| Sharples | |
| Geography | |
| Status | Township (until 1866) Civil parish (1866–1898) |
| History | |
| Created | Middle Ages |
| Abolished | 1898 |
Sharples, a suburb of Bolton, was a township of the civil and ecclesiastical parish of Bolton le Moors in the Salford hundred of Lancashire, England. It lay 2½ miles north of Bolton.[1][2] It contained the smaller settlements of Banktop, Sweet-Loves, High-Houses, Gale, Folds, Belmont, Piccadilly, Water-Meetings, Old Houses, and part of Astley-Bridge.
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Sharples was recorded in documents as Charples in 1212, Sharples and Scharples in 1292[1] and the manor was part of the Barony or Lordship of Manchester in the Middle ages. Sharples was the name of a local family who lived at Sharples Hall, the last was Dr John Sharples Lawson who died in 1816.[3][4]
Sharples contained forty-three hearths liable to the hearth tax in 1666. During the Industrial Revolution coal was mined on a small scale and cotton mills, calico print-works, extensive bleach-works were built in Belmont and Astley Bridge.[4]
Historically, Sharples formed part of the Hundred of Salford, a judicial division of southwest Lancashire. It was one of the townships that made up the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Bolton le Moors.[5] Under provisions of the Poor Relief Act 1662, townships replaced civil parishes as the main units of local administration in Lancashire.[6] Sharples became one of the eighteen autonomous townships of the civil parish of Bolton le Moors.[1] In 1837, Sharples became part of the Bolton Poor Law Union, which took over the responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in that area.[7]
In 1864 Lower Sharples and part of Little Bolton became Astley Bridge Local Board of Health and in 1894 Astley Bridge Urban District before being merged in Bolton Borough in 1898. Upper Sharples became Belmont civil parish in the Bolton Rural District from 1894 to 1898 when it became part of Turton Urban District and in 1974 became part of Blackburn District in Lancashire.[8]
The township, on ground rising to the north of Bolton, had an area of 3920 acres divided into two portions.[4] Upper Sharples on the slopes of Winter Hill and Whimberry Hill contained the districts of Hordern, Belmont, and the hamlet of Bromiley and a reservoir built by Bolton Waterworks formed the boundary between Sharples and Longworth. Lower Sharples was separated from the upper portion by a detached portion of Little Bolton. Astley Bridge is in Lower Sharples.[1] The old road over the West Pennine Moors from Bolton to Preston via Astley Bridge and Withnell, now the A675 passed through the township for five miles. Much of the land is high moorland.
St Peter's church in Belmont was built in 1850.