NEWTON-LE-WILLOWS 1821-1851 Lynton J. Smith, M.A., B.Litt
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THE IMPACT OF THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY ON A SOUTH LANCASHIRE TOWNSHIP: NEWTON-LE-WILLOWS 1821-1851 Lynton J. Smith, M.A., B.Litt. (Oxon), M.A. (Land.) EWTON-LE-WILLOWS1 is situated on the lowlands of N south Lancashire, on the route to the north by way of Warrington, Wigan and Preston. From Saxon times until 1830 the village of Newton was in the east of the township, situated on an inlier of bunter sandstone overlooking a crossing place on the River Deane; this sandstone area provided a dry site and a water supply from shallow wells. The remainder of the township is a broad spread of boulder clay alluvial tracts limited to the stream courses, which find their way southwards to the Mersey. Most of the area is not subject to flooding. (Fig. i) Between 1559, the date of its creation as a borough sending two representatives to Parliament, and 1830, Newton-le-Willows experienced few events of any significance. The township was visited by armed groups from both sides during the Civil War and there were skirmishes in the area, including the Battle of Winwick Pass or Red Bank to the south in 1648. In 1660 Richard Legh purchased the barony from Sir Thomas Fleetwood and gained control of the parliamentary borough.2 Richard Legh was elected Member of Parliament for Newton in the year of the purchase. The old chapel in the village, founded in 1242, had fallen into disuse and Richard Legh began to rebuild it in 1682.3 Two years earlier horse racing on Newton Common, at the west end of the township, was recorded for the first time.4 Newton had become a prosperous market town by the end of the seventeenth century; this prosperity continued throughout the eighteenth century. The opening, in 1757, of the Sankey Canal, which ran along the western boundary of the township appears to have had no measur able effect upon the economic life of the township. In sharp contrast, the surrounding towns of south Lancashire experienced considerable change in the eighteenth century. Warrington developed as a port on the Mersey after 1694 with 109 VILLAGE-- Clay Sandstone NEWTON Alluvium Boulder Bunter GEOLOGY V".- b a 6s Cr Wo editior 1st Glass Newton 1853 1833 1821-1851 Railway Survey INDUSTRY 18381 mile) BY Lease, AFTER map. EARLESTOWN on one (Ordnance BUILT to (Tithe Foundry LE-WILLOWS crossing inches Level Vulcan Embankments six Liverpool-Manchester 1830-38 1838-45/6 PROPERTY ""^ NEWTON- UUUUUUim Liverpool and Manchester Railway ill important sail cloth and textile industries, metal using industries including locks, hinges and pins, copper smelting, glass making and sugar refining. Wigan on the River Douglas, made navigable in 1719, was a growing centre for coalmining and cotton manu facturing. After 1770 the area at the head of the Sankey Canal developed the industries of copper smelting, plate glass making and iron founding; from this industrial and urban sprawl was to emerge the town of St Helens. All these towns grew because they offered to entrepreneurs what Schumpeter described as 'the necessary and sufficient conditions'5 for industrial development; these conditions include land, transport facilities and accessible raw materials. Unlike its neighbours, Newton-le-Willows in 1830 was still a small market town, and soon, in 1832, to lose its parlia mentary franchise. A directory of this period gives the trades of the population as blacksmiths (2), boot and shoe makers (4), butchers (3), coal masters (i), corn millers and corn and flour dealers (2), glass manufacturers (i).8 It was, in fact, merely a market town consisting 'of one broad street distinguished by its numerous public houses'.7 On Wednesday, 15 September 1830, in this township an event of great national importance was witnessed: the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. To one person writing in the same year it seemed that prosperity was near: enthusiastically he wrote, 'a new railroad to Warrington is about commencing which, when united with the Liverpool and Manchester railway, will much increase the business of the place'.8 Nor was this all, for the Wigan Branch Railway from Parkside to Wigan was to be opened in 1832. To an imaginative person of that time it might have seemed that Newton was destined for a great future. THE EFFECT ON THE ECONOMY The building of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the two other railways which joined it from the south at Newton Junction and from the north at Parkside gave Newton railway links with the growing cities of Liverpool and Manchester; later, in the i83o's, links with Birmingham via the Grand Junction Railway and London were established, and with Wigan and Preston. By 1834 Newton had more railway connections than any other township