Oswaldtwistle

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OSWALDTWISTLE, a town, a township, a chapelry, and a sub-district, in Whalley parish and Blackburn district, Lancashire. The town stands on the Leeds and Liverpool canal, and on the East Lancashire section of the Yorkshire and Lancashire railway, contiguous to Church village and r. station, 3 miles E S E of Blackburn; is built chiefly of stone; is supplied with water, from works constructed in 1865; carries on industry in extensive cotton-factories, print-works, and potteries; conducts traffic also in connexion with neighbouring collieries and quarries; and has a post-office under Accrington, a local board of health, a church, two large Church schools used also as chapels of ease, five dissenting chapels, three national schools, two dissenting schools, a temperance library and reading-room, and charities £50. The church was built in 1837; consists of nave and chancel, with a tower; and contains about 800 sittings. The dissenting chapels are Independent, Baptist, Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, and United Free Methodist. The township contains also the hamlets of Bellthorn, Stanhill, and Knuzden-Brook. Acres, 4,770. Real property, £27,027; of which £4,237 are in mines, and £317 in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 7,654; in 1861, 7,701. Houses, 1,396. The manor belongs to Sir Robert Peel, Bart. Peelfold, where the first Sir Robert Peel spent his early years, is in Knuzden-Brook. Bellthorn House, Stanhill House, Knuzden Hall, and Mount Pleasant are chief re-sidences. Two cotton-factories are at Knuzden-Brook; an Independent chapel is in Bellthorn; and national schools are in Bellthorn and Knuzden-Brook. The chapelry is less extensive than the township, and was constituted in 1840. Pop. in 1861, 6,183. Houses, 1,100. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Manchester. Value, £300.* Patrons, Five Trustees. The sub-district comprises the township of Oswaldtwistle and Church. Acres, 5,390. Pop. in 1851, 9,689; in 1861, 12,454. Houses, 2,269.

John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72)