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Home Page of Tyldesley and District Historical Society

Important Notice to members

Tyldesley and District Historical Society has suspended its monthly meetings for the season 2004-2005. During this period the society will seek to recruit new members and review its structure and objectives. The Society will continue to support its website and hopes to develop the site over the next year.

Please contact the Secretary directly through the Guestbook if you wish to find out more.

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Photographs wanted of Tyldesley and its people. Acknowledgement will be given on the site for any used. Photos can be sent by email or post. All photos sent by post will be returned. If you can give any extra details of any photos already on this site let us know.

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Welcome to the website of Tyldesley and District Historical Society. The Society was founded in 1972. We hope you find something of interest about the History of Tyldesley, a town in the north-west region of England, 12 miles from Manchester. Please get in touch. We want to hear from anyone with Tyldesley connections.

Tyldesley Chapel of 1789 in the snow

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Tyldesley is known locally as 'Bongs' after the original name of the town 'Tyldesley Banks'. In local dialect 'Banks' became corrupted to 'Bongs.' The Banks refers to the hill upon which the town was established.

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This site is dedicated to the history of Tyldesley and its people whose story is interwoven with that of England and its defining moments. The lives of Tyldesley people reflect the social and economic forces at play on both the national and international stage. In the history of our town we can see the disorder of the northern counties in the middle ages and the great upheavals of the Reformation. The story of the 'Tyldesley Witch' is one of those many sad tales of superstition and hatred so familiar to historians of the 16th and 17th centuries. The Civil War and its aftermath touched our town and left its mark.

But Tyldesley really comes to prominence in the 18th and 19th centuries when this small township was transformed into an industrial centre of coal mining and cotton spinning, with all their attendant problems. There is therefore no apology for concentrating on this period on our Website; it is after all what most people imagine when they think of Tyldesley. It is also during this period that many knew arrivals came to work in our mills and mines from Ireland, Wales and further afield. It is also a time when others left to escape want and improve their lives. The story of these emigrants can be read in our Guestbook where people from around the world are invited to record their memories of Tyldesley. There you will read of the forebears of current residents of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA who left Tyldesley long ago.

Like all communities Tyldesley was deeply affected by both world Wars but especially that of 1914-1918 when nearly 300 young men from the town lost their lives and countless others were maimed, a devastating blow to a town of barley 16,000 souls.

In the years after World War II Tyldesley has once again been witness to massive social and economic change. The decline of the traditional staples of cotton and coal has led to a new Tyldesley, one in which most people work out of town and where many newcomers have moved in swelling the population and heading off down the East Lancs Road to work in Manchester or elsewhere. This Website shall try to record these changes, changes no less significant than those of the more distant past.

We hope that you find something of interest in this site and invite you to leave your comments or observations in our Guestbook. We are particularly keen to hear the life histories of anyone who worked in Tyldesley's cotton mills or coalmines before those stories are forgotten. But of course we are pleased to hear from anyone who wishes to add his or her memories of this small Lancashire town

The Society meets in Tyldesley once a month from September to May. Everyone is welcome to attend our meetings.

If you can give a talk on a local history topic (Lancashire, Cheshire etc) let us know

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Tyldesley and District Historical Society is registered as a charity (No.1073226) with the Charities Commission