Harper Green is an area of Farnworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, England.

Historically History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, it lies southeast of Bolton town centre and northwest of Manchester city centre. Harper Green gives its name to one of the twenty

electoral wards The wards and electoral divisions in the United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors. The ward is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil parishes and borough and distri ...

Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council Bolton Council, also called Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. It is a Metropolitan Borough Council, one of ten in Greater Manchester and one of 36 in t ...

History

Harper Green takes its name from a local

yeoman Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century also witn ...

family called Harpur whose holdings were in that area. Most of Harper Green is now covered by modern housing leaving no trace of the original green. In all probability the name green harks back to a bleaching green or

croft Croft may refer to: Occupations * Croft (land), a small area of land, often with a crofter's dwelling * Crofting, small-scale food production * Bleachfield, an open space used for the bleaching of fabric, also called a croft Locations In the Uni ...

when cloth was bleached by the process known as grassing. Unbleached goods were steeped in

lye A lye is a metal hydroxide traditionally obtained by leaching wood ashes, or a strong alkali which is highly soluble in water producing caustic basic solutions. "Lye" most commonly refers to sodium hydroxide (NaOH), but historically has been us ...

and laid in the sun to bleach. In the 18th century and earlier, the Harper family spelled their name Harpur and old maps show the hamlet spelled in that way.

Governance

Harper Green gives its name to the larger Harper Green ward, one of the twenty

. The ward covers the western half of Farnworth, and stretches northwards to include the

Royal Bolton Hospital The Royal Bolton Hospital is an acute general hospital in Farnworth, Greater Manchester. It is managed by the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital was established as a fever hospital and built adjacent to the 'Fishpool Workhouse' in ...

and part of the Lever Edge area of Bolton. At the

2011 United Kingdom census A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National ...

, the electoral ward had a population of 14,478. Harper Green is represented in

Bolton Town Hall Bolton Town Hall in Victoria Square, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, was built between 1866 and 1873 for the County Borough of Bolton to designs by William Hill of Leeds and George Woodhouse of Bolton. The town hall was extended in the 19 ...

by three elected councillors. It is also one of the eight wards which form the Bolton South East constituency and has been represented in the House of Commons by the Labour Party MP

Yasmin Qureshi Yasmin Qureshi (born 5 July 1963) is a British Labour Party politician and a barrister practising criminal law. She headed the criminal legal section of the UN Mission in Kosovo and was later appointed Director of the department of Judicial ...

since 2010.

Transport

Harper Green is located north of junctions 3 and 4 of the M61 motorway. The only main road through Harper Green is the B6199 (Plodder Lane).

Education

In and around Harper Green, there are three

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s: Highfield Primary School on Marsh Lane, Cherry Tree Primary School on Highfield Road, and Our Lady of Lourdes RC Primary School on Beech Avenue, and three

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

s: Harper Green School on Harper Green Road, Mount St Joseph School on Greenland Road, and St James's CE High School on Lucas Road.

References

Bibliography

* {{cite book , last=Billington , first=W.D. , year=1982 , title=From Affetside to Yarrow , location=Egerton , publisher=Ross Anderson Publications , pages=39–40 , isbn=0-86360-003-4 Farnworth Wards of Greater Manchester