IRWELL (THE), a river of Lancashire. It rises on the backbone of England, near Holme, in Rossendale forest; runs southward, past Bury, to Manchester; and goes thence south-westward, past Barton, to the Mersey, below Flixton. Its length of course is about 30 miles; its chief affluents are the Roch below Bury, and the Irk and the Medlock at Manchester; and its scenery, in many parts, is very romantic or liigh1y picturesque.

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