Kelly's Directory of Hurst 1905

Hurst is a populous village and under the Local Government Act 1894 (56 and 57 Vic c 73) was by Local Government Board Order 32242, formed into a civil parish from Ashton Under Lyne; it is about a mile north of the borough of Ashton and was governed by a Local Board of 12 members formed in 1861, but an Urban District Council has been constituted under the above Act of 1894; it is in the Prestwich Division of the County, Ashton Under Lyne Union and County Court District, the rural deanery of Ashton Under Lyne and archdeaconry and diocese of Manchester. The ecclesiastical parish was formed in 1846, the chuch of St John, erected in 1847, at a cost of £ 5000 consecrated in 1849 is a building of stone in the Gothic style, consisting of a chancel nave, aisles, transepts, north vestry, south porch and a tower at the south west angle with spire and containing 8 steel bells: there are several stained windows: the south east angle is a private chapel erected by Oldham Whittaker esq. and fitted with carved oak stalls: the church was enlarged in 1862 by the erection of transepts, private chapel and the tower and in 1890 the vestry was rebuilt and other alterations made at a cost of £ 698: there are 903 sittings, 495 being free, in the churchyard is buried O. Whittaker esq. mentioned above, d 31 Dec 1871 and William Quarmby a local poet, d. 11 Oct 1872. The register dates from the year 1849. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £ 300 with residence in the gift of the Crown and Bishop of Manchester alternately, and held since 1877 by the Rev. Thomas Butterworth M.A. of Trinity College, Dublin, and surrogate. The parsonage house was erected in 1855 at an outlay of nearly £ 1,000. There are Methodist New Connexion chapels in Queen Street and Curzon Road and a Primitive Methodist Chapel in Winter Street. The cemetery of 7½ acres in Higher King Street and formed in 1894 was in part consecrated Oct 18th 1902 by the Rt. Rev S Thornton D.D. Assistant Bishop and is controlled by the Urban District Council. At a short distance to the east of Higher Hurst are the Infantry Barracks erected in 1843 at a cost of £ 1,000. Here is the depot of the 63rd Regimental District (Manchester Regiment) also the headquarters of the 6th Royal Lancashire Militia which forms the 5th and 6th batallions of the regiment. See Ashton under Lyne for further particulars. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in the extensive cotton mills in the neighbourhood, also in the adjacent collieries. The area of Hurst civil parish and Urban District Council is 626 acres of land and 12 of water; rateable value £ 25,312; the population in 1901 was 7,145 viz: East ward 3,881; West ward, 3,264; the population of the ecclesiastical parish in 1901 was 6,586.