Little Hulton, United Kingdom

In the 13th century Peel or Wicheves, another district in the township, was owned by the Hultons who sold it to the Tyldesleys. Later it was owned by Edmund Fleetwood of Rossall who sold it to the Morts. Joseph Yates of Manchester bought it in the 18th century and his descendants sold it to colliery owner, Ellis Fletcher of Clifton. Peel Hall was reputedly built in 1840 by Matthew Fletcher, from the designs of Sir Charles Barry. It stood on the site of an older stone-built hall which had a moat. Peel Hall became a sanatorium to treat tuberculosis and subsequently a geriatric hospital until it closed in 1990. It was sold to a development company for refurbishment but, despite being a Grade II listed building, was vandalised, became dangerous and was demolished in the mid-1990s. Parts of the property still remain including the ice house which is also a grade II listed building.

Kenyon Peel Hall, was owned by Alexander Rigby in 1600 and he gave it to his son George. It passed to Roger Kenyon of Parkhead through marriage. It was a large timber, stone and brick house which was built in the late 16th century and enlarged in 1617. The house was demolished and the site is occupied by a modern housing estate. Kenyon Peel Hall was about a 1⁄4 mile (0.40 km) south of the ancient highway from Manchester to Bolton.

The main settlement in the eastern part of the area was Wharton Hall. The remains of the hall were excavated in 2006–2008 by Oxford Archaeology and included some substantial remains of walls and footings of an early 17th-century building. Adam Mort acquired Wharton Hall in 1628 and then demolished and rebuilt it, most likely in the following year. Several other post-medieval farmsteads were also uncovered including Cinder Hill and Ashes Farm at Little Hulton, Oliver Fold and Guest Fold within the Cutacre area.

Coal mining and weaving were the major occupations in the mid 19th century.

In 1870 the London and North Western Railway opened a line from Roe Green on the Eccles, Tyldesley and Wigan Railway to serve collieries at Little Hulton and in 1874 an extension to Bolton was opened with passenger services commencing in 1875. The line closed in 1965, and is now an urban cycleway. A 10-foot (3.0 m) wide Roman road was found when the railway was being cut.

Little Hulton was extensively mined from the mid-19th century. Its collieries included Madam's Wood Pits, Brackley, Wharton Hall, Ashton's Field and Peel Hall and most were served by mineral railways. Mine spoil was deposited around the early collieries but in the 20th century the Cutacre tip developed in the valley of the Cutacre Clough and was the dumping ground for mine waste from Brackley and neighbouring Mosley Common Collieries.

The National Coal Board Central Workshops, commonly known as 'Walkden Yard', south of Walkden High Street, close to the Ellesmere Colliery, was partly in Little Hulton. The workshops were built in 1878 by the Bridgewater Collieries as a central works depot providing engineering services for its collieries and the locomotives used on its colliery railway system. It closed as a British Coal workshop in 1986 and is now the site of a housing estate.

UK Coal was granted planning permission to surface mine 900,000 tonnes of coal and rework the Cutacre spoil tip in 2001. The operation was expected to last for four years and began in 2006. The restoration scheme was expected to create more than 250 acres (100 ha) of amenity woodland and wetlands and an area for industrial development. UK Coal and Bolton Council promoted the Middle Hulton portion of Cutacre through the Local Development Framework process and identified it as a key strategic site for development. After operations finished in 2011, the site was restored and landscaped to create an industrial estate covering 212 acres (86 ha) and 580 acres (230 ha) of recreational land.

Before 1949 Little Hulton was a village of around 8,000 people. The land was developed into council housing overspill estates by Worsley Urban District Council to accommodate residents moved there from post-war slum clearance areas. By the end of 1956 over a thousand families had moved to the overspill estate being built at Little Hulton and by 1962 3,060 houses had been built. Little Hulton aimed to create a suburb that would improve the standard of living and create private space, greenspace and a sense of community for the new residents.

The housing estate to the northwest, along the Wigan road, is known as Greenheys. Here the 1894 Ordnance Survey map shows only Greenhey's House and a few roadside houses.