The Early History of Breightmet

The township of Breightmet lies between Bradshaw and Blackshaw Brooks. The highest point is Breightmet Hill, at a little over 525 feet, near the centre of the northern boundary.

The name Breightmet is of Saxon origin and means ‘bright meadow’. It has been spelt in various ways including Brihtmede (1257), Brightemete (1277), Breghmete (1292), Brithmete (1302), Brightmede (1510), and Breightmet (1574) as we spell it today. However, Boltonians are divided on the pronunciation of the name; some say Brightmet, while others say Breakmet or Breatment.

Breightmet is mentioned in documents from the 1200’s:

From a deed of 1212 AD we learn that Augustine de Breightmet held ‘one plough-land’ in Breightmet.

An inquisition from 1373 notes that Sir Robert Holland had seized half the manor of Brightmede.

The hearth tax of 1666 found forty-nine hearths liable and Peter Longworth had the largest dwelling, with six hearths.

 

The enclosure award for Bolton is dated 1792, and that for Breightmet 1795. Enclosure involved the division of areas of common and moors into separate holdings. In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s there were literally thousands of Acts of Enclosure in Britain, when marginal land was brought into cultivation. This was largely due to high inflation caused by the French Revolution and Napoleanic Wars, and pressure from a rapidly growing population. Before the enclosure the moors lay open for the tenants of the manor to use, and many people were later dispossessed of these rights.

Breightmet was part of the Bolton Rural Sanitary Authority, established in 1872. In January 1895 the Rural Sanitary Authority became the Bolton District Council, and this in turn was abolished in 1898, when Breightmet became part of the Bolton County Borough. Before this, Breightmet had been regarded as a separate township.

Greenhalgh described Breightmet in his ‘History of the Township of Breightmet’, written in 1879, as follows:

"Breightmet and the adjoining township of Tonge-with-Haulgh may be said to be the oldest side of Bolton in an inhabited sense. Many ancient families have had possessions in Breightmet. Here and there in Breightmet are remains bearing signs of the antiquity of its inhabitants, in the form of an odd mansion or two, rustic labourers’ cottages etc."