A former mill town, Bolton has been a centre for textile production since the 14th century when Flemish weavers settled in the area, introducing a wool and cotton-weaving tradition.

Evidence of a Saxon settlement exists in the form of religious objects found when the Victorian parish church was built.

The area surrounding Bolton was subsequently divided into four parts including the Stanley family, the Earl of Bradford, a Freeman and various other parties.

[13] The parish church in Bolton has an early foundation although the exact date is unknown; it was given by the lord of the manor to the Gilbertine canons of Mattersey Priory in Nottinghamshire, founded by Roger de Marsey.

Burgage plots were laid out on Churchgate and Deansgate in the centre of the medieval town close to where Ye Olde Man & Scythe public house, dating from 1251, is situated today.

Streams draining the surrounding moorland into the River Croal provided the water necessary for the bleach works that were a feature of this area.

Bolton and the surrounding villages had more than thirty bleachworks including the Lever Bank Bleach Works in the Irwell Valley.

The mayor accompanied soldiers called to rescue special constables at Little Bolton Town Hall, which was besieged by a mob, and the incident ended without bloodshed.

[30] Another engineering company Hick, Hargreaves & Co based at the Soho Foundry made Lancashire boilers and heavy machinery.

L21, a Zeppelin commanded by Oberleutnant Kurt Frankenburg of the Imperial German Navy, dropped twenty-one bombs on the town, five of them on the working class area of Kirk Street, killing thirteen residents and destroying six houses.

[35][36] In 1899 William Lever, Lord Leverhulme, bought Hall i'th' Wood as a memorial to Samuel Crompton inventor of the spinning mule.

Lever restored the dilapidated building and presented it to the town in 1902, having turned it into a museum furnished with household goods typical of domestic family life in the 16th and 17th centuries.

In 1924, Leverhulme presented Bolton Council with an ambitious plan to rebuild the town centre based on Mawson's designs funded partly by himself.

It continued using existing poorhouses at Fletcher Street and Turton but in 1856 started to build a new workhouse at Fishpool Farm in Farnworth.

In 1898, the borough was extended further by adding the civil parishes of Breightmet, Darcy Lever, Great Lever, the rest of Halliwell, Heaton, Lostock, Middle Hulton, the rest of Rumworth which had been renamed Deane in 1894, Smithills, and Tonge plus Astley Bridge Urban District, and part of Over Hulton civil parish.

[59] Data on religious beliefs across the town in the 2001 census show that 67.9% declared themselves to be Christian, 12.5% stated that they were Muslim, 8.6% said they held no religion, and 3.4% reported themselves as Hindu.

[66] In the last quarter of the 20th century heavy industry was replaced by service-based activities including data processing, call centres, hi-tech electronics and IT companies.

The town retains some traditional industries employing people in paper-manufacturing, packaging, textiles, transportation, steel foundries and building materials.

Bolton is pursuing major redevelopment projects in its town centre, including the regeneration of Crompton Place and Church Wharf areas, aimed at promoting residential, commercial, and leisure spaces.

After being "examined" at Smithills, according to local tradition, George Marsh stamped his foot so hard to re-affirm his faith, that a footprint was left in the stone floor.

[84] Most views northwards are dominated by Rivington Pike and the Winter Hill TV Mast on the West Pennine Moors above the town.

[87] Bolton Interchange is managed by Northern; the railway station is part of a town centre transport interchange with services to Manchester, Wigan, Southport, Kirkby, Blackburn, Preston, Blackpool, Barrow in Furness, Windermere, Glasgow, Edinburgh and intermediate stations operated by Northern and TransPennine Express.

[117] Humphrey Spender photographed Bolton calling it Worktown for the Mass-Observation Project, a social research organisation which aimed to record everyday life in Britain.

Comedian Peter Kay was a member of the Octagon youth theatre and worked in the box office for about four months, until being dismissed.

Actress Maxine Peake made her professional debut at the Octagon and director Danny Boyle was inspired to start his career when he worked there as an usher.

Le Mans Crescent, home to the central library, museum, art gallery, aquarium, magistrates' court and town hall, is to be the centre of a new Cultural Quarter.

[121] A noted 1953 painting by L. S. Lowry depicts match-day crowds at Burnden Park, the former home stadium of Bolton Wanderers Football Club.

The town is part of the BBC North West and ITV Granada television regions, served by the Winter Hill transmitter near Belmont.

Le Mans Crescent has featured as a London street in the Jeremy Brett version of Sherlock Holmes, a Russian secret service building in the 1990s comedy series Sleepers and in Peaky Blinders in 2014.

[141] Among the notable people born in Bolton are the Protestant martyr George Marsh, 1515–55,[78] the inventor of the spinning mule that revolutionised the textile industry, Samuel Crompton, 1753–1827,[142] and industrialist Lord Leverhulme of Bolton-le-Moors, 1851–1925.