1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Newton-in-Makerfield

NEWTON-IN-MAKERFIELD, or Newton-le-Willows, an urban district in the Newton parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 151/2 m. W. of Manchester by the London & North-Western railway. Pop. (1891) 12,861; (1901) 16,699. At a short distance from the town is a moated Elizabethan half-timbered house, and also an ancient barrow of great extent. The Liverpool farm reformatory school is in the neighbourhood. The industrial establishments include foundries, printing and stationery works, paper mills, glass works and sugar refineries. Coal abounds in the neighbourhood.

The township of Newton-in-Makerfield, gave its name in Saxon times and in the reign of William the Conqueror to one of the hundreds of Lancashire. The barony was held by the Banastres from the conquest to 1286 and passed successively to the Langtons, Fleetwoods and Leghs. It does not seem that the barons were ever summoned to parliament, and the title, like all parliamentary titles, has fallen into disuse since the abolition of feudal tenures. The courts-baron and courts-leet are held twice annually. The township returned two members to parliament from 1559 to 1831, but was disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832. There was a market here at least as early as 1558 which is now discontinued. Near the town a party of Highlanders were taken prisoners in 1648 by Cromwell’s troops, and hanged in an adjoining wood, still called Gallow’s Cross.