[2] Historically part of Lancashire, Ashton-in-Makerfield was a township in the parish of Newton-in-Makerfield (as Newton-le-Willows was once known), Winwick and hundred of West Derby.

The place has long been a centre for the manufacture of locks and hinges, and it also sits on the Lancashire Coalfield, and was a coal mining district.

The graveyard is the resting place of many of the 189 victims of the Wood Pit explosion (at Haydock on Friday 7 June 1878), the worst coal-mining disaster in Lancashire at the time.

His introduction of Anglo-Catholic worship caused riots on Gerard Street and he was initially evicted from the town by a mob of miners.

Word of their plight reached a Miss Catherine Cave-Browne in London who sent money for a Protestant Mission to be built.

Park Lane Chapel (see Unitarianism), Wigan Road, Bryn, dates back to 1697, although its congregation was founded in 1662.

[4] A number of Ashton's coal miners made a significant impact on modern British history, including: Stephen Walsh M.P.

In the late 19th century, the district was described by one observer as having "extensive collieries, cotton mills and potteries", and famed for the manufacture of "hinges, locks, files and nails".

Similarly, Thomas Crompton & Sons in Gerard Street, which would eventually employ around 1,200 workers, superseded the subcontracting system that sustained substantial numbers of locally based blacksmiths and other craftsmen.

As recently as the 1970s the district of Ashton-in-Makerfield had one of the highest proportions of derelict land, mainly in the form of spoil tips, left over from coal mining.

The Seneley Green Parish, containing Garswood, Pewfall and Downall Green, falling now within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens in the newly created Merseyside, and the rest now being administered by the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in the newly created Greater Manchester.

These proposals were refused, and the schools remain separate, with Cansfield situated near to Bryn and Byrchall near to Haydock, neighbouring St Edmund Arrowsmith.

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