Turton Tower, Lancashire
Photo © Austen Redman, 14 April 2006
Turton Tower, Lancashire
Photo © Austen Redman,
14 April 2006
Turton was a township and later civil parish and local government district in Lancashire, England. Lying between Bolton and Blackburn, the district has now been divided between the two towns. North Turton is now part of the Borough of Blackburn with Darwen in Lancashire, and South Turton is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester.
Turton means "Thor/Þor's village", from the Old Norse personal name Thor/Þor and Old English tun "farm, village". A record of the name as Thirtun in 1185 proves this.[1]
The Scandinavian etymology would seem to fit, considering that there are other place-names in the area of this origin.
Between Chapeltown and Egerton are the remains of prehistoric stone circles on moorland at Chetham Close which date back to the Bronze Age.
These stone circles show the earliest evidence for any settlers in the Turton area. One of the circles was 15 metres (51 ft) in diameter and some of the stones were several feet in height.
In the 19th Century interest was awakened to their existence, so much so that many came to visit the site. Eventually in 1871 the local farmer, a tenant of Turton Tower, took his team of carthorses and sledge hammers and broke it up. Thankfully a prominent antiquarian, Gilbert French, had made sketches, maps and plans and written a detailed description which is now in Bolton Reference Library.
To the south are the remains of the other circle, which was slightly bigger in circumference, is thought to have once been a livestock enclosure.[1]
Turton Tower in Chapeltown was once the home of the Lords of the Manor of Turton and dates back to the 1100s. The earliest reference to the Manor of Turton is found around 1200 by which time part of the manor was in the hands of the de Lathom family (sometimes called "de Torbac"). Turton Tower was inherited in 1420 by the Orrell family.
The pele tower was rebuilt in 1420 and around 1596 the height was increased and the floors raised, creating the three spacious rooms. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the timbered farmhouse buildings on the east and north of the Tower and the Entrance Hall were added.
In 1628 the Orrell family sold Turton Tower to Humphrey Chetham, a Manchester merchant who is responsible for the creation of Chetham's Library and Chetham's School of Music. The Tower was then passed down to his descendants, the Bland, Green and Frere families who leased it to a succession of tenant farmers.
The Tower was sold in 1835 to James Kay (1774-1857), a local man who had made good through the harnessing of steam power to the spinning of flax, and developing the first commercially successful wet-spinning process for flax, in 1825. Kay was determined to restore the Tower to its glory. Few rooms in the main part of the Tower escaped Kay's attentions, and often his valuable work was marred by his inability to resist the temptation to 'restore' what has never been there in the first place. James Kay enjoyed living there until he sold it to two local ladies Elizabeth and Anne Appleton. The Misses leased the Tower to William Rigg, a calico manufacturer whose daughter Ellen wrote down her memories of Turton now published under the title "Victorian Children at Turton Tower".
In October 1903 the tower was bought by Sir Lees Knowles, Baronet, for £3,875, who was MP for Salford West and made his fortune in the Lancashire Coalfields. After his death in 1929, his widow, Lady Nina Knowles, presented Turton Tower to the Urban District Council in 1930, and it became the Council Chamber.
With local government re-organisation in 1974 Turton became part of the new Borough of Blackburn, and the Tower was administered by Lancashire County Museums Service. Following changes with the Lancashire County Museum Service, the tower was taken over by Blackburn With Darwen council. [2]
Turton had the distinction by having two Anglican Chapels of Ease in the township, both were in the ancient Parish of Bolton le Moors, in the hundred of Salford, Lancashire, England.
The first Chapel of Ease at Chapeltown was built in the year 1111 and was originally dedicated to St Bartholomew, but was changed in the early 1700s to St Anne. This building, which had always been known as the Chapel of Turton, was rebuilt a number times, firstly in 1630 and again in 1779. The present Parish Church of Turton was built between 1840 and 1841, the architect was probably John Palmer.[3]
The second Chapel of Ease was at Walmsley, which was the old village name for Egerton. It's not known the date that Walmsley Chapel was built, but the Diocesan Church Calendar stated that it existed in the year 1500 and the first documentary evidence appears to be in the "Inventories of Church Goods 1552". The chapel was rebuilt in 1771, but was demolished in 1839. The present Christ Church, Walmsley, Egerton, was consecrated in 1840.[1]
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