Barton-upon-Irwell, a township and part of the civil parish of Eccles, Lancashire. The township stands on the river Irwell, adjacent to the Manchester and Liverpool railway, near Patricroft station, 5 miles W of Manchester, under which it has a post and money order office; and it finds employment for many of its inhabitants in a silk mill and three spinning mills at Patricroft. An aqueduct here, across the Irwell, with three arches, in the line of the Bridgewater Canal, was the earliest structure of its kind in England. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Manchester; net value, £430 with residence. The patronage is under five trustees. The church was built in 1843. There are a fine Roman Catholic chapel of 1868, and two Methodist chapels. The township includes the hamlets of Lostock and Croft. Acreage, 10,621; population of the township, 35,826 ; of the ecclesiastical parish, 3247.
