BOLTON, or England, manufacturing town of Lancashire, 10 miles northwest from Manchester. It con sists mainly of two divisions, Great Bolton and Little Bolton, separated from each other by the river Croal. The older portion of the two con tains many narrow and irregular streets, but by far the larger portion of the town is modern. About $2,500,000 has been recently expended in street improvements. The finest of the public edifices is the town hall, in the Grecian style, with a tower 220 feet high, fronting a spacious square, and erected at an expense of about $1,000,000. Among other public buildings are one of the finest market halls in England, cost ing, with its approaches, nearly 500,000; a church institute; a temperance hall; commodi ous baths; savings bank; two theatres; two technical schools; a post-office, gas offices, County Court, infirmary and children's hospital; orphanages; Chadwick and Mere Hall museums; board schools; poor-law offices, etc. The religious edifices are numerous, and some of them of fine architectural appearance. Fore most among these is Saint Peter's parish church, a modern crud i form building in the Decorated style, with a tower at the western end 150 feet high. The schools are numerous and well attended, and, under the school board, education is rapidly improving. There is a free grammar school, founded in 1641. The Bolton Free Public libraries (six in number) contain over 93,000 volumes. There are now four parks and three recreation grounds be longing to the town. In manufacturing indus try Bolton is surpassed by few places in the kingdom, the cotton manufacture being its staple. It contains some of the largest and finest cotton mills in the world. In the town
itself there are some 370 factories, of which nearly 140 are cotton mills and establishments for the weaving of cotton fabrics. The yarns spun in Bolton are generally fine, and a great variety of fancy goods is produced, besides plain calicoes. Bleaching is also carried on to a great extent, there being over 20 bleaching grounds, some of them very large. There are also several large engineering works, iron works, soap factories, employing a great many hands. Besides these there are collieries, paper mills, foundries, chemical works and various other works. Bolton is of considerable antiquity, having been raised to the dignity of a market town in 1256. It returns two members to Parliament. Bolton has a long history as an industrial city. In 1337 Flemish immigrants established woolen manufactures, and in the 17th century the arrival of French Huguenots gave a fresh impetus to this industry. About 1750 velvets were first made here. Adcwright and Crompton, whose inventions revolutionized the textile industry, were natives of Bolton. They met with considerable opposition at first but the results were beneficial to Bolton's pre eminence as a centre of the textile industry. Bolton was a pioneer in municipal enterprise, having a municipally owned water plant in 1847. At present the gas works, street railways, elec tric plant are owned by the city, which also operates markets, ice houses, etc. There is a sewage farm operated for the utilization of the sewage. It was incorporated in 1838, and be came a county borough in 1.•:•:. Pop. 180,855.