Oldham

The toponymy of Oldham seems to imply "old village or place" from Eald (Saxon) signifying oldness or antiquity, and Ham (Saxon) a house, farm or hamlet.[10] Oldham is however known to be a derivative of Aldehulme, undoubtedly an Old Norse name.[11] It is believed to be derived from the Old English ald combined with the Old Norse holmi or holmr, meaning "promontory or outcrop", possibly describing the town's hilltop position.[11] It has alternatively been suggested that it may mean "holm or hulme of a farmer named Alda".[11] The name is understood to date from 865, during the period of the Danelaw.[11] Cumbric alt, meaning "steep height, cliff", has also been suggested for the first element.[12]

The earliest known evidence of a human presence in what is now Oldham is attested by the discovery of Neolithic flint arrow-heads and workings found at Werneth and Besom Hill, implying habitation 7–10,000 years ago.[11] Evidence of later Roman and Celtic activity is confirmed by an ancient Roman road and Bronze Age archaeological relics found at various sites within the town.[11] Placenames of Celtic origin are still to be found in Oldham: Werneth derives from a Celtic personal name identical to the Gaulish vernetum, "alder swamp",[13] and Glodwick may be related to the modern Welsh clawdd, meaning "dyke" or "ditch".[14] Nearby Chadderton is also pre-Anglo-Saxon in origin, from the Old Welsh cadeir, itself deriving from the Latin cathedra meaning "chair".[15] Although Anglo-Saxons occupied territory around the area centuries earlier,[11][16] Oldham as a permanent, named place of dwelling is believed to date from 865, when Danish invaders established a settlement called Aldehulme.[11][17]

From its founding in the 9th century until the Industrial Revolution, Oldham is believed to have been little more than a scattering of small and insignificant settlements spread across the moorland and dirt tracks that linked Manchester to York.[11][18] Although not mentioned in the Domesday Book, Oldham does appear in legal documents from the Middle Ages, invariably recorded as territory under the control of minor ruling families and barons.[17] In the 13th century, Oldham was documented as a manor held from the Crown by a family surnamed Oldham, whose seat was at Werneth Hall.[10] Richard de Oldham was recorded as lord of the manor of Werneth/Oldham (1354). His daughter and heiress, Margery (d.1384), married John de Cudworth (d.1384), from whom descended the Cudworths of Werneth Hall who were successive lords of the manor. A Member of this family was James I's Chaplain, Ralph Cudworth (father of the Cambridge Platonist philosopher Ralph Cudworth). The Cudworths remained lords of the manor until their sale of the estate (1683) to Sir Ralph Assheton of Middleton.[19]

Oldham from Glodwick by James Howe Carse (1831), depicts the early skyline and industrial activities of Oldham. All the green space has since been urbanised.

Much of Oldham's history is concerned with textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution; it has been said that "if ever the Industrial Revolution placed a town firmly and squarely on the map of the world, that town is Oldham."[6] Oldham's soils were too thin and poor to sustain crop growing, and so for decades prior to industrialisation the area was used for grazing sheep, which provided the raw material for a local woollen weaving trade.[10]

By 1756, Oldham had emerged as centre of the hatting industry in England. The rough felt used in the production process is the origin of the term "Owdham Roughyed" a nickname for people from Oldham.[11] It was not until the last quarter of the 18th century that Oldham changed from being a cottage industry township producing woollen garments via domestic manual labour, to a sprawling industrial metropolis of textile factories.[10] The climate, geology, and topography of Oldham were unrelenting constraints upon the social and economic activities of the human inhabitants.[20] At 700 feet (200 m) above sea level and with no major river or visible natural resources, Oldham had poor geographic attributes compared with other settlements for investors and their engineers. As a result, Oldham played no part in the initial period of the Industrial Revolution,[3][18] although it did later become seen as obvious territory to industrialise because of its convenient position between the labour forces of Manchester and southwest Yorkshire.[21]

Cotton spinning and milling were introduced to Oldham when its first mill, Lees Hall, was built by William Clegg in about 1778, the beginning of a spiralling process of urbanisation and socioeconomic transformation.[3] Within a year, 11 other mills had been constructed,[11] and by 1818 there were 19 – not a large number in comparison with other local settlements.[18] Oldham's small local population was greatly increased by the mass migration of workers from outlying villages,[11] resulting in a population increase from just over 12,000 in 1801 to 137,000 in 1901.[18] The speed of this urban growth meant that Oldham, with little pre-industrial history to speak of, was effectively born as a factory town.

