Heywood

Heywood, a municipal borough in the Heywood parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 9 m. N. of Manchester on the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway. Pop. (1901) 25,458. It is of modern growth and possesses several handsome churches, chapels and public buildings. The Queen’s Park, purchased and laid out at a cost of £11,000 with money which devolved to Queen Victoria in right of her duchy and county palatine of Lancaster, was opened in 1879. Heywood Hall in the neighbourhood of the town was the residence of Peter Heywood, who contributed to the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. Heywood owes its rise to the enterprise of the Peels, its first manufactures having been introduced by the father of the first Sir Robert Peel. It is an important seat of the cotton manufacture, and there are power-loom factories, iron foundries, chemical works, boiler-works and railway wagon works. Coal is worked extensively in the neighbourhood. Heywood was incorporated in 1881, and the corporation consists of a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 3660 acres.