Upholland, Lancashire

Description
Upholland, a village, a township, and an ecclesiastical parish in Wigan parish, Lancashire. The village stands 1 mile NNW of Orrell railway station, and 4 miles W of Wigan, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Wigan, and a cattle and horse fair on Easter Monday. The township contains also the hamlets of Roby Mill, Crawford, and Dig Moor, is governed by a district council, and comprises 4685 acres; population, 4443. The manor belongs to the Earl of Lathom. Holland Grove is a chief residence. A Benedictine priory was founded in 1319 by Sir R. de Holland, and has left some remains besides the church. There are collieries, stone and slate are quarried, and fire-bricks are made. The ecclesiastical parish is more extensive than the township, and was constituted in 1882. Population, 6666. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Liverpool; net value, £187. Patron, the Rector of Wigan. The church was the chapel of the priory, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, W porch, and embattled western tower. It was restored and enlarged in 1883. There are an endowed grammar school founded in 1668 and reconstituted in 1877, Wesleyan, Primitive, and Free Methodist chapels, a Diocesan Roman Catholic College erected in 1883 for the education of the clergy for the Roman Catholic diocese of Liverpool, and charities £100. The schools at Crawford and Dig Moor are used for divine service on Sundays.