Royd mill, built in 1907,[3] and seen here in 1983, was one of the more than 360 textile mills that operated night and day during Oldham's peak.

Oldham became the world's manufacturing centre for cotton spinning in the second half of the 19th century.[18] In 1851, over 30% of Oldham's population was employed within the textile sector, compared to 5% across Great Britain.[21] It overtook the major urban centres of Manchester and Bolton as the result of a mill building boom in the 1860s and 1870s, a period during which Oldham became the most productive cotton-spinning town in the world.[18] In 1871, Oldham had more spindles than any country in the world except the United States, and in 1909, was spinning more cotton than France and Germany combined.[5] By 1911 there were 16.4 million spindles in Oldham, compared with a total of 58 million in the United Kingdom and 143.5 million in the world; in 1928, with the construction of the UK's largest textile factory Oldham reached its manufacturing zenith.[18] At its peak, there were more than 360 mills, operating night and day;[22][23]

Oldham's townscape was dominated by distinctive rectangular brick-built mills.[24] Oldham was hit hard by the Lancashire Cotton Famine of 1861–1865, when supplies of raw cotton from the United States were cut off. Wholly reliant upon the textile industry, the cotton famine created chronic unemployment in the town.[25] By 1863 a committee had been formed, and with aid from central government, land was purchased with the intention of employing local cotton workers to construct Alexandra Park, which opened on 28 August 1865.[25] Said to have over-relied upon the textile sector,[6][17] as the importation of cheaper foreign yarns grew during the 20th century, Oldham's economy declined into a depression, although it was not until 1964 that Oldham ceased to be the largest centre of cotton spinning.[6][18][26] In spite of efforts to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of its production, the last cotton spun in the town was in 1998.[18]

Facilitated by its flourishing textile industry, Oldham developed extensive structural and mechanical engineering sectors during the 18th and 19th centuries. The manufacture of spinning and weaving machinery in Oldham belongs to the last decade of the 19th century, when it became a leading centre in the field of engineering.[11] The Platt Brothers, originated in nearby Dobcross village, but moved to Oldham. They were pioneers of cotton-spinning machinery, developing innovative products that enabled the mass-production of cotton yarn. Platt Brothers became the largest textile machine makers in the world, employing over 15,000 people in the 1890s,[27] twice the number of their nearest rivals Dobson & Barlow in Bolton and Asa Lees on Greenacres Moor.[23] They were keen investors in the local area and at one time, were supporting 42% of the population.[27] The centre of the company lay at the New Hartford Works in Werneth, a massive complex of buildings and internal railways on a site overlooking Manchester. The railway station which served this site later formed the basis of Oldham Werneth railway station. The main building exists to this day. Platts gained prestigious awards from around the world,[25] and were heavily involved with local politics and civic pride in Oldham.[27] John and James Platt were the largest subscribers for promoting Oldham from a township to a Borough, pledging £100 (more than double the next largest sum) in advance towards any expenses which may have been incurred by the Royal Charter.[11] In 1854 John Platt was made the (fourth) Mayor of Oldham, an office he was to hold twice more in 1855–56 and 1861–62.[28] John Platt was elected in 1865 to become a Member of Parliament (MP) for Oldham, and was re-elected in 1868; he remained in office until his death in 1872.[11] A bronze statue of Platt existed in the town centre for years, though was moved to Alexandra Park. There have been recommendations for it to be returned to the town centre.[7]

