Halliwell is an area which lies roughly to the north of Bolton in Lancashire and is now just a suburb of that town with rather flexible boundaries depending on what suits the local authority on that particular day when some ‘grand initiative’ is being proposed. Up until the late 1800’s, however, Halliwell was a Township in its own right and our Society bases its definition of Halliwell on the boundaries which existed then and had been so for many hundreds of years.
Halliwell Local History Society was formed in 1986 by a group of people who were intent on recording and keeping alive the history of the Halliwell Township. Our first Chairman was the late Derek Billington, a local historian with a wealth of knowledge of Bolton and Halliwell in particular. He was the author of several books and many articles and an avid collector of anything connected with Bolton. His devotion to research and recording his work along with a large collection of old photographs and maps, which he collected, formed the basis of our Society.
Since those early days we have had to move our meeting place twice due to the growing numbers of people attending our monthly meetings and now we have on average 50+ regular members. We also have members in all parts of the country and the world who receive our bi‑monthly magazine ‘The Little Piecer’. We have followed in Derek’s footsteps by publishing several books about Halliwell. One of our members conducts two reminiscence groups locally and we are quite often asked to help promote events by City Challenge, the Central Library, local schools and various other bodies, who are aware of our large collection of photographs and archive material which we are always happy to display. We try to have our own Local History Fair once every two years and this is always well attended.
Our latest venture along with the Bolton Archaeological Society is to try and locate the original Holy Well of Halliwell which is marked on old maps but with no evidence showing above ground.
As you can see we are a thriving Society and we would welcome you to join us on the last Tuesday of the month at 7.30pm at St Lukes Church, Chorley Old Road, Bolton, BL1 3BE. A small entrance charge is made on the door.