Butterworth, Greater Manchester

Butterworth was a township occupying the southeastern part of the parish of Rochdale, in the hundred of Salford, Lancashire, England. It was also a civil parish. It encompassed 12.1 square miles (31 km2) of land in the South Pennines which spanned the settlements of Belfield, Bleaked-gate-cum-Roughbank, Butterworth Hall, Clegg, Haughs, Hollingworth, Kitcliffe, Lowhouse, Milnrow, Newhey, Ogden, Rakewood, Smithy Bridge, Tunshill and Wildhouse. It extended to the borders of Crompton to the south, and to the highest points of Bleakedgate Moor and Clegg Moor, up to the ridge of Blackstone Edge, to the east, where its boundary was the old county boundary between Lancashire and Yorkshire. In 1891 the parish had a population of 9438. Butterworth was probably settled in Saxon times in the Early Middle Ages. Its land was divided into two divisions, the Lordship side with rents or services payable to the lord of the manor and the Freehold side that retained its importance until 1879 as a Registration district for births, deaths and marriages. In 1830, Butterworth was recorded to have 5,554 inhabitants.