The starting point of the Bridgewater Canal which took coal from the Duke’s coal mines to the centre of Manchester and kick started the industrial revolution in Manchester, the village, first mentioned in 1195 grew up on the Roman road connecting Manchester to Wigan and the North.
The name Worsley is believed to be derived from the Anne given to an area where tilled land was conspicuous by its absence.
At the time of the Norman conquest the area would have been a mixture of forests, waste land and bog sitting at the edge of moorlands stretching north.
Its first Lord after 1066 was Elias Eliseus, said to have taken part in the Crusades and to have died and been buried on the island of Rhodes.
Worsley played a huge part in the future prosperity of Greater Manchester its hall being the seat of Francis Duke of Bridgewater who in the second half of the eighteenth century employed James Brinkley to build a canal which would take coal from the family coal mines into the heart of Manchester.
Today the green has returned to a peaceful tranquility, a place of leisure where visitors come to gaze at one of the birthplaces of industry.