Horwich, United Kingdom

Ancient records are of Horwich Forest being overrun with wolves in the time of Ecgfrid, ruler of Northumbria until 685, 'Smithills walled round to keep them at bay'. Around this time early Saxon Kings used the forest for the chase, while staying at the ancient Smithells Hall, records exist of Ælla of Northumbria making use of the forests for hunting. Ecgberht (Egbert) is a notably visitor associated with the area in this early period. Horwich developed from a 'bridge point settlement' on the River Douglas at what is now Scholes Bank. By the Middle Ages Horwich was a hunting chase, after the Norman Conquest held by Albert de Gresle between 1086 and 1100. In 1277 Robert Gresle, Baron of Manchester prosecuted Martin de Rumworth for carrying off deer in Horwich Chase which was described in 1322 as being within "a circuit of sixteen leagues with a yearly value in pannage, aeries of eagles, herons and goshawks, in honey, millstones, and iron mines, in charcoal-burning, and the like issues, 60 shillings; of which the vesture in oaks, elms and wholly covered with such, 160 marks." In 1294 Thomas Gresle, sixth Baron of Manchester obtained free warren over "Horewich". The local enforcement of Forest Law was through a Bailiff who served the Lord of the Manor and it was he who decided punishments. Trespassers in the forest were brought before the Manorial Court Leet. The decline of Horwich forest is connected to the dissolution when Henry VIII seized all the church lands and then sold them.

By the 16th century, subsequent to the reformation land ownership had shifted from Church to the crown and was then sold to new owners, who transformed the town into an agricultural economy, and forests were cleared. Many of the farms from the period still existed until the housing boom of the 19th and 20th centuries, like many Lancashire towns the cotton industry was prominent as at least a secondary occupation in many households, weaving became a widespread occupation, and industries like bleaching, dying and paper making grew from the use of water power with the towns preindustrial plentiful access to flowing water. The town continued this path until the arrival of the railway workshops in the 19th century.

In 1598 a number of men were presented at the court leet for tithing and in 1621 the court leet recorded "paid for hue and crye that came from Horwich after the man who made an escape forth of ye stocks for stealing certain lynen cloth 8d". The earliest map of Horwich is dated 1620 and is known as 'The Platt of Horwich', naming the landowner as Sir Thomas Barton, of the Barton family of Holme Hall in the manor of Holme Newark and Smithills Hall, Bolton. A plague pit is noted on the map, with victims of a 1623 outbreak, interred in a mass grave under what is now Lever Park Avenue. The existence of the pit is likely a local myth coming about by modern additions to a copy of an older map. By the 17th century, the amount of woodland in the Horwich forest was reduced by house building and for fuel. Horwich Moor was enclosed between 1815 and 1818. Race meetings were held between 1837 and 1847 at the 'Old Lords estate', an area next to the Rivington border, named after 11th Baron Willoughby. Four Barons Willoughby of Parham are interred at Horwich Parish Church.

The manor became the property of the Andertons of Lostock Hall, Lostock, who purchased it in 1599 from Nicholas and Elizabeth Mosley. These lands were confiscated by The Crown in 1715 after the Battle of Preston. They were leased to the Blundells whose coat of arms is displayed above the door at the Blundell Arms on Chorley Old Road.

The Pilkington family were notable in the town's history, prior to the Ridgways. The town coat of arms incorporates the Pilkington Cross, in recognition of the founder of the Rivington and Blackrod High School, James Pilkington, Bishop of Durham and the prominent role in the local history of the family. Richard Pilkington, a leading non-conformist and owner of Horwich Manor, and his family feature in the town's history from the post Protectorate to the industrial revolution being benefactors and founders of a number of places of worship. Another William Pilkington (1765–1831) became a physician and apothecary in St Helens. It is this branch that links Horwich to the founders of Pilkington Glass, his sons being Richard (1795–1869) and William (1800–1872).

In the 1770s brothers, John and Joseph Ridgway, land agents to the Blundells, moved their bleach works from Bolton to Wallsuches. Their works was the oldest and one of the few stone-built mills in the Bolton borough. The firm was one of the earliest users of chemical bleaching using chlorine.

Horwich Vale Printworks, founded in 1799 by the River Douglas, printed cloth using machines and handblocks. On the slopes of Winter Hill, stone was quarried and there were several small collieries and a firebrick and tile works. In 1896 the Montcliffe Colliery was owned by Adam Mason and Son and managed by Joseph Crankshaw and Joseph Kenwright. It employed 26 men underground and seven surface workers getting coal and fireclay from the Mountain coal seam. Crankshaws pipeworks used the fireclay and had had several beehive kilns at their works at Tiger's Clough. In the mid-19th century, cotton mills were built by W. & W. Bennett and Peter Gaskell.

Ridgways provided land for the early 19th century Club Houses, a grid pattern development of streets of stone built cottages south of Church Street. Some had basements for hand loom weaving. In 1851 the occupants were crofters, stovers and bleachers.