Abraham Henthorn Stott, the son of a stonemason, was born in nearby Shaw & Crompton in 1822.[3] He served a seven-year apprenticeship with Sir Charles Barry, before starting a structural engineering practice in Oldham in 1847 that went on to become the pre-eminent mill architect firm in Lancashire.[3] Philip Sydney Stott, third son of Abraham and later titled as Sir Philip Stott, 1st Baronet, was the most prominent and famous of the Stott mill architects.[3] He established his own practice in 1883 and designed over a hundred mills in several countries. His factories, which improved upon his father's fireproof mills, accounted for a 40% increase in Oldham's spindles between 1887 and 1914.[3]

Although textile-related engineering declined with the processing industry, leading to the demise of both Stotts and Platts, other engineering firms existed, notably electrical and later electronic engineers Ferranti in 1896.[23] Ferranti went into receivership in 1993, but some of its former works continue in other hands. Part of the original Hollinwood site was operated by Siemens Metering and Semiconductor divisions.[23] The remainder of the site is occupied by Mirror Colour Print Ltd; the printing division of Reach, which prints and distributes thirty-six major newspapers, and employs five hundred staff.[29][30]

On the back of the Industrial Revolution, Oldham developed an extensive coal mining sector, correlated to supporting the local cotton industry and the town's inhabitants, though there is evidence of small scale coal mining in the area as early as the 16th century.[31] The Oldham Coalfield stretched from Royton in the north to Bardsley in the south and in addition to Oldham, included the towns of Middleton and Chadderton to the west.[31] The Oldham Coalfield was the site of over 150 collieries during its recorded history.[31] Although some contemporary sources suggest there was coal mining in Oldham at a commercial scale by 1738,[31] older sources attribute the commercial expansion of coal mining with the arrival in the town of two Welsh labourers, John Evans and William Jones, around 1770.[11] Foreseeing the growth in demand for coal as a source of steam power, they acquired colliery rights for Oldham, which by 1771 had 14 colliers.[11] The mines were largely to the southwest of the town around Hollinwood and Werneth and provided enough coal to accelerate Oldham's rapid development at the centre of the cotton boom. At its height in the mid-19th century, when it was dominated by the Lees and Jones families, Oldham coal was mainly sourced from many small collieries whose lives varied from a few years to many decades, although two of the four largest collieries survived to nationalisation.[31][32] In 1851, collieries employed more than 2,000 men in Oldham,[32] although the amount of coal in the town was somewhat overestimated however, and production began to decline even before that of the local spinning industry.[31] Today, the only visible remnants of the mines are disused shafts and boreholes.[31]

Workmen leaving Platt's Works, Oldham, 1900

Oldham's social history, like that of other former unenfranchised towns, is marked by politicised civil disturbances, as well as events related to the Luddite, Suffragette and other Labour movements from the working classes.[33][27] There has been a significant presence of "friendly societies".[11][34] It has been put that the people of Oldham became radical in politics in the early part of the 19th century, and movements suspected of sedition found patronage in the town.[33] Oldham was frequently disturbed by bread and labour riots, facilitated by periods of scarcity and the disturbance of employment following the introduction of cotton-spinning machinery.[33]

On 20 April 1812, a "large crowd of riotous individuals" compelled local retailers to sell foods at a loss, whilst on the same day Luddites numbering in their thousands, many of whom were from Oldham, attacked a cotton mill in nearby Middleton.[10] On 16 August 1819, Oldham sent a contingent estimated at well above 10,000 to hear speakers in St Peter's Fields at Manchester discuss political reform;[35] it was the largest contingent sent to Manchester.[36] John Lees, a cotton operative and ex-soldier who had fought at Waterloo, was one of the fifteen victims of the Peterloo Massacre which followed. The 'Oldham inquest' which proceeded the massacre was anxiously watched; the Court of King's Bench, however, decided that the proceedings were irregular, and the jury were discharged without giving a verdict.[33]

