Garstang, Lancashire

Description
Garstang, a small but ancient market-town, a township, and a parish in Lancashire. The town stands on the river Wyre, the Lancaster Canal, and the Preston and Lancaster railway, 11 miles S of Lancaster. It was occupied by the Pretender for a short time in 1715, is irregularly built, possesses one main street, and presents an unattractive appearance. It has a bridge over the Wyre, a town-hall, a market-house, two churches, Congregational and Wesleyan chapels, a Liberal club erected in 1888, a head post office, two banks, and a railway station; is a seat of petty sessions and a county court; was incorporated in 1314, with renewal of charter in 1680, and governed by a bailiff and seven capital burgesses. The corporation was, however, dissolved under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1883, and a board of eleven trustees appointed in 1889 by the Charity Commissioners, under the title of the "' Garstang Town Trust." A market is held on Thursdays, and fairs on 12 April, Holy Thursday, 10 and 11 July, and 22 and 23 Nov.; a good corn trade is carried on, and many inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood are employed in corn mills, A tower of Greenhaigh Castle, built by the first Earl of Derby, stands on the north-east side of the town, and a fine aqueduct of the Lancaster Canal crosses the Wyre a quarter of a mile to the south. Acreage of township, 503; population, 856. The parish contains also the townships of Olaugh-ton, Catterall, Kirkland, Nateby, Winmarleigh, Cabus, Barn-acre-with- Bonds, Nether Wyresdale, Bilsborough, and part of the townships of Forton, Holleth, Cleveley, and Pilling. The Wyre, throughout its connection with the parish, abounds with trout, chub, gudgeon, and salmon. The cattle in the several townships are a fine well-shaped breed, and the breeding of shire horses is extensively carried on. The ancient parish church was so sapped by inundation of the Wyre that it required to be restored in 1746; was restored again, with internal improvement, in 1868; is a fine edifice, situated at Church Town, about 1 1/4 mile from the town, and is dedicated to St Helen. The church now in the town was originally a chapel of ease, and is dedicated to St Thomas. The township of Garstang, with parts of other neighbouring townships, was formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1881. The livings. are vicarages in the diocese of Manchester; net yearly value of St Helen, £300 with residence; gross yearly value of St Thomas, £174 with residence. Patron of St Thomas, the Vicar of Garstang. Population of the ecclesiastical parish of St Helen, 1218; of St Thomas, 1558. There is also a grammar school, endowed with c£10 per annum, and other charities.