Records show that in the time of Henry II, a parcel of land within the manor, consisting of one moiety was rented to Alexander son of Uvieth for a ½ mark and a hawk (12d).

A settlement in 1331, found in favour of Adam, son of Ellis de Lever and the family line was settled.

Records show the land used for agriculture and the main landowner was John Andrews, who had the only large house in the village which contained 9 hearths.

The holding of Adam Byrom of Salford who died in 1559 was described as "an estate of eight messuages, a moiety of two fulling-mills etc., in Little Lever", his three-year-old grandson Ralph, was his heir.

[8] In the 1800s the coal mining industry was spread throughout the area including Kearsley, Outwood, Radcliffe and Little Lever.

The Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal passed alongside the village, where two basins were used to load coal from the Ladyshore Colliery (originally named, Back o' th' Barn, opened 1830).

Originally the site of a much larger traditional clay brick works, it is currently used for the production of building materials and produces lightweight blocks for the construction industry.

In part 2 of his book, Waterson (the last of 5 generations of boat builders) describes working on the canal.

Bridson, Thomas Ridgeway & Sons, operated the Lever Bank Bleach Works, (later becoming Smith, J.

Edmund Peel Potter became the sole owner and expanded the business, manufacturing acid and alkali for the cloth bleaching industry.

However, it was the production of sodium and potassium bichromate that made Potter's a world leader and by about 1900 the firm had become a limited company.

Edmund Peel Potter was prominent in the local community and endowed a hospital on Chorley New Road, Bolton in pre-NHS years.

The council consisted of twelve members elected from the four wards, Church, Ladyshore, Stopes and West.

[24] This figure is significantly higher than Bolton (18.7 per hectare) and is almost six times the average population density of England and Wales (2,117/km²).

Many people today commute out of Little Lever to nearby Bolton, Radcliffe, and Manchester to carry on employment.

The nearest railway station is Moses Gate, and Metrolink serves the nearby Radcliffe stop.

Little Lever's past is marked by cotton spinning, textile manufacture, paper making[25] and coal mining.

In the early days, water was obtained from local sources and some shallow wells driven into the underlying sandstone.

There is a purpose-built leisure centre adjacent to Little Lever School with sports hall, gymnasium, squash courts, all-weather pitch and extensive playing fields.

Ringley Chapel was built in the Outwood area of the township of Pilkington in the ancient parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham which belonged to the Manchester Classis.

The religion at that time was Puritan and there was one well known nonconformist divine by the name of Oliver Heywood who preached to the wealthy families of the area such as Captain Peter Seddon.

Thomas Lever, born here in 1521, was an English Protestant reformer and served as the Archdeacon of Coventry from 1561 until his death in 1577.