Travel Tottington, Greater Manchester Map

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Tottington, Greater Manchester history

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There is no mention of Tottington in the Domesday Book and little evidence of a settlement before the Norman conquest. The earliest extant record of Tottington is from 1212 when it was recorded as Totinton. Tottington’s name is most likely derived from the Old English for the land or farmstead belonging to a man called Tota; or “tot” may be from an Old English word meaning “hilltop lookout point”. Tottington was part of the larger Royal Manor of Tottington, which comprised the northern part of the parish of Bury and was originally part of the De Montbegon Barony (Roger de Montbegon was present at the signing of the Magna Carta). Throughout the Middle Ages the manor was reduced as land was exchanged and bequeathed. Walmersley and Shuttleworth were given to the Lord of Bury; Musbury and Cowpe with Lench in the north were ceded to Blackburnshire. The Manor of Tottington eventually formed part of the Honour of Clitheroe, which in turn became part of the eventual Duchy of Lancaster. When the Duke of Lancaster seized the throne to become Henry IV the duchy became royal and the Manor of Tottington with it. Tottington Hall is first recorded in 1504, as the residence of the Nuttall family. The Nuttall family’s fortunes improved throughout the Tudor and Stuart periods and in 1715 Thomas Nuttall built the first school in Tottington. In 1770 the hall and its estates were bought by John Gorton, whose family had made their wealth in the cotton trade. He brought his industrial expertise to Tottington, building Tottington Mill, Kirklees Mill and Leemings Hill Bleach Works; greatly contributing to the prosperity and expansion of the village in the Georgian period. During this time the family financed the building of St Anne’s Church and vicarage, and refurbished Tottington Hall leaving it much as it stands today. In 1863 the hall and grounds were put up for sale and came under the Roberts family before being bought by the recently formed Tottington Urban District Council in 1918 for £2,750. Ownership was handed over to the newly formed Bury Metropolitan Council in 1974, who used it to house the village library. Bury Council closed the library in 2018. Running of Tottington Hall was taken over by the local community in 2018. Operating as the Tottington Centre, it houses a library, tea rooms and locally based clubs. Little expansion occurred until the Industrial Revolution when in common with other Lancashire settlements in the 19th century, Tottington saw a large industrial presence develop, largely under the influence of John Gorton. Nine mills were listed in an 1891 directory producing calico, cotton cloth and yarn. In 1884 Hilaire de Chardonnet, a French chemist, came to the area to work on a cellulose-based fabric that became known as ‘Chardonnay silk’. A forerunner of rayon it was an attractive cloth, Chardonnet displayed it in the Paris Exhibition of 1889. However, like celluloid it was very flammable, following several publicly reported accidents, it was discontinued. The site on Royds Street South reverted to typical Lancashire textile production until 1925, when the Kirklees Rayon Company began producing viscose continuous filament yarn at the mill. This continued until 1955 when viscose production ceased. Courtaulds took over the mill in 1962 and converted it into a dye-house, this work continued until 1980. The site is now occupied by the housing estate centred on Kirklees Street. Tottington Mill printworks was the subject of the 1921 sketch “Mill Yard, Tottington” by LS Lowry. The rapid expansion of the local population in the early 19th century, and the abundance of public houses that followed, led to the building of Tottington Dungeon in 1835 to lock up drunks and miscreants. It is not known who built it, who the carved faces on the outer stonewalls represent or who carved them. However, it does share architectural similarities with the folly built in the grounds of Nabbs House in Greenmount, which was constructed at the same time by John Turner. The following is a first hand account from a local mill worker, as published in Victorian and Edwardian Lancashire by John Hudson (Published 13 November 2008): In 1882 the Bury to Holcombe Brook Line was opened by Bury and Tottington District Railway. In 1888 the line was taken over by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and Tottington railway station remained open until the line closed for passengers in 1952 and goods in 1963. On 16 September 1904 an electric tram service was introduced running along Market Street between Bury and Tottington by Bury Corporation Tramways; in response to this competition the following year the railway introduced new rolling stock and increased the number of ‘halts’ on the line such as at Sunnywood. Passengers had to climb up onto the carriages as there were no platforms. Following the closure of the line, in 1972 Tottington Urban District Council proposed that the trackbed of the former Holcombe Brook branch should be developed as a 3-mile recreational path; the project was adopted by Bury Metropolitan Council upon its creation and the pathway is now known as the Kirklees Trail. During the Second World War, Tottington was hit at 5:50 am on the morning of Christmas Eve 1944 by one of 45 V-1 flying bombs, launched from adapted Heinkel He 111 bombers flying over the North Sea. The ‘Doodlebug’ landed on a row of cottages in Chapel Street, killing two men and four women and injuring 14 others, one of whom died later. Numbers 21 and 23 Chapel Street were destroyed, while two neighbouring properties and a shop were severely damaged. The impact left a crater 30 ft deep, a total of 27 houses suffered serious structural damage, eight of which had to be demolished. St Anne’s Church nearby had all its windows blown out, save for one behind the altar. The Whitehead family of nearby Stormer Hill Hall raised funds to have the area turned into a memorial garden, which was dedicated in 1950. The original brass plaque was stolen in 1975 and the gardens now feature a memorial stone dedicated to those lost. Since the War Tottington has expanded with the Moorside area residential development being built in the early 1970s and new property built on the site of many of the former mills such as Spring Mill and Kirklees Mill.

  

Tottington, Greater Manchester map & travel guide with history & landmarks to explore

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Tourist Guide to Tottington, Greater Manchester Map

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