Parbold
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Parbold is a small village in the county of Lancashire. It is at the bottom of Parbold Hill, in the valley of the River Douglas. Parbold is about three miles west of junction 27 of the M6 motorway, on the A5209; the Leeds-Liverpool Canal passes very close to the village centre.
The village contains a windmill, built in 1794 but which has not actually milled since about 1850 (it is now a fabric shop). Parbold has a canal with pleasant country walks, and the Railway, Stocks, and Windmill pubs. There is also a Rail Station.
It is dominated by Parbold Hill, on which lies the Famous Parbold Bottle, now restored. This is a stone monument about 2 meters high, so called because it vaguely resembles a giant bottle. Built in 1832 to commemorate the Reform Act, the Bottle is visible from the canal.
The earliest known reference to Parbold is in the late 12th Century, where grants of land were made to nearby Burscough Priory (pronounced Bursk-owe). After the Norman Conquest, Parbold was part of the Barony of Manchester. Little development occurred from this time to the mid 18th century.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, a number of coal mines worked nearby, rather meagre, seams; hard sandstone was also quarried. Both coal and sandstone could be exported over the waterways; boat-building was a minor economic activity in Parbold around this time.
Parbold rail station, built in the mid 19th century, radically altered the village; it allowed middle class workers to live in Parbold and commute to nearby towns such as Wigan, Ormskirk, and Preston. The rail station also provided a natural centre for the village which it still is today (2005). Parbold thus possessing an identity of sorts, it became a civil parish in 1894.