyn (1867-1896), a well-known Socialist lecturer and the woman said to have founded Glasgow’s first Socialist Sunday School

1896-1897 Bolton Wanderers finished 8th in the First Division.

1896-1897 Ss Peter and Paul Church was later replaced by a church built from 1896 to 1897 on the same site, which cost £20,200. (>1990)

1897 (20 Jan) Co-op drapery on corner of Higher Bridge St / St George’s Rd opened 20 Jan (fire 1902 reopen 1904)

1897 (30 Jan) Co-op Central Tailoring Department, opened 30 January 1897. The corner of Higher Bridge Street and St George's Road, opposite the Palais.

1897 (11 Mar) Richard Knowles “Dick” Tyldesley, Lancashire and England cricketer, born in Westhoughton, Lancashire

Died Sep 17 1943

1897 (13 Mar) Albert Edward Fogg (1897 - 1942), a football referee from Bolton, Greater Manchester, born. He refereed the FA Cup Final in 1935 between Sheffield Wednesday and West Bromwich Albion. Died 23 Dec 1942

1897 (25 Jun) Robert (Bob) Howarth born in Atherton

He became a coalminer and played football for Howe Bridge and Atherton Colliery before being persuaded by Charles Foweraker to join Bolton Wanderers in 1921.

Died Mar 1962

1897 (21 Jul) Lt Col Benjamin Alfred Dobson (1847-1898) knighted.

1897 (9 Sep) Thomas Greenhalgh, of Highfield, Silverdale formerly of Thorndikes, Sharples, died aged 74 years.

1897 (6 Oct) Goronwy "Ronw" Moelwyn Hughes (1897 – 1955), known as Moelwyn Hughes was a Welsh lawyer and a Liberal and Labour politician who was elected to two short terms as a Member of Parliament (MP). He was appointed to lead the official inquiry into the Burnden Park disaster, and his report recommended limitations on crowd sizes Died 1 Nov 1955.

1897 (30 Nov) Alfred Roberts (1897 – 1963), British trade unionist, born in Bolton, his father being a coal carter. Died 18 Nov 1963.

1897 Town Hall Square renamed “Victoria Square” for the Diamond Jubilee

1897 A lad in control of lowering the tubs at Spindle Point lost control of them and as a result sixteen years old John Harrison was crushed to death

1897 In the parish of Farnworth, Richard Knill Freeman built: All Saints Moses Gate Demolished in 2007

1897 Sarah Reddish was national President of Women’s Cooperative Guild.

1897 The Central Higher-Grade School opened in Great Moor Street

Later became Bolton Municipal Secondary School and later still Bolton County Grammar School.

The red brick Old School Buildings were attended by several future Mayors of Bolton, including Charles Henry Lucas (1965-1966) and Ethel Maisie Ryley (1968-1969)

A fine example of the Borough arms can be seen on the front of the building.

1897-1898 Bolton Wanderers finished 11th in the First Division.

1897-1901 The Hulton Colliery Company sank Bank Pit Nos 1–4 between 1897 and 1901. The company mined the Trencherbone, Plodder and Arley seams.

1898 William Hesketh Lever (later Lord Leverhulme) built Blackburn Road Congregational Church in memory of his parents

1898 (29 Jan) Statue of James Dorrian, M.D. (1826-1895) unveiled.

1898 (12 Feb) Wallace Ford, motion picture actor, born Samuel Jones Grundy in Bolton, Lancashire, England. Appeared in "The Beast of the City" (1932), "Night of Terror" (1933), "The Informer" (1935) co-starring Victor McLaglen, "The Mummy's Hand" (1940), "The Mummy's Tomb" (1942), Alfred Hitchcock's film "Shadow of a Doubt" (1943) co-starring Joseph Cotton, Hitchcock's film "Spellbound" (1945) co-starring Ingrid Bergman, "The Great John L." (1945) co-starring Linda Darnell, "Dead Reckoning" (1947) co-starring Humphrey Bogart, "Harvey" (1950) co-starring James Stewart, and "The Rainmaker" (1956) co-starring Burt Lancaster. Died 11 Jun 1966 (aged 68) of a heart attack in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles County, California, USA

1898 Before 1898 the Bolton Wanderers team was picked by the club secretary but this was all to change at the start of the 20th century as the team was allocated a manager in it's own right.

