20 Facts About Horwich

Horwich is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England.

Name Horwich derives from the Old English har and wice, meaning the place at the grey wych-elm and in 1221 was recorded as Horewic.

Horwich grew from its original 'bridge point settlement' on the River Douglas at what is Scholes Bank.

In 1881 the population of 3,761 lived in 900 houses and had remained stable for fifty years, the arrival of the railway works and other industries including W T Taylor's cotton mill resulted in a considerable change to Horwich leading to a rapid increase in population, creating a boom in population by 1891 to 12,850 people, Horwich became a railway town in this period of the Industrial Revolution.

Local government in Horwich meets and is administered from a typical Victorian-style building which became known as Horwich Public Hall, a gift to the town by Peter Martin of The Street, Rivington in 1879 and still in use.

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Horwich was taken over by Hawker Siddeley and subsequently British Aerospace, the site was halved and moved to the south side of Hall lane Lostock when taken over by MBDA in 1997 it is still in 2013 making missiles and the site is used for integration and test purposes.

Horwich works was very active in armament production in the first and second world wars, in recognition George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth visited the town in 1940.

Horwich Works was built on 142 hectares of land bought for £36,000.

Horwich Works continued to build and repair locomotives for the LMS until the company was nationalised in 1948 by the Transport Act 1947, becoming British Railways.

Production changed and the last steam locomotive built at Horwich Works left on 27 November 1957, after which the works produced shunting diesel trains until 28 December 1962.

Horwich was within the county boundaries of Lancashire from the 12th century and was a township in the historic ecclesiastical parish of Deane, in the Hundred of Salford.

In 1837 Horwich joined with other townships and civil parishes to form the Bolton Poor Law Union and took joint responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in that area and built a workhouse in Farnworth.

On 9 January 1974 Horwich was granted a Town Charter by the Earl Marshal, giving Horwich the status of a town, a town council and the ability to elect a Mayor.

At the 2001 UK census, Horwich had a population of 19,312 of which 9,370 were male and 9,942 were female.

At the 2011 UK census, Horwich's population increased to 20,067 of which 9,777 were male and 10,290 were female.

Until the late 18th century, Horwich was a small rural community.

The Horwich indoor market building was closed and demolished in 2009 but there is a weekly outdoor market.

The nearest railway stations are at Blackrod and Horwich Parkway adjacent to the University of Bolton Stadium where there is a Park and Ride facility with trains to Bolton, Manchester and Preston.

Horwich is situated close to the motorway network with access at junction 6 of the M61 motorway.

The oldest school building is the old Horwich Parish School which was built as a National, Infant and Sunday School in 1793 and now used as a parish hall and is a Listed building.