The region between Warrington and Wigan was known as Mackerfield, which is believed to reach back to the Saxon name of Macerfelth. Views on the location of Macerfelth differ, but it was the site of a battle in 642 when King Penda of Mercia slew King Oswald of Northumbria. Although the place is commonly connected to Oswestry in Shropshire, one account locates it at Winwick, being located near the River Mersey, the boundary between Mercia and Northumbria.

The cross-arm, all that is left of a great preaching cross that once stood near St. Oswald's Church in Winwick, and must have been over four metres tall.

After the Norman conquest Lancashire, including the Newton Hundred, was given to a Norman knight, Roger de Poictou, or Roger Pictavensis. His follower Robert Banastre became Baron of Newton and Lord of the Fee of Makerfield. In the following centuries Ashton's fortunes were linked with the Roman Catholic Gerard family. The Gerards originated from Dominus Otho, descendant of the Dukes of Tuscany, a rich and powerful baron reputedly born in Florence around 1010. In the late twelfth century the manor of Ashton (called Eston, later Ayston, then Assheton and finally Ashton) was held in thegnage by Peter de Brindle. In 1335 William Gerrard of Kingsley, descended from Otho, married Joan de Brindle, descended from Peter de Brindle, and thus acquired the Ashton estate.

Their first seat was a moated hall in Landgate, which has now disappeared, although the site is marked on local maps. The family moved to New Bryn Hall around the end of the fourteenth century, which, though rebuilt, still stands, with its cross and gates. The name of a Gerard appears through the centuries as High Sheriff of Lancashire, and the Gerards were Royalists during the Civil War. Wigan was a Royalist stronghold, and in 1651 Charles II lodged at Brynne Hall, on his way to defeat at the Battle of Worcester. (Roger Lowe, a local mercer (grocer) who kept a diary from 1663 to 1678, throws some interesting sidelights on life in Ashton during the 17th century.)

In the eighteenth century the family moved to a farmhouse in Garswood, then later to Garswood New Hall in Garswood Park, situated on the site of the present Ashton Golf Course and Byrchall High School. Garswood Hall became a VAD hospital during the First World War, with Lady Gerard as the benefactor and Matron. In the 1920s the family moved their seat to Hertfordshire and the link with Ashton which had survived the centuries was lost.

In the first half of the 19th century the chief forms of employment were domestic industries: metal working, cotton manufacture and coal mining. By 1849 the population of Ashton was still located mainly along the line of the main roads, from Warrington Road by St Thomas's Church to the site of the library, and from Townfields to the junction of Bryn Road South and Bolton Road, apart from some habitations along Heath Road, which housed a number of local industries centred on file, hinge and lock making.

The second half of the 19th century saw the beginnings of the present-day Ashton in the sinking of deep coal mines, the growth of specialist metal working, and the opening of factories for spinning and weaving. Situated in the South Lancashire coalfield, Ashton saw the development of numerous collieries, the principal colliery owner being Richard Evans, a major benefactor within the town. The home forges producing locks and hinges were taken over in 1866 by Thomas Crompton, who opened a small factory at Downall Green and later became a major employer in Ashton.

Much development in Ashton took place in the late nineteenth century as can be seen from the datestones on many terraces, occasioned by the growth of industries such as Thomas Crompton & Sons in Gerard Street, the Record Mill situated in York Road, and the Makerfield Mill (the 'Weaving Shed') in Windsor Road. The town continued as a typical Lancashire town until the sixties, when a rapid growth in housing and decline in local manufacturing industries led to its expansion and change to a largely dormitory town serving commuters to industries outside the area.

Employees at Makerfield Mill formed a football team in 1953 named Makerfield Mill FC, which is still thriving as Ashton Town FC at their ground in Edge Green Street.

Among the noteable people coming from Ashton-in-Makerfield are Sam Woods (1846-1915), first President of the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Federation; Stephen Walsh, Makerfield's first Labour MP, and in 1906 the pioneer of one hundred years Labour representation for Makerfield; Joe Gormley (1921-1993), President of the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1970s and 1980s; and Lance-Corporal William Keneally of the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, who was one of the 'Six VCs before breakfast' at Gallipolli on 25th April 1915.

A

B

O

U

T

A

S

H

T

O

N