1898 Edmund Ashworth & Sons was one of the fourteen firms that combined to form the English Sewing Cotton Company.

1898 (4 Mar) Sir Benjamin Alfred Dobson (1847-1898) died at Doffcockers, Bolton.

Mayor of Bolton 1894-1898, he died in office.

1898 (Jun) Sarah Reddish, a Bolton Socialist active in the Co-operative Women’s Guild, who had become well-known as a socialist speaker after touring with the famous Clarion Women’s Van, wrote to the Clarion as Secretary of West Ward Independent Labour Party (ILP).

She declared that they were prepared to fuse locally with the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) Branch, which was also willing.

“Division means weakness”, she wrote. “We want strength for useful work and therefore we hope that other local comrades will join us” (>Sep 1898)

1898 (Sep) The fusion took place at a meeting in the Palatine Buildings on Knowsley Street (now McDonalds) where Bolton SDF Club had by then moved.

Bolton Socialist Party, open to members of either national grouping, or of none, adopted a set of Principles and Objets which remained on the membership application until it was replaced by those of the British Socialist Party in 1912 (later the Communist Party)

'We want strength for useful work and therefore we hope that other local

1898 Under the Bolton, Turton and Westhoughton Extension Act of

1898, Lostock ceased to be a civil parish and became part of the County Borough of Bolton.

1898-1899 John Somerville was employed as Bolton's player-manager. Unfortunately, in his first season in charge the club finished 17th and was relegated to the Second Division.

1898 Ye Olde Pastie Shoppe founded in 1898.

1898 Cornbrook brewery of Manchester bought out Boardman’s in 1898.

1899 (3 Apr) David Jack was born in Bolton on 3rd April, 1899. His father, Robert Jack, had played Alloa Athletic in Scotland before moving to England to play for Bolton Wanderers.

1899 (Jun) Bolton Corporation took over the Bolton Horse Tramways and the tramway assets of Edmund Holden and Company in June 1899, and undertook a programme of modernisation and electrification.

1899 (Jun) Bolton and Wigan corporations are the first to take on municipal ownership of tramways by taking over the lines operated by E. Holden & Company (June).

1899 (19 Jul) Mary Ann Ansell hanged by James Billington within the walls of St. Albans prison at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, the 19th of July, 1899. The press were excluded and thus we have no actual details of her execution. A crowd estimated at around 2,000 had gathered at the main gate to see the black flag hoisted over the prison and the notice of execution posted. Some knelt silently in prayer at the appointed hour. Mary Ann’s body was examined by the prison surgeon, Eustace Henry Lipscombe who, as was required by law signed the death certificate. An inquest was held at 10am and the Chief Warder told the jury that Mary’s death hade been “instantaneous” and that her neck had been broken. She was buried in an unmarked grave within the prison later in the day. In 1931, her remains were re-interred in the St. Albans City cemetery. Mary Ann secured her place in history as the youngest woman to be hanged in private and the last woman to be hanged in the nineteenth century. She was the fourth of five women to be executed by James Billington. Of the 23 women executed in private between 1868 and 1899, 12 or just over half, had been convicted of murder by poisoning. A Home Office file made public in 2000 revealed that she had admitted sending Caroline the poisoned cake, mistakenly thinking that the death would not be investigated because her sister was in an asylum.

1899 (6 Sep) William Nicholson (born 1825) - Mayor of Bolton: 1891-94, 1898*, 1898-99, 1901*- was made the first Freeman of the County Borough of Bolton on 6 September 1899 on the same day as William Walter Cannon, Mayor of Bolton 1871-73 and Deputy Mayor at the time. The solid silver Freedom casket he was presented with weighed 224 ounces (6.35 Kilos), cost £55 and was manufactured by Samuel Wolfenden & Co of 44 Bradshawgate, Bolton.

1899 (30 Oct) Bolton fire station opened 30/10/1899

MUNICIPAL ENTERPRISE. Two of the most important municipal events in the history of Bolton occurred on Monday. A new central fire station —one of the finest and best equipped in the country, and erected at a cost of £ 15,000—was opened.

