Place:Over Hulton, Lancashire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Over Hulton is now part of Westhoughton within the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southwest of Bolton town centre.

Historically it was a part of the hundred of Salford in the county of Lancashire. Until the mid 19th century, Over Hulton was a township in the ancient parish of Deane. In 1837 Over Hulton along with neighbouring townships (or civil parishes) became part of the Bolton Poor Law Union which took responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in that area. In 1898 the Daubhill area of Over Hulton (re-directed to Bolton) of Over Hulton was added to the County Borough of Bolton and the remainder to Westhoughton Urban District.

Westhoughton Urban District became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in 1974.

History

The ancient district of Hulton, contained three townships, Over Hulton, Middle Hulton and Little Hulton. It was recorded as "Helghtun" and "Hulton" in 1235, "Hilton" in 1278 and 1292, "Hulton" in 1292 although Hilton was still used until the 17th century. The chief manor was held by the Hulton family at Hulton Park in Over Hulton.

The earliest recorded Hultons were Iorweth and Madoc who came from Wales in 1167. It is possible they were joining family who were in the township from 989. Richard de Hulton, is recorded as having freehold of lands in the districts of Hulton, Ordsall, Flixton and Heaton in 1304. At Hulton he built Hulton Hall which was surrounded by a 1,316-acre (5.33 km2) park with 4 acres (1.6 ha) of water. The estate was rich in coal mines. The last surviving member of the Hulton family was Sir Geoffrey Hulton who died in 1993, his family had owned the land for 800 years. The hall was demolished in 1958.

In 1819, a member of this family, the magistrate William Hulton ordered the Yeomanry Cavalry in to arrest William Hunt as he addressed the demonstration at St Peter's Field in Manchester setting off what was to become known as the Peterloo massacre.

The Bolton and Leigh Railway ran to the west serving the Hulton Collieries. The Hulton Collieries Hulton Bank Colliery, otherwise known as the Pretoria Pit, was situated to the south of Hulton Park and just north of the Atherton boundary. The colliery was open from 1901 to 1934. An explosion on 21 December 1910 was the third worst mining disaster in British mining history.

In 1902 a tramway from Lowton via Leigh and Atherton opened to Four Lane Ends where it connected with the trams of Bolton Corporation.

In 2010 the Hulton Park Estate was offered for sale after being home to the Hulton family since 1167. It was bought by the Peel Group.

Research Tips

• See the Wikipedia articles on parishes and civil parishes for descriptions of this lowest rung of local administration. The original parishes were ecclesiastical (described as ancient parishes), under the jurisdiction of the local priest. A parish covered a specific geographical area and was sometimes equivalent to that of a manor. Sometimes, in the case of very large rural parishes, there were chapelries where a "chapel of ease" allowed parishioners to worship closer to their homes. In the 19th century the term civil parish was adopted to define parishes with a secular form of local government. In WeRelate both civil and ecclesiastical parishes are included in the type of place called a "parish". Smaller places within parishes, such as chapelries and hamlets, have been redirected into the parish in which they are located. The names of these smaller places are italicized within the text.
• An urban district was a type of municipality in existence between 1894 and 1974. They were formed as a middle layer of administration between the county and the civil parish and were used for urban areas usually with populations of under 30,000. Inspecting the archives of a urban district will not be of much help to the genealogist or family historian, unless there is need to study land records in depth.
• Civil registration or vital statistics and census records will be found within registration districts. To ascertain the registration district to which a parish belongs, see Registration Districts in Lancashire, part of the UK_BMD website.
• The terms municipal borough and county borough were adopted in 1835 replacing the historic "boroughs". Municipal boroughs generally had populations between 30,000 and 50,000; while county boroughs usually had populations of over 50,000. County boroughs had local governments independent of the county in which they were located, but municipal boroughs worked in tandem with the county administration. Wikipedia explains these terms in much greater detail.
• Lancashire Online Parish Clerks provide free online information from the various parishes, along with other data of value to family and local historians conducting research in the County of Lancashire.
• FamilySearch Lancashire Research Wiki provides a good overview of the county and also articles on most of the individual parishes (very small or short-lived ones may have been missed).
• Ancestry (international subscription necessary) has a number of county-wide collections of Church of England baptisms, marriages and burials, some from the 1500s, and some providing microfilm copies of the manuscript entries. There are specific collections for Liverpool (including Catholic baptisms and marriages) and for Manchester. Their databases now include electoral registers 1832-1935. Another pay site is FindMyPast.
• A map of Lancashire circa 1888 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time includes the boundaries between the parishes and shows the hamlets within them.
• A map of Lancashire circa 1954 supplied by A Vision of Britain through Time is a similar map for a later timeframe.
• GENUKI provides a website covering many sources of genealogical information for Lancashire. The organization is gradually updating the website and the volunteer organizers may not have yet picked up all the changes that have come with improving technology.
• The Victoria County History for Lancashire, provided by British History Online, covers the whole of the county in six volumes (the seventh available volume [numbered Vol 2] covers religious institutions). The county is separated into its original hundreds and the volumes were first published between 1907 and 1914. Most parishes within each hundred are covered in detail. Maps within the text can contain historical information not available elsewhere.
• A description of the township of Over Hulton (along with descriptions of Little Hulton and Middle Hulton) from British History Online (Victoria County Histories), published 1911