Westhoughton

Westhoughton, an urban district in the Westhoughton parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 5 m. W.S.W. of Bolton on the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway. Pop. (1901) 14,377. There are coal mines in the neighbourhood, and the town possesses silk factories, print-works and cotton mills. Westhoughton before the time of Richard II. was a manor belonging to the abbey of Cockersand. It was confiscated at the Reformation, and since then has been vested in the crown. The army of Prince Rupert assembled on Westhoughton moor before the attack on Bolton.