The first electric car on the new municipal tramway was run. The Bolton tramways will, when completed, form the most extensive electric system in the kingdom. The official inspection will shortly take place.

1899 (9 Dec) The first electric services ran on routes to Great Lever, Toothill Bridge and Tonge Moor 9 December 1899.

1899 (Dec) First electric tramway runs in Bolton (December).

1899 It was during a spell as locomotive foreman at Blackpool in 1899 that Mr Nigel Gresley met the lady who was later to become his wife, Miss Ethel Frances Fullagar. She lived a short way along the coast at St Anne's. The couple married in 1901 and set up house in Newton Heath, three miles from Manchester where two of their children, Nigel and Violet, were born.

1899 Bolton Grammar School moved from its site next to the Parish Church in Bolton to its current site on Chorley New Road

1899 School in Parish Church grounds (behind Church Institute) moved the Chorley New Road and became Bolton School.

1899 Wingfield’s sold out to the Manchester Brewery Company in 1899.

1899 The first electric tram service started

1899 Halliwell Lodge taken over as a hotel.

1899 Radcliffe Swimming and Water Polo Club founded in 1899.

1899 Sir James Lees Knowles was appointed as Honorary Colonel, 3rd Volunteer Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers which he supported from his own funds.

1899 Hall-i-th-Wood was bought by Lord Leverhulme

1899 The school leaving age raised to twelve

1899 The Effects of the Factory System depicted a workforce entirely lacking in radical potential, seeking escape from the dulling monotony of modern forms of work through the pursuit of short-term sensory and material gratification

1899 (18 Mar) (Norah) Marjorie Abbatt (nee Cobb) (1899–1991), promoter of toy design and businesswoman, was born in Surbiton, Surrey, daughter of a well-to-do fur broker.

She was educated at Roedean School, Brighton, and at Somerville College, Oxford; but her postgraduate studies at University College, London, intended to combine psychoanalysis and speech therapy, were interrupted by marriage to (Cyril) Paul Abbatt in December 1930.

Died 1991

1899 (Mar) Sarah Reddish was the first woman to be elected to the Bolton School Board

1899 (19 Jul) (Cyril) Paul Abbatt born in Bromley Cross near Bolton, son of a Quaker family.

Married (Norah) Marjorie Cobb (1899-1991) in Dec 1930

Died Jun 1971

1899 (Nov) Bolton Socialist Party moved the Club to number 13, Lome Street. Its entrance is still there in the narrow alley which runs behind Waterstone’s Deansgate shop. Here they were next to the Home Rule or Sinn Fein Club with whose members, mostly from the town’s large Irish community, they had strong ties.

1899 Sarah Reddish (born 1850) was appointed part time organiser of the Women’s Trades Union League

1899 Sarah Reddish (born 1850) was the first woman on the Bolton Education Board

The late nineteenth century in Britain saw the growth of an active and diverse socialist culture: there were many local socialist clubs, Clarion clubs and debating societies, as well as the Labour Church movement and its associated activities. In addition, there were the national political organizations, such as the Social Democratic Federation, founded in 1884, and the Independent Labour Party, founded in 1893. Members of the Bolton Whitman circle were involved in a number of these local and national movements. They had links with the local Labour Church; and Wallace's interpretation of Whitman's work echoed the Labour Church concept of socialism as a living and loving fellowship between Man, Nature and God.

1899-1900 Bolton finished second to Sheffield Wednesday and returned to the First Division. Laurie Bell was top scorer that season with 23 goals. John Somerville retired as a player at the end of the season. He had played 293 cup and league games for the club.

1899 – 1901 Thomas Barlow (born 1845) was physician-extraordinary to Queen Victoria, being present at her deathbed.

1899-1904 Henry Albert Hoy – Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (>1904)

1899-1905 John Musgrave & Sons produced 504 large steam driven engines for textile mills in Greater Manchester and Lancashire

1899-1934 James Lomax was a local coalminer and later a preparator of geological material. He donated, sold and prepared material for Bolton Museum between 1899 and his death in 1934.

In particular it is the extensive slide and thin section collections that are of importance here. Lomax pioneered many methods of sectioning fossil material and slide preparation and is an important figure in the history of palaeobotany.