The name derives from Old Englishhlose a pig and stoc meaning a farm, usually 'stock' or 'Stoke' in place-names, but here referring to a pigsty. Another source suggested that the name is derived from Celtic, llostog meaning beaver, inferring the site of a stream where beavers were found, the reasoning due to the proliferation of Brythonic and Celtic place-names in Lancashire. It has been variously recorded as Lostoc in 1212; Lastok in 1279; Lostok in 1292; Lostoke in 1301 and Lostock and Lostocke in the 16th century. In the Middle Ages Lostock was part of the barony of Manchester. It was subsequently held by Richard de Hulton and passed to the Andertons and the Blundells of Ince. Lostock Hall was an Elizabethanmanor house built for the Anderton family in 1563. The hall was demolished in 1824, but the gatehouse remains and is a Grade II* listed building. During World War II, De Havilland aircraft propellers were produced at Lostock.
Local government
Lostock was a township in the ancient Parish of Bolton le Moors, in the hundred of Salford, in the historic county of Lancashire. In 1837 Lostock joined with other townships in the area to form the Bolton Poor Law Union and took joint responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in that area. In 1866, Lostock became a civil parish, and in 1894 it became part of the Bolton Rural District, which was dissolved in 1898. Under the Bolton, Turton and Westhoughton Extension Act of 1898, Lostock ceased to be a civil parish and became part of the County Borough of Bolton. Lostock is part of the Heaton and Lostock Ward, one of twenty wards in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. The population of the ward at the 2011 Census was 13,564. The ward has three councillors who are elected for up to four years and represent the Lostock and Heaton areas.
Geography
Lostock was a hamlet covering 1,364 acres of land 4½ miles west of Bolton. Chew Moor in the southwest was the principal settlement of the township, it was a cluster of cottages housing the landless labourers and tenant farmers.
Demography
Township population
Ward population
In 1898, Lostock became part of the Deane-cum-Lostock Ward of the County Borough of Bolton. The ward's boundaries were used as a framework in censuses to enumerate the total population in that area of the county borough. No census took place in 1941 because of the Second World War. In 1974, Lostock became part of the Deane-cum-Heaton Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. In the 2001 Census the ward had a population of 16,987. In 2004, electoral ward changes took place which saw the creation of the present Heaton and Lostock Ward.
Transport
Lostock is located north of junctions 5 and 6 of the M61 motorway. The main roads which run through Lostock are the A58, the A673, and the A6027. Lostock railway station was re-opened in 1988 and is served by Northern who operate services on the Manchester to Preston line. The earlier railway station, then named Lostock Junction, was opened in 1852, but was closed by the Beeching cuts in November 1966.