Annie Kenney, born in nearby Springhead, and who worked in Oldham's cotton mills, was a notable member of the Suffragette movement credited with sparking off suffragette militancy when she heckled Winston Churchill, and later (with Emmeline Pankhurst) the first Suffragist to be imprisoned. Oldham Women's Suffrage Society was established in 1910 with Margery Lees as president and quickly joined the Manchester and District Federation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.[37] The Chartist and Co-operative movements had strong support in the town, whilst many Oldhamers protested in support of the emancipation of slaves.[27] The Riot Act was read in 1852 on election day following a mass public brawl over the Reform Act,[38] and irregularities with parliamentary candidate nominations.[11]

For three days in late May 2001, Oldham became the centre of national and international media attention. Following high-profile race-related conflicts, and long-term underlying racial tensions between local White British against British Pakistani and British Bangladeshi communities, major riots broke out in the town. Occurring with particular intensity in the Glodwick and Coldhurst areas of the town, the 2001 Oldham riots were the worst racially motivated riots in the United Kingdom for fifteen years prior, briefly eclipsing the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland in the media.[39] At least 20 people were injured in the riots, including 15 police officers, and 37 people were arrested. Similar riots took place in other towns in northern England over the following days and weeks. The 2001 riots prompted governmental and independent inquiries, which collectively agreed on community relations improvements and considerable regeneration schemes for the town.[39][40] There were further fears of riots after the death of Gavin Hopley in 2002.[41][42]

The coat of arms of the former County Borough of Oldham council, granted 7 November 1894, based upon those of an ancient local family surnamed Oldham. The owls suggest that the family, like the town, called itself 'Owdham', and adopted the birds in allusion to its name. The motto "Sapere aude" ("Dare to be wise") refers to the owls.[11][43]

Lying within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire since the early 12th century, Oldham was recorded in 1212 as being one of five parts of the thegnage estate of Kaskenmoor, which was held on behalf of King John by Roger de Montbegon and William de Nevill.[33][11] The other parts of this estate were Crompton, Glodwick, Sholver, and Werneth.[16] Oldham later formed a township within the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham, in the hundred of Salford.[1][33]

In 1826 commissioners for the social and economic improvement of Oldham were established.[1] The town was made part of a parliamentary borough, in 1832, though it was in 1849 when Oldham was incorporated as a municipal borough, giving it borough status in the United Kingdom,[1][11] and in 1850 the Borough Council obtained the powers of the improvement commissioners.[1] In 1880, parts of the Hollinwood and Crossbank areas of Chadderton and Ashton-under-Lyne townships were added to the Borough of Oldham.[1] Oldham Above Town and Oldham Below Town were, from 1851 until c. 1881, statistical units used for the gathering and organising of civil registration information, and output of census data.

The Local Government Act 1888 created elected county councils to administer services throughout England and Wales. Where a municipal borough had a population of more than 50,000 at the 1881 Census it was created a county borough, with the powers and duties of both a borough and county council.[44] As Oldham had an 1881 population of 111,343 it duly became a county borough on 1 April 1889. The borough, while independent of Lancashire County Council for local government, remained part of the county for purposes such as the administration of justice and lieutenancy.[1][45]

In 1951 parts of the Limehurst Rural District were added to the County Borough of Oldham, and in 1954 further parts of the same district added to it on its abolition.[44] Since 1961, Oldham has been twinned with Kranj in Slovenia.[46] Under the Local Government Act 1972, the town's autonomous county borough status was abolished, and Oldham has, since 1 April 1974, formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, within the Metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.[1]

The boundaries of two parliamentary constituencies divide Oldham: Oldham East and Saddleworth, and Oldham West and Royton (which includes the town centre), represented by Labour Members of Parliament (MPs) Debbie Abrahams and Jim McMahon respectively.[47][48][49]

