Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for STALEYBRIDGE

STALEYBRIDGE, a town and several chapelries in the district of Ashton-under-Lyne and counties of Lancaster and Chester. The town stands on the river Tame and on the Manchester and Huddersfield canal, at a meeting-point of the Northwestern, the Manchester and Sheffield, and the Lancashire and Yorkshire railways, 7½ miles E of Manchester; has grown from a very slender origin, since 1776; became early a great seat of cotton manufacture; was made a municipal borough in 1857, and a parliamentary borough in 1867; is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors; comprises part of Hartshead township in Ashton-under-Lyne parish, part of Staley township in Mottram parish, and part of Dukinfield township in Stockport parish; was proposed, in the Boundary Commissioners' report of 1868, to undergo some curtailment of its limits; occupies a hilly site on both banks of the Tame, under a mountain 1,300 feet high, with much neighbouring picturesque scenery; has outskirts and environs adorned with handsome residences and tasteful grounds; exhibits in itself the smoky appearance characteristic of a great seat of manufacture; underwent much improvement, with construction of extensive new waterworks, under the Public Works act; carries on extensive industry in numerous cotton mills, in some woollen mills, in machine-works, in foundries, in cut and wrought nail works, and in fireclay works; publishes a weekly newspaper; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, a banking office, several good inns, a town hall, market buildings, five churches, nine dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a mechanics' institute, a people's educational institute, seven public schools, a weekly market on Saturday, and three annual fairs. The town hall was built in 1831; and contains a large assembly-room, a council-chamber, a court-room, and police-offices. The market buildings were erected in 1867, at a cost of £8,969; have a frontage of 107 feet toward Melbourne-street, and a clock tower 64 feet high; and include a new bridge for facility of access. Old St. George's church was built in 1776, as a chapel of ease to Ashton; St. Paul's church, in 1839, at a cost of £4,000; St. George's church, in 1840, at a cost of £4,500; St. John's church, in 1841, in the early English style; and Holy Trinity church, in the later English style. The Independent chapel in Melbourne-street was built in 1861, and is in the early English style. The mechanics' institute was built in 1861, at a cost of £4,100; and contains newsrooms, library, class-rooms, and a large hall with capacity for more than 1,000 persons. Pop. of the town in 1851, 20,760; in 1861, 24,921. Houses, 4,864.-One chapelry is that of Staley or St. Paul, noticed in the preceding article; and other chapelries are Old St. George and St. George, in the diocese of Manchester, and St. John and Holy Trinity in the diocese of Chester. The livings are all p. curacies. Value of Old St. G., £130;* of St. G., £243; of St. John and Holy Trinity, each £250. Patron of Old St. G., the Earl of Stamford; of St. G., the Rector of Ashton; of St. J., the Rector of Stockport.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town and several chapelries"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Cheshire AncC
Place: Stalybridge

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