| THE IMPROVEMENT COMMISSIONERS |
| The population of Bury was returned by the census of 1841
as being 20,710 and steps were taken by the vestry for extended powers. After
many tiresome delays, the first Bury Improvement Act was passed in 1846. A body
called the Improvement Commissioners was formed, and by degrees took over the
duties hitherto undertaken by the overseers and the vestry. Many changes took
place in the centre of the town, the Derby Hotel, Police Station, and Town Hall
being erected in 1850, and the Athenaeum the next year.
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| Goods had been carried to and from the town mainly by canal,
but with the advent of the Railway service in 1846 and 1848, this method was
gradually superseded. Roads had been made considerably wider and better, but were
mostly paved with big uneven stones or rounded cobbles.
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| The keeping up of the roadways, the sewering, paving, cleaning,
and lighting of the streets, the regular supply of gas and water were the concerns
of the early Commissioners ; but, little by little, other equally important subjects
were undertaken. Committees were formed to deal with Finance, Nuisance, Sanitation,
Baths, and the provision of a Cemetery.
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| The Gas Works were bought from the Bury Gas Company, and were
taken over on January 1st I858. Other items of progress mark the efforts' of this
really first elected body of governors of the town's affairs - one that must be
mentioned being the division of the town into five districts for voting purposes.
The first division of this character took place at the general election, in 1857,
when Mr. R. N. Philips was first elected M.P. for Bury. The five divisions became
the five wards, into which the town is now divided for all purposes, viz :-Church,
Moorside, East, Redvales, and Elton Wards.
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| The meetings of the Commissioners were held in B a n k Chambers,
in Bank Street, in the same rooms that the present Council meetings are held.
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| Sir Robert Peel, the Statesman, died in 1850 and it was decided
to erect a monument to his memory in the Market Place. Public Subscriptions to the
value of £3,000 were raised to defray expenses; the work was carried out by Mr. E. H.
Baily, R.A., and he executed the fine bronze statue which now adorns the Market Place.
This, and the huge tower on Holcombe Hill, which was also erected at the same time,
bear testimony to Bury's regard for her illustrious son.
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| The population continued to increase steadily, being 25,854 in 1851,
and a decade later, it was 30,399.
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