In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Todmorden like this:
TODMORDEN, a town, a township, and a chapelry, in Lancashire, and a sub-district and a district partly also in W. R. Yorkshire. The town stands on the river Calder, the Rochdale canal, and the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, 7½ miles NNE of Rochdale; enjoys fine environs, overhung all round by lofty mountains; presents an irregularly-built and straggling appearance; is a seat of petty-sessions and county courts; publishes two monthly newspapers; carries on extensive manufactures of cotton, fustians, velveteens, satteens, iron-work, and machinery; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. ...
station with telegraph, a banking office, three chief inns, a police station, an Odd Fellows' hall, a marble statue of the late John Fielden set up in 1861, a handsome church of 1831, an old church now used only for mortuary services, five dissenting chapels, a mechanics' institute, national schools, a weekly market on Saturday, a cattle market on the first Thursday of every month, and two annual fairs, each of three days' continuance, the one from the Thursday before Easter, the other from 27 Sept.-The township includes Walsden chapelry, bears the name of T. and Walsden, and is in Rochdale parish. Acres, not separately returned. Real property, £30,677; of which £2,252 are in mines, and £103 in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 7,699; in 1861, 9,146. Houses, 1,790. Dobroyd Castle, built in 1866-8, T. Hall, Stansfield Hall, Scaitcliffe, Centre Vale, and Ridgefoot are chief residences; and there are many handsome villas.—The chapelry comprises all the township except Walsden. Pop., 5,212. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Manchester. Value, £300.* Patron, the Vicar of Rochdale.—The sub-district includes part of Halifax parish; and had, in 1861, a pop. of 20,287. Houses, 4,031.—The district includes also Hebden-Bridge sub-district, and comprises 26,920 acres, besides the area of T. township. Poor rates in 1863, £12,617. Pop. in 1851, 29,727; in 1861, 31,113. Houses, 6,435. Marriages in 1863, 133; births, 949,-of which 66 were illegitimate; deaths, 549,-of which 172 were at ages under 5 years, and 7 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,289; births, 9,238; deaths, 6,122. The places of worship, in 1851, were 7 of the Church of England, with 4,950 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 1,120 s.; 13 of Baptists, with 4,092 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 250 s.; 1 of Unitarians, with 400 s.; 11 of Wesleyans, with 3,731 s.; 4 of Primitive Methodists, with 1,090 s.; 8 of the Wesleyan Association, with 1,981 s.; and 1 undefined, with 350 s. The schools were 18 public day-schools, with 1,773 scholars; 45 private day-schools, with 1,550 s.; 46 Sunday schools, with 7,104 s.; and 7 evening schools for adults, with 156 s. There is no workhouse.
Todmorden through time
A Vision of Britain through Time includes a large library of local statistics for administrative units. For the best overall sense of how the area containing Todmorden has changed, please see our redistricted information for the modern district of Calderdale. More detailed statistical data are available under Units and statistics, which includes both administrative units covering Todmorden and units named after it.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Todmorden, in Calderdale and West Riding | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/3
Date accessed: 19th June 2013
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