Wallsuches is a small district of

Horwich Horwich ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. Prior to 1974 in the historic county of Lancashire. It is southeast of Chorley, northwest of Bolton and northwest of Manchester. It l ...

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.

Etymology

The etymology of the place-name itself is unclear, although it is believed the name may be from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''wella'' (or the regional dialect variant wella) "stream" and ''soc'' "to soak", from Old English socian "to make wet/damp". This is probably because there are several streams running through the area from the moors.

History

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 ...

, Wallsuches was first built on substantially by the Ridgway family in the 1770s. Thomas Ridgway Snr. owned a bleach works in

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 ...

until 1770 when a fire destroyed most of the stock and equipment. Wallsuches was selected as the new site due to the availability of land and streams to provide water power to run the

bleach Bleach is the generic name for any chemical product that is used industrially or domestically to remove color (whitening) from a fabric or fiber or to clean or to remove stains in a process called bleaching. It often refers specifically, to ...

works and

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning (textiles), spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Althou ...

. The main road through

to Bolton had been improved, which was good for business access and employees. In 1777, the new works were opened as "Thomas Ridgway and Sons". At the time Horwich was a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of 320 residents, mostly self-employed farmers and cotton weavers. "Wallsuches Bleach Works" brought employment to Horwich and workers came from Horwich,

Blackrod Blackrod is a List of towns in England, town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, northeast of Wigan and west of Bolton. At the United Kingdom Census 2011, it had a po ...

, Adlington and

Rivington Rivington is a village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, occupying . It is about southeast of Chorley and about northwest of Bolton. Rivington is a rural area consisting primarily of agricultural grazing land, ...

. Wallsuches was highly successful, and by 1780 the former shippon and hut had been converted into a bleach works powered by six water wheels. The Ridgways lived across the main access road from the works in a house called "Whitehouse", which they renamed "Ridgmont House", which still stands. Thomas Ridgmont sponsored French chemists Matthew Vallet and Anthony Bourboulon de Boneuil who pioneered the development of chemical bleaching, using

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate betwee ...

and Wallsuches became one of the first to use the technology. Beforehand, bleaching was carried out using sunlight. The bleach works operated as one of the main industries in Horwich until 1933. The works were closed and the site became derelict and run-down. The area has since been developed for housing by Redrow, incorporating the

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

buildings.

References

Notes Bibliography * {{refend

External links

Wallsuches
Horwich Areas of Greater Manchester Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton

Etymology

History

See also

References

External links