Eccles and District History Society
Local Links
Left:The Bridgewater Canal at Patricroft, February 2008. The Liverpool-Manchester railway crosses at this point: the meeting of two historic transport links.
Right:The Liverpool-Manchester railway on this bridge, 1830.

The Bridgewater Canal "links" Worsley with Manchester, Leigh and Runcorn. It was the country's first major canal and it played a vital role in the development of Britain as the world's first industrialised nation.
Link to our Publications Page to find out about the classic history of the Bridgewater Canal by Frank Mullineux.

Frank Mullineux was a founder member of our Society and theFrank Mullineux Award is made each year by the Society in recognition of an outstanding achievement in local history.
One previous winner of the Frank Mullineux Award is Tony Smith for his excellent Boothstown website.

Visit Worsley, launched by the city council, gives information about the village and its facilities.
Memories of Eccles is a new site inviting people to send their memories and photographs to help build up a 'people's history' of the town.

Eccles Parish Church has an attractive site showing unusual views of the interior of the church and giving lots of historical and up to date information.
Local schools include Eccles Grammar ,Winton High and De La Salle College.
There is now a site that relates the history of Protector Lamp and Lighting Company where you can even buy lamps online.
Just around the corner from our venue is the Theatre Organ Heritage and Hope-Jones Museum. This museum is run by the Lancashire Theatre Organ Trust and includes a 1920s reproduction cinema with Wurlitzer on stage. Lunch-time concerts are held regularly and occasionally talks are given and films are shown.
The society have held an evening of local film entertainment at Theatre Organ Trust's Centre: find out about Mancunian Films here.
A new local history group has been set up at Little Hulton to collect reminiscences of the area. See the Little Hulton Memories website for details.
Another local group set up recently is the Swinton & Pendlebury Local History Society.
A long-established group with a new website is Salford Local History Society.The Eccles Local History Collection includes many books, pamphlets, maps, photographs, postcards and other items relating to the area. Copies of the Eccles and Patricroft Journal, Parish Registers and Census records are held on microfilm.
The Collection is housed at Salford Local History Library.
Salford Museum and Art Gallery and Lifetimes have displays and hold events relating to local history.
The Working Class Movement Library was founded by Ruth and Eddie Frow. Ruth and Eddie were closely connected with our Society for many years, both serving as President and committee members. This unique collection is housed in Jubilee house on Salford Crescent and is visited by students and researchers from all over the world.

The Lancashire Local History Federation has a useful site for information about events of interest to local history members. The website has lots of good links to other local history sites.

The Salford Family History Group has a good links page of its own - worth a look if you're interested in genealogy.
There is an interesting website for tracing the concentration of surnames in Britain in 1881 and in 1998: click here.