KERSLEY, or KEARSLEY, a village and a township in Deane parish, Lancashire. The village stands adjacent to the Manchester and Bolton railway, near the Bolton canal, 4 miles SE of Bolton; and is a large place. The township comprises 900 acres. Real property, £28, 809; of which £17, 655 are in mines. Pop. in 1851, 4, 236; in 1861, 5, 003. Houses, 994. The increase of pop. arose from mining operations. There are extensive coal mines, and varions manufacturing establishments. A building, to serve as a school and as a temporary place of worship, was erected on Kersley-moor in 1863; and a church was then in contemplation, with the view of forming part or all of the township into a separate chapelry.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))