Kirkham in 1839
Kirkham is in the hundred of Amounderness, 40 miles from Manchester and 226 from London. It is about 8 miles west of Preston, and about 3 from the north bank of the estuary of the Ribble. The parish contains 41,850 acres, with a population in 1831 of 11,630 : it is divided into seventeen townships or chapelries ; the township of Kirkham contains 850 acres, with a population of 2,469 : the population of the township had materially decreased between 1821 and 1831. The town is small, but the houses are tolerably good. The church was rebuilt in 1822, but the ancient tower of Norman architecture remains. There are two or three Dissenting or Catholic places of worship. The chief manufacture of the town is cotton ; but some sail-cloth, sacking, and cordage, formerly the staple of the place, are made. The market is on Tuesday, and there are two yearly fairs. The living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry of Richmond and diocese of Chester, of the clear yearly value of £921, with a glebe-house. There were in the township in 1833, six dame schools, with 104 children; five endowed schools (one of them a well endowed grammar-school, two of them Catholic), with 215 scholars; and five other day schools, with 155 children; and five Sunday-schools (one endowed), with 443 children. |