Todmorden

"TODMORDEN, a market and post town in the parish of Rochdale, hundred of Salford, county Lancaster, 9 miles N.E. of Rochdale, and 12 W. of Halifax. It is a station on the eastern section of the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, where the Burnley branch turns off. This place, anciently called Todmaredene, or "the valley of the Foxmere," is situated in the vale of the Calder, near the Halifax and Rochdale canal, and on the Yorkshire border, where it extends into the parish of Halifax. The town is well built and lighted with gas, and is under the local government of a board of magistrates, with a police inspector and two constables. Petty sessions are held once a fortnight, and a county court once a month at the Odd Fellows' Hall. The population of the town in 1861 was 11,797, of which number the township of Todmorden, including the hamlet of Walsden, contained 9,146 against 7,699 in 1851, the remainder were residents within the adjoining townships of Langfield and Stansfield. The gas-works were erected in 1847, at an expense of £10,000, and a savings-bank in 1857; there are also a branch of the Manchester and Liverpool bank, a police station with lock-up, and several hotels. Many of the inhabitants are employed in the cotton mills, which trade includes various branches, as cotton spinning, fustians, velveteens, satteens, dimities, and calicoes; the manufacture also of worsted goods has been introduced, and there are foundries and machine works of great magnitude, these last chiefly engaged in supplying the extensive manufactories in the neighbourhood. Water, stone, timber, and coal are abundant, which add to the advantages of this as a manufacturing district. In addition to the numerous water-mills on the banks of the Calder, there are in the township several factories where the machinery is wholly propelled by steam; but hand-loom weaving is now extinct. In the adjoining township of Langfield stands a stone column, first erected in 1815, to commemorate the termination of the French war; but having fallen down, was subsequently re-erected by subscription, at an expense of about £800. The principal seats are Scaitcliffe, Todmorden Hall, Stansfield Hall, Centre Vale, and Ridge Foot. The Poor-law Union comprises 6 townships, but there is no union workhouse, the poor being relieved at their respective townships. The board of guardians meet at the Station House inn every Thursday. Two newspapers, the Todmorden Advertiser and Post are published in the town. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Manchester, value £300, in the patronage of the Vicar of Rochdale. The church is dedicated to Christ. The chancel has a painted E. window. It was erected in 1831, and stands by the old one, dedicated to St. Mary, which is used as a chapel-of-ease. There is also a new church at Walsden, which by a recent Act of parliament has been constituted a separate parish for ecclesiastical purposes. There are National schools, partially endowed, for both sexes, and other schools, designated Short-time schools, supported by the principal manufacturers. The Wesleyans, Calvinists, Unitarians, and New Connexion and Association Methodists have chapels. Market day is on Saturday, and on the first Thursday in each month for cattle. Fairs are held on the Thursday before Easter, and on the 27th September for cattle, &c."