Nelson, Lancashire

Description
Nelson, a municipal borough in Whalley parish and in Clitheroe parliamentary division, Lancashire, 3 1/2 miles NNE of Burnley, and 32 1/2 from Manchester, with a station on the L. & Y.E., and a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage, 3235; population, 22,700. The town was incorporated in 1890, and has a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors. The borough is divided into six wards-Bradley, Central, Netherfield, Southfield, Walver-den, and Whitefield. Fifty years ago there were only a few scattered houses, and it is now a large and busy town. There are large cotton, worsted, silk, and fancy-dress factories, as well as iron and engineering works. Electric lighting is supplied by the corporation, and a plan for the purification of the sewage has been carried out at a cost of £20,000. A destructor has also been erected whereby the garbage and general refuse of the town is burned. Steam tramways traverse the principal streets. A handsome market-hall was erected in 1889 at a cost of .610,000. A free public library was opened in 1890, and library and technical education buildings in 1894 at a cost of £8000. A fire station was completed in 1894 at a cost of £2500. There are three weekly newspapers, three banks, a theatre, and Liberal and Conservative clubs. The town-hall has been extended at a cost of £12,000 to provide accommodation for the magistrates, and it also contains a court room, police office, and cells. There are public baths, a recreation ground, and an addition to the public park has been acquired at a cost of £8000, and there is a fine cemetery, which cost £10,000. A new reservoir was opened in 1892 at the foot of Pendle Hill, covering 23 acres, with a storage capacity of 40,000,000 gallons. The ecclesiastical parish was formed in 1879. Population, 11,459. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Manchester; net value, £244 with residence. The church is in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, and tower. There are Wesleyan, Congregational, Independent Methodist, Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic, and Free Church chapels.