Created as a parliamentary borough in 1832, Oldham's first parliamentary representatives were the radicals William Cobbett and John Fielden.[50] Winston Churchill began his political career in Oldham. Although unsuccessful at his first attempt in 1899, Churchill was elected as the member of Parliament for the Oldham parliamentary borough constituency in the 1900 general election.[51] He held the constituency for the Conservative Party until the 1906 general election, when he won the election for Manchester North West as a Liberal MP. After he became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1940, Churchill was made an Honorary Freeman of the Borough of Oldham, on 2 April 1941.[11]

Oldham West and Royton	Oldham East and Saddleworth
Jim McMahon	Debbie Abrahams
Labour	Labour

In the 2016 European Union membership referendum, Oldham voted in favour of Brexit. The vote to leave was 60.9%.[52][53]

Fredrick Street, in Werneth. Much of Oldham's housing stock is two-up-two-down rows of terraced houses, a reminder of its mill town history.

Many of Oldham's present divisions and suburbs have origins as pre-industrial hamlets, manorial commons and ancient chapelries.[11] Some, such as Moorside, exist as recently constructed residential suburbia, whilst places like Hollinwood exist as electoral wards[62] and thoroughly industrialised districts. Throughout most of its recorded history, Oldham was surrounded by large swathes of moorland, which is reflected in the placenames of Moorside, Greenacres moor, Littlemoor, Northmoor among others.

A large portion of Oldham's residences are "low value"[7] Victorian era Accrington red-brick terraced houses in a row formation,[27] built for the most part from 1870 to 1920, to house the town's cotton mill workers.[38] There is more modern housing in the semi-rural east of the town, in the most sought after area in areas such as the village Moorside,[63] although terraces are found in almost all parts of Oldham.

One of the oldest recorded named places of Oldham is Hathershaw, occurring in a deed for 1280 with the spelling Halselinechaw Clugh.[11] Existing as a manor in the 15th century, Hathershaw Hall was the home of a Royalist family in the 17th century who lost part of their possessions due to the English Civil War.[11] Waterhead, an upland area in the east of Oldham, traces its roots to a water cornmill over the border in Lees.[17]

Recorded originally as Watergate and Waterhead Milne, it was for a long time a hamlet in the parish of Oldham that formed a significant part of the Oldham Above Town registration sub-district. Derker was recorded as a place of residence in 1604 with the name Dirtcar.[11] Bound by Higginshaw to the north, Derker is the location of Derker railway station and, said to have terraced residencies "unsuited to modern needs", is currently being redeveloped as part of the Housing Market Renewal Initiative.[64]

Coldhurst, an area along Oldham's northern boundary with Royton, was once a chapelry and the site of considerable industry and commerce, including coal mining, cotton spinning and hat manufacture.[65] It is said to have been the scene of an action in the English Civil War in which the Parliamentarians were defeated.[65]

Oldham's Old Town Hall is a Grade II listed Georgian neo-classical town hall built in 1841,[97] eight years before Oldham received its borough status.[98] One of the last purpose-built town halls in northwest England,[27] it has a tetrastyle Ionic portico, copied from the temple of Ceres, on the River Ilissos, near Athens.[50] Winston Churchill made his inaugural acceptance speech from the steps of the town hall when he was first elected as a Conservative MP in 1900. A Blue Plaque on the exterior of the building commemorates the event.[99] Long existing as the political centre of the town, complete with courtrooms, the structure stood empty for many years from the mid-1980s and was regularly earmarked for redevelopment as part of regeneration project proposals, but none were actioned before plans dating to 2012 were completed in 2016.[7][98][99][100]

In September 2008, it was reported that "Oldham Town Hall is only months away from a major roof collapse".[101] A tour taken by local councillors and media concluded with an account that "chunks of masonry are falling from the ceilings on a daily basis ... the floors are littered with dead pigeons and ... revealed that the building is literally rotting away".[99][101] In October 2009 the Victorian Society, a charity responsible for the study and protection of Britain's Victorian and Edwardian architecture, declared Oldham Town Hall as the most endangered Victorian structure in England and Wales.[102][103][104] Plans to convert the hall into a leisure complex, incorporating a cinema and restaurants, were revealed in May 2012 with the hall itself being used for public consultation.[105][106] This £36.72 million project was completed in 2016.[107]

