Historically part of Lancashire, Whitefield was on the path of an ancient Roman road leading from Mamucium (Manchester) in the south to Bremetennacum (Ribchester) in the north.

Throughout the Middle Ages, Whitefield was a division of the township of Pilkington, itself a part of the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham and hundred of Salford.

Farming was the main industry of this rural area, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system.

The name Whitefield is thought to derive from the medieval bleachfields used by Flemish settlers to whiten their woven fabrics, or else from the wheat crop once cultivated in the district.

The construction of a major roads routed through the village facilitated Whitefield's expansion into a mill town by the mid-19th century.

One, published in John Wilson's A History of Whitefield (1979), is that the name is derived from the Flemish weavers who used to lay out their fabrics to bleach in the sun (a process known as tentering).

Although Wilson doubts this, believing it to be chronologically inaccurate, another theory relies on the fact that historically, Whitefield has been a farming community of open fields, and that the name is a corruption of "Wheat-fields".

A third is that the name refers to a field of white flowers, evidenced by the existence of the area of Lily Hill Street.

[2][3] In Remains, Historical and Literary, Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester (1861), the will of a John Rhodes describes leaving ownership of land in Whitefield Moore in Pilkington, to his son.

[4] In Elizabethan times, Whitefield was mostly moorland and until the 19th century existed, along with the districts of Ringley, Unsworth and Outwood, as part of the Manor of Pilkington.

[2] In the 15th century the Pilkington family who, during the Wars of the Roses, supported the House of York, owned much of the land around the parish.

[6][7] With their seat at Knowsley Hall, the Earls of Derby were by and large absentee landlords who appointed agents to manage their interests in the area, unlike the Earls of Wilton whose lands at Prestwich bordered the area and who oversaw events on their estate and dispensed charity from Heaton Hall.

[12] Whitefield Town Hall was established in 1933 with the purchase of the house previously known as Underley, along with 3 acres (1.2 ha) of surrounding land.

Localities within Whitefield include Besses o' th' Barn, Hillock, Lily Hill, Park Lane, Stand and to the south of the M60 motorway and separated by it from the rest of the township is Kirkhams.

[17] All three estates now include privately owned properties bought from council ownership under right-to-buy schemes, with the remainder at the Elms and Victoria managed by Six Town Housing,[18] an arms-length management organisation (ALMO) set up by the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, and at Hillock by Rivers Housing.

[28] In 1906 the following textile bleaching, dyeing and finishing businesses existed in Whitefield: John Brierley (at Spring Clough); W.E.

Chambers Ltd (Spring Waters); Thomas L. Livesey Ltd (Hollins Vale); Mark Fletcher & Sons Ltd (Moss Lane Mills, having been founded in Little Lever in 1854[35]); William Hampson (Besses); Kilner Croft Dyeing Co Ltd (Unsworth); Whitefield Velvet & Cord Dyeing Co Ltd (Crow Oak Works); and Philip Worrall (Hollins Vale).

& H. Nuttall, builders and stonemasons, who were on Moss Lane and later had their stoneyard adjoining the west side of Whitefield railway station.

[38] Whitefield's proximity to the M60 orbital motorway and city of Manchester has ensured that there are many small businesses and trading estates located locally.

Whitefield has experienced several new commercial developments since the turn of the 21st century, for example with the replacement of Elms Shopping Precinct by a new gym and several new outlets and with a new Morrisons supermarket built in 2008 on land previously occupied by a public house, the bus station and a former retail premises.

According to the 2001 UK census, the industry of employment of residents of Whitefield aged 16–74 was 18.9% retail and wholesale, 13.7% manufacturing, 12.2% health and social work, 11.9% property and business services, 8.2% transport and communications, 7.6% education, 6.5% construction, 5.5% finance, 5.4 public administration, 4.3% hotels and restaurants, 0.7% energy and water supply, 0.5% agriculture, 0.1% mining and 4.7% other.

The area of Stand was six miles (10 km) from Manchester, from Bolton and from Bury, which made it a suitable point at which nonconformists could legally meet.

The specific catalyst for the meetings appears to have been the ejection of Thomas Pike from the living of Radcliffe due to his Puritan leanings; though he went to Blackley, those who agreed with his leanings began to meet at Stand, most probably at Old Hall, the house of Thomas Sergeant, after the family of whom the present Sergeant's Lane is named.

Consecrated on 8 September 1826 by Dr Blomfield, Bishop of Chester, it was designed by Sir Charles Barry in the Gothic style of the 14th century.

[58] Roman Catholics were of sufficient number by 1952 that they rented a room at the Liberal Club building, which was at that time on Morley Street; subsequently, in 1956, St Bernadette's Church was built on Manchester Road as their place of worship.

At the peak of its fame in the early 1900s this band, by now using brass instruments, undertook numerous prestigious engagements, including world tours lasting well in excess of 12 months at a time.

[66] Around 1883 Thomas Thorp established an engineering business in Victoria Lane, complete with an astronomical observatory on its roof for his own use.