Bolton, Lancashire Poor Law Union

History
Bolton Poor Law Union was constituted in 1837, under the Poor Law Reform Act of 1834. It comprised the following townships:

Parish of Bolton-le-Moors

Bradshaw, Breightmet, Darcy Lever, Edgworth, Entwistle, Great Bolton, Harwood, Little Bolton, Little Lever, Longworth, Lostock, Quarlton, Sharples, Tonge-with-Haulgh, Turton.

Parish of Deane

Farnworth, Halliwell, Heaton, Horwich, Kearsley, Little Hulton, Middle Hulton, Over Hulton, Rumworth, Westhoughton.

Parish of Middleton Great Lever.

The townships of Anglezarke and Rivington, Bolton-le-Moors Parish were in Chorley Union; Blackrod Bolton-le-Moors Parish was in Wigan Union.

Astley_Bridge,_Lancashire, Bolton_le_Moors_St_Peter,_Lancashire , Bolton_le_Moors_Christ_Church,_Lancashire , Bolton_le_Moors_Emmanuel,_Lancashire, Bolton_le_Moors_Holy_Trinity,_Lancashire Bolton_le_Moors_St_George,_Lancashire , Bradshaw,_Lancashire Deane,_Lancashire , Farnworth_and_Kearsley,_Lancashire , Halliwell_St_Peter,_Lancashire ,Halliwell_St_Paul,_Lancashire Harwood,_Lancashire , Horwich,_Lancashire Lever_Bridge,_Lancashire , Little_Bolton_All_Saints,_Lancashire , Little_Bolton_St_John,_Lancashire ,Little_Hulton,_Lancashire Little_Lever,_Lancashire ,Tonge,_Lancashire , Turton,_Lancashire ,Walmsley,_Lancashire ,West_Houghton,_Lancashire

Fishpool Workhouse
The Bolton Union Workhouse at Fishpool in Farnworth was opened in 1861. Before that date, the Guardians used the former township workhouses of Great Bolton Fletcher Street and Turton Goose Cote Hill. Other premises administered by the Board included the Casual or Tramp Wards in Kings Gate, Great Bolton, Hollins Cottage Homes for poor children in Farnworth, and Townleys Hospital, which was built on a site next to Fishpool Workhouse. The Board was abolished by the Local Government Act of 1929, and its powers and functions transferred to the Public Assistance Committees of Bolton County Borough and Lancashire County Councils

In 1930, the Local Government Act abolished the Board of Guardians who had their final meeting on 26th March. The running of the workhouse (now known as Fishpool Institution) passed to a new Public Assistance Committee. Following the inauguration of the National Health Service in 1948, Fishpool became Townley's Annexe, then Townley's Branch. Then the whole site came under the name of Bolton District General Hospital, now the Royal Bolton Hospital. Bolton Union operated an establishment for casuals or vagrants known as Kings Gate Institution on Kings Gate in Bolton.

Hollins Cottage Homes
In the mid-1870s, Bolton was one of the unions who pioneered the use of "cottage homes" as an alternative form of accommodation for pauper children away from the main workhouse. On an area at the south of the workhouse, four houses were built around a central green, together with a school. Each single-sex cottage accommodated thirty children and had a large living-room, kitchen, three dormitories, and a bedroom for the house-parents. The site, which became known as Hollins Cottage Homes, was subsequently extended southwards with the erection of further cottages, together with a gymnasium, and superintendent's house at the south-west. The homes were also walled off from the main workhouse site and had their own separate entrance from Plodder Lane at the south.

http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/bolton-archives/archives-indexes/workhouse-registers/

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http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Bolton/Bolton.shtml for history and maps

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