Sharples, Greater Manchester

Sharples
History
• Created	Middle Ages
• Abolished	1898
Status	Township (until 1866) Civil parish (1866–1898)

Sharples, a suburb of Bolton, was a township of the civil and ecclesiastical parish of Bolton le Moors in the Salford hundred of Lancashire, England. It lay 2½ miles north of Bolton. It contained the smaller settlements of Banktop, Sweet-Loves, High-Houses, Gale, Folds, Belmont, Piccadilly, Water-Meetings, Old Houses, and part of Astley-Bridge.

Sharples was recorded in documents as Charples in 1212, Sharples and Scharples in 1292 and the manor was part of the Barony or Lordship of Manchester in the Middle ages. Sharples was the name of a local family who lived at Sharples Hall, the last was Dr John Sharples Lawson who died in 1816.

Sharples contained forty-three hearths liable to the hearth tax in 1666. During the Industrial Revolution coal was mined on a small scale and cotton mills, calico print-works, extensive bleach-works were built in Belmont and Astley Bridge.

Historically, Sharples formed part of the Hundred of Salford, a judicial division of southwest Lancashire. It was one of the townships that made up the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Bolton le Moors. Under provisions of the Poor Relief Act 1662, townships replaced parishes as the main units of local administration in Lancashire. Sharples became one of the eighteen autonomous townships of the parish of Bolton le Moors. In 1837, Sharples became part of the Bolton Poor Law Union, which took over the responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in that area.

...
Wikipedia