Tonge is an outlying area of

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 people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

, 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. The name is supposed to be derived from the Old English "tang" or "twang" meaning a fork in a river. Tonge comprises two areas, namely Tonge Fold and Tonge Moor. Tonge Fold sits upon the

River Tonge The River Tonge is a short river, splitting Bolton from contiguous Tonge, both in Greater Manchester, England. The Tonge is formed at the ''Meeting of the Waters'', where Astley Brook, from Smithills in the west, meets the Eagley Brook draw ...

, a region of whose banks are a geological

site of special scientific interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

(SSSI).

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 ...

a part of

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 was once part of the

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

Tonge with Haulgh Tonge with Haulgh was a township of the civil and ecclesiastical parish of Bolton le Moors in the Salford hundred of Lancashire, England. History Toponymy The first part of the township, Tonge, as its name implies, is located on the tongue o ...

. By the end of the 19th century Tonge was home to a coal mine.

Education

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 in Tonge;- * Moorgate Country Primary School, * Tonge Moor Academy Primary School * Castle Hill Primary School. * St Columba's RC Primary School Tonge does not have any

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 within its borders, though schools like

Canon Slade School ) , established = ''ante'' 1855 , closed = , type = Academy , trust = The Bishop Fraser Trust , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headteacher , head = Mrs K ...

Turton School Turton School is a mixed comprehensive secondary school and sixth form in Bromley Cross, in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England.

and

Sharples School Sharples School is a co-educational secondary school located in the Sharples area of Bolton in the English county of Greater Manchester. Established in 1974, the School celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2014. Previously a community school a ...

are popular choices around the area.

Landmarks

A noteworthy building in Tonge is

Hall i' th' Wood Hall i' th' Wood is an early 16th-century manor house in Bolton in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of Greater Manchester, England. It is a Grade I listed building and is currently used as a museum by Bolton Metropo ...

, an early 16th-century manor house, and once the home of

Samuel Crompton Samuel Crompton (3 December 1753 – 26 June 1827) was an English inventor and pioneer of the spinning industry. Building on the work of James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright he invented the spinning mule, a machine that revolutionised the ...

in the 18th century. The building was bought by

William Lever William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme , (, ; 19 September 1851 – 7 May 1925) was an English industrialist, philanthropist, and politician. Having been educated at a small private school until the age of nine, then at church schools ...

(later Lord Leverhulme) in 1899, and after it was restored, he gave it to Bolton Corporation in 1900. The public cemetery, laid out by William Henderson, was opened in 1856, with extant buildings by Charles Holt and John Smalman Smith, of land having been purchased from Le Gendre Nicholas Starkie.

References

{{Reflist Areas of Bolton