Bolton was created a free borough in 1253 when William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby, granted a charter.

However, the borough did not develop into a self-governing town, remaining under the control of officials appointed by the lord of the manor.

However, there was doubt about the validity of the Charter, with the local Conservatives refusing to stand for the first Council elections, and the magistrates of Salford Hundred disputing the jurisdiction of the new corporation.

[3] In 1889, as it had a population in excess of 50,000, Bolton was constituted a County Borough by the Local Government Act 1888.

[11][12] The original Borough was divided into six Wards: Bradford, Church, Derby, East, Exchange and West.

[3][11][12] The Bolton, Turton, and Westhoughton Extension Act 1898 allowed the County Borough to absorb Astley Bridge Urban District and the bulk of Bolton Rural District (the Civil Parishes of Breightmet, Darcy Lever, Deane, Great Lever, Heaton, Lostock, Middle Hulton, Smithills and Tonge).

[11][12][13][14][15] The area added to the Borough was divided into eight Wards (Astley Bridge, Tonge, Darcy Lever-cum-Breightmet, Great Lever, Hulton, Deane-cum-Lostock, Heaton, and Smithills), increasing the total number to seventeen.

The Bolton Engineers' Strike of 1887 led to a highly politicised situation and eight Labour representatives were successful.

The blazon of the arms was as follows:[2] Gules two bendlets or a shuttle with weft pendent between an arrow point upwards and a mule spinning spindle in chief palewise all of the last and an escutcheon in base of the second thereon a rose of the first barbed and seeded proper, and for a Crest: Upon a rocky moor an elephant statant proper on its back a castle Or and thereon a rose as in the Arms the trapping per pale gules and vert and charged with a mitre also Or.

Next to this were two symbols of the cotton industry: a spindle from Samuel Crompton's spinning mule and a weaver's shuttle.

In the lower section of the shield was a gold escutcheon bearing the red rose of Lancaster, denoting that the town was in Lancashire.

The presence of the elephant was explained by the fact that Bolton anciently lay within the Diocese of Mercia, the see of which was at Coventry.

The additions to the arms were blazoned as follows: Supporters: On either side a lion sable gorged with a wreath argent and sable each supporting a staff Or flying therefrom a banner that on the dexter vair Or and gules that on the sinister argent on a bend azure three stags' heads caboshed Or; Badge or Device: Upon an oval gules encompassed by a garland of six roses also gules barbed seeded and leaved proper an arrow point upwards enfiled by a crown palisado Or.

[42] The black lions came from the arms of Flanders, in recognition of the fact that Flemish immigrants founded Bolton's textile industry.

[40] In 1880 Bolton Corporation began the construction of a network of horse tramways in conjunction with the Councils of the neighbouring urban districts of Astley Bridge, Farnworth and Kearsley.

In 1909 Bolton and SLT began a joint-running arrangement with corporation trams reaching Atherton and Leigh as well as Farnworth and Kearsley.

The Corporation reconstructed the works and built a new facility at Spa Road comprising offices, workshops and testing rooms.