BOLTON. This important Lancashire town has maintained an eminent position in manufactures for many centuries. Leland: speaks of its being a market for cottons and coarse yarns ; and another writer (Biome), who wrote somewhat later, describes it as a fair well-built town, with broad streets, with a market on Mondays, which is very good for clothing and provisions ; and it is a place of great trade for fustians.' There seems to be little doubt that the malting of woollens was introduced by some Flemish clothiers who came over in the 14th century; that other branches of trade were introduced by the French refugee manufacturers, who were at tracted by the prosperity of the neighbour hood; and that the manufacture of cotton cloth was improved, and in many of its kinds originated, by some emigrant weavers, who came from the palatinate of the Rhine.
Bolton made no great advances in popula tion until the improvements in the machinery for spinning cotton gave an impetus to the trade, which has been gradually increasing ever since. Almost the first invention of im portance originated in this town. It was a machine which combined the principles of the spinning•jenny and the water-frame, and was called a mule, by its inventor, Samuel Cromp. ton. This ingenious man lived at Hall in the Wood,' near Bolton, and had to struggle for an existence, while his invention was en riching others. Hall in the Wood' still exists, a memento of the rise of the cotton manufacture.
While Crompton's invention was enriching others, Sir Richard Arkwright, another native of Bolton, who had risen from a very obscure condition, had established large factories in Derbyshire, where he carried the cotton ma chinery to the greatest perfection. The oppo sition made by the labouring classes in Bolton to the improvements in machinery has, at various times, driven the most lucrative branches of employment from that town to other places. The introduction of the mule and of the power-loom was not accomplished until they hail enriched other communities for some time. After a while cotton factories, filled with machinery upon the best principle, began to rise up in various parts of the town. Foundries and machine manufactories followed them, and a great extension was immediately given to the trading interests of the place.
The cotton mills of Bolton are very nume rous; and some of them are among the largest in the county, employing more than 100,000 spindles each. The weavers of Bolton pro duce a great variety of fabrics, probably a greater variety than any other single place in the county. Plain and fancy muslins, quilt ings, counterpanes, and dimities, are the chief I kinds of cloth ; but cambrics, ginghams, Rzel are also woven. Formerly, fustians, jeans, thicksetts, and similar fabrics, were the prin cipal articles made in the town ; but these descriptions of cloth are now chiefly produced in the power-loom, as well as calicoes and dimities. The bleach and dye-works, espe• cially the former, in the town and neighbour hood are among the largest in the kingdom ; and there are likewise a few print-works. A great proportion of the cotton goods manufac-1 tured here are sold in Manchester, where the manufacturers have warehouses for the storing and sale of their cloths ; they meet their customers there from all parts of the country, one, two, or three days of each week.
Mr. Harris, superintendent of the Bolton Police, in his Police Report for 1849, made to the Corporation, gives the following interesting details respecting the manufactures of Bolton, in the year just named; these details relate to the borough only, and do not include the other townships of the parish.
Steam Hands No Horsepower. Employed.
Cotton Mills .. 53 ... 2200 .. 9750 Foundries and Forges 22 ... 590 ... 3043 Bleach Works ... 8 ... 628 937 Paper Mills ... 1 ... 124 ... 118 Coal Mines ... 5 ... 85 ... 64 Gas Works ... 1 ... .. 43 go 3627 13,964Many of the above items fluctuate so much, that the table can be regarded only as a use ful approximation. Several new cotton mills have since that date been built at Bolton. The attempts occasionally made to introduce the silk manufacture into Bolton have only been partially successful. The manufacture of steam-engines and machines is carried on to a large extent. The town is abundantly supplied with coal, which lies beneath and around it.
Counterpanes and other products of Bolton industry will be exhibited at the grand display of 1851 ; and many of the workmen in the' factories have subscribed to the general fund for the Exhibition.