Year Event

1900 Hulton Bank Pit 3 & 4 (Pretoria) sunk- closed 1934

1901 Population - Westhoughton township 13,339 plus Part of Over Hulton 1,038

        Total 14,377

1903 Fire at Greenvale Printworks

1903 Snydale Hall Colliery (or Brigadier) closed

1903 Starkie pit sunk

1904 Westhoughton Town Hall completed and opened

1905 Braddocks Doubling Mill at Daisy Hill demolished

1906 Obituary: Luke Marsh aged 97. Oldest inhabitant of Westhoughton

1906 The public library “Carnegie Library” opened 24 March

1908 Fourgates Pits (Wm Woods & Sons) closed down

1908 Diddy Bottle Park created (see Council Minutes 22 June 1908)

1909 September, Bishop consecrates Burial Ground at Wingates

1910 Hall Lee Bank Park opened. The Hall Lee Bank was given to the people of

        Westhoughton by Sir William Rothwell Hulton.

1910 Terrible explosion in the No 3 Pit (Pretoria) of the Hulton Colliery Company 21

        December. 344 lives lost.

1911 Foundation stone of the extension of Wingates School (Roffe memorial) laid 11

        October

1911 February 13th. Pretoria Pit Disaster inquest on 343 bodies concluded after a

        fortnight; exhaustive enquiry

1911 Obituary: 25 September; Rev.H.H.Oliver B.A. First Vicar of Daisy Hill

1911 Obituary: 4 November: Mrs Isabella Taylor (63) Southfield, Chequerbent: wife of

        John Taylor, rope manufacturer.

1911 April 15th: New Cricket Ground opened in Daisy Hill

1912 Obituary: June 17; Father A.L.Coelenbier, Pastor of the Church of the Sacred

        Heart, Westhoughton.

1914 June 6th: Stone laying ceremony at the Westhoughton Central Hall Mission.

1914 Date on the Snydle Water Tower opened by W.U.D.C.

1915 Empire Cinema opened on Empire Day 24 May

1915 January - Central Drive Primary School opened.

1920 Market site acquired and established. Covered and fenced in 1924

1921 Population - 15,582

1924 Trams from Westhoughton to Bolton started running

1925 Royal Naval Gun Factory dismantled

1926 Wearish Lane Council houses - 2.670 acres of land purchased from James Riding.

        32 houses ready for occupation March 1927

1927 Hulton Bank Pit No 1 & 2 (Klondike) closed

1927 First Electric Car ran into Westhoughton 19 December - the length of track from

        Deane to W.H. Terminus 3 miles 21 yards.

1927 Actor Robert Shaw born at 51 King St on 9 August

1932 Wigan Coal & Iron shut down it’s Aspull Pumps leading to the flooding of

        Westhoughton Mines

1932 Ethel Johnson, a sprinter from Westhoughton represented her country at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games

1933 Starkie Pitt closed in November

1934 Pretoria Pit closed 14 April 1934 - the biggest pit in Westhoughton employing

        750 workpeople

1935 Snydle Hall demolished

1936 Eatock Pit closed (due to flooding) in February

1936 Stott’s Pit closed 14 November. The last pit in Westhoughton

1937 Westhoughton High School - Then Westhoughton Girls Secondary Modern School

        opened.

1938 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth visited Westhoughton for 34 minutes on

         Friday May 20th.

1938 Fire at Albion Cotton Mills - 31 August

1947 Calmic Pharmaceutical Company leaves Wingates

1952 Chequerbent Railway Station closed to passengers on 3 February

1960 Empire Cinema - Last film show 5 November. Closed to become Social Club

1960 St Andrew’s Hulton School opened (the original site was where St Andrew’s church stands)

1962 Plans  were drawn up for a new town which would have increased the population

        from 17,000 to 71,000

1965 Chequerbent Railway Station was closed completely 27 February

1966 Plans for new town withdrawn.

1968 Postal Sorting Office in Westhoughton - closed

1970 Chequerbent Church/School & Stag & Griffin Pub along with cottages demolished

        to make way for Chequerbent M61 traffic island

1970 St James’ new school opened

1971 Sacred Heart Infant School , Central Drive opened

1972 Brancker Street demolished

1973 New Chequerbent Church & School dedicated to St Thomas opened April

1974 Westhoughton’s old railway station buildings demolished April 1974

1974 The Urban District of Westhoughton became part of Bolton Metropolitan Borough.

1977 T’Ranters - Primitive Methodist Church Hindley Road Daisy Hill closed

1979 Washacre School opened

1990 St Bartholomew’s destroyed by vandal fire, Thursday 29 November - only tower

        saved.

1993 Sir Geoffrey Alan Hulton, Bart., died at Hulton Park in November

1994 Sacred Heart Church on Lord Street demolished to make way for new church.

1995 New St Bartholomew’s church rebuilt and consecrated 29 October