Tonge is an outlying area of

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

, in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, 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, 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 ...

(SSSI).

History

Historically History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

a part of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, it was once part of the

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

and

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

of Bolton parish. By the end of the 19th century Tonge was home to a coal mine. In 1894 Tonge became a separate

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, being formed from the

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

part of Halliwell, on 30 September 1898 the parish was abolished and merged with Bolton.

Education

There are three

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

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, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

s within its borders, though schools like Canon Slade School, Turton School and Sharples School are popular choices around the area.

Landmarks

A noteworthy building in Tonge is Hall i' th' Wood, an early 16th-century manor house, and once the home of Samuel Crompton 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. Educated at a small private school until the age of nine, then at church schools, he joined his f ...

(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 Former civil parishes in Greater Manchester