Derby Barracks is a former military installation in Fletcher Street,

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

History

The original Fletcher Street drill hall was designed as the headquarters of the 27th Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps and established by conversion of an old workhouse in the early 1860s. This unit evolved into the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, The

Loyal North Lancashire Regiment The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) (until 1921 known as the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was in existence from 1881 to 1970. In 1970, the regiment was amalgamated with the Lancashire Reg ...

in 1883 and the 5th Battalion, The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in 1908. The battalion was mobilised at the drill hall in August 1914 before being deployed to the Western Front and was still based there at the start of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. After the Second World War the drill hall was substantial rebuilt and renamed Derby Barracks after

Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby Edward George Villiers Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby, (4 April 1865 – 4 February 1948), styled Mr Edward Stanley until 1886, then The Hon Edward Stanley and then Lord Stanley from 1893 to 1908, was a British soldier, Conservative politician, ...

, who had been honorary colonel of the battalion. Following the cut-backs in 1967, the presence at the barracks was reduced to a single detachment of C Company, 4th (Volunteer) Battalion, The

Queen's Lancashire Regiment The Queen's Lancashire Regiment (30th, 40th, 47th, 59th, 81st and 82nd Regiments of Foot) (QLR) was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the King's Division. It was formed on 25 March 1970 at Connaught Barracks in Dover through ...

in 1975 but expanded again to company strength when C Company established its main base there in 1986. The barracks were still used as a Territorial Army Centre in the late 1990s but were decommissioned and converted for charitable use in 2006.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Bolton category:Drill halls in England