of its size and could boast three railway stations Newton Junction, sometimes called Warrington Junction, Newton Bridge and Parkside. The necessary and sufficient conditions for industrial develop ment appeared almost overnight. The economy of the township experienced change with the establishment of four industrial U2 L. J. Smith firms and each in its way made some contribution to the settle ment pattern. Their foundation was directly attributable to the railways: The Liverpool and Manchester railway, which passes through the chapelry, has no doubt been instrumental in inducing the proprietors of the several works to establish themselves here, and the Warrington and Wigan railways, connected with the great parent line, and that with Newton afford additional facilities for the conveyance of goods and persons.9 The four companies created factory villages or as Dr J. D. Marshall has called them industrial colonies. Marshall has classi fied them as primary and secondary types, those at Newton were secondary being developments away from, or parallel to, that of a pre-existing town, perhaps before ultimate absorption in the latter. Secondary colonisation, as seen in these terms, was com mon in industrial Lancashire.10 In 1830 two companies were established; it is difficult to decide which came earlier for convenience the Chemical Works will be examined first. On the east bank of the Sankey Canal, at Bradley Lock, James Muspratt began the production of soda by the Leblanc process. It was a particularly convenient site since, by the Sankey Canal Act of 1755, limestone was accorded freedom from dues, a concession which, when coupled with the nearness of coal-mines, made this site at Newton particularly advantage ous.11 Furthermore, salt was easily imported by Canal from Cheshire. (Fig. i) Very slowly a small settlement was developed by the chemical works around three sides of a square, called rather imaginatively Vitriol Square. It was not a mushroom growth and, as the map shows, only the north side had been com pleted by 1838, the remainder being built after that date. (Fig. i) In addition to the cottages, a small school was provided which also served as a church. In the same year as Muspratt began soda production, the Vulcan Foundry was established. To the south of the works began to appear the first of a collection of terraced houses, owned by the Company, which now comprise the Vulcan Village. Their origin is somewhat obscure, one theory being that the Village was built by George Stephenson ... to house railway workers, when the line between Manchester and Liverpool was being constructed.12 A similar origin has associated the early years of the Village with the contractors' men engaged on the construction of the colliery line, which was later replaced by the Warrington and Newton Railway, and that the houses were subsequently bought by Tayleur who sited his works alongside them.13 Both theories are probably incorrect since, as Figure i shows, Liverpool and Manchester Railway 113 the Village was not completed by 1838, some seven years after the opening of the rail ways mentioned. Of course, the part in existence at that date may have been built by the Warrington and Newton Railway Company the records of which are missing, but there is no mention of a village in the minutes of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company. However, the shape of the Village is somewhat unusual, tapering southwards to a point; this can be explained by the shape of a lease of land to Tayleur and Stephen- son on 30 May 1833, which has been added to Figure i. The plan attached to this lease also shows a small foundry, but no village. It seems safe to suppose that this village was built by the Vulcan Foundry Company, and forms the second contribution by in dustry to the growth of the town. As at Vitriol Square, a school room was built and a church soon after. A similar foundry was established three years later, alongside the Liverpool and Man chester Railway, by Messrs Jones, Turner and Evans. It was called the Viaduct Foundry. Here, too, a collection of workmen's houses grew up, and again they were not all built at once. (Fig. i) The fourth of these firms, to which earlier reference was made, embarked upon the manufacture of crown glass, on a large scale.14 Ackers, Abraham and Company's works were founded upon land to the north of Crow Lane, a site which was to be used by various glass firms until the early years of the present century. The firm, however, built only a single row of workers' cottages. (Fig. i) One other small industrial enterprise appeared between 1830 and 1835. This was a Corn Mill alongside the Haydock Colliery Railway; it was started by James Fairclough, but an industrial colony did not emerge. The Tithe Survey map of 1838 provides a good picture of the township at that time.