In the heart of Oldham's retail district, the Old Town Hall has been developed into a modern multiplex Odeon cinema.[108][109]

Erected as a permanent memorial to the men of Oldham who were killed in the First World War, Oldham's war memorial consists of a granite base surmounted by a bronze sculpture depicting five soldiers making their way along the trenches in order to go into battle.[110] The main standing figure, having climbed out of the trenches, is shown calling on his comrades to advance, and is the same figure used at the Royal Fusiliers War Memorial in London and the 41st Division memorial at Flers in France. The base serves to house books containing the roll of honour of the 1st, 10th and 24th Battalions, Manchester Regiment. The pedestal has two bronze doors at either side.[110]

Commissioned in 1919 by the Oldham War Memorial Committee, the memorial was designed and built by Albert Toft.[111] It was unveiled by General Sir Ian Hamilton on 28 April 1923, before a crowd estimated at over 10,000.[110] The monument was intended to symbolise the spirit of 1914–1918.[11]

The inscriptions on the memorial read:

• Over doors to the north: "DEATH IS THE GATE OF LIFE / 1914–1918"
• Over window to the south: "TO GOD BE THE PRAISE "

The Civic Centre tower is the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham's centre of local governance. The chamber of the Mayor of Oldham can be located in the Civic Centre. The 15-storey white-brick building has housed the vast majority of the local government's offices since its completion in 1977. Standing at the summit of the town, the tower stands over 200 feet (60 metres) high.[112] It was designed by Cecil Howitt & Partners,[7] and the topping out ceremony was held on 18 June 1976.[25] The Civic Centre can be seen as far away as Salford, Trafford, Wythenshawe and Winter Hill in Lancashire, and offers panoramic views across the city of Manchester and the Cheshire Plain.

The Oldham Parish Church of St. Mary with St. Peter, in its present form, dates from 1830 and was designed in the Gothic Revival Style by Richard Lane, a Manchester-based architect.[75] It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building.[113] It was linked with the church of St Mary the Virgin, Prestwich and together the sites were principal churches of the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham.[75]

A church building had existed on the site since 1280.[75] During this time, a small chapel stood on the site to serve the local townships of Oldham, Chadderton, Royton and Crompton. This was later replaced by an Early English Gothic church in the 15th century.[75] With the coming of the Industrial Revolution, the population of Oldham increased at a rapid rate (from under 2,000 in 1714, to over 32,000 by 1831).[75] The rapid growth of the local population warranted that the building be rebuilt into the current structure. Though the budget was originally agreed at £5,000,[7] the final cost of building was £30,000, one third of which was spent on the crypt structure.[75] Alternative designs by Sir Charles Barry, the designer of the Palace of Westminster, although now regarded by some as superior, were rejected.[7][75] The Church, of the Anglican denomination, is in active use for worship, and forms part of the Diocese of Manchester.[75]

There are also Roman Catholic churches in Oldham. These include Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St Patrick Church. It was built in 1870, was founded by priests from St Mary's Church in Oldham, and is a Grade II listed building.[114]

The annual Oldham Carnival started around 1900, although the tradition of carnivals in the town goes back much further, providing a "welcomed respite from the tedium of everyday life".[167] The carnival parade was always held in mid-to-late summer, with the primary aim of raising money for charities.[167] It often featured local dignitaries or popular entertainers, in addition to brass, military and jazz bands, the Carnival Queen, people in fancy dress, dancers and decorated floats from local churches and businesses.[167] Whenever possible, local people who had attained national celebrity status were invited to join the cavalcade.[167] The carnival's route began in the town centre, wound its way along King Street, and ended with a party in Alexandra Park.[167]

The carnival fell out of favour in the late 1990s but was resurrected by community volunteers in 2006 and rebranded the Peoples' Carnival. The parade was moved into Alexandra Park in 2011. The event hosts live stages and other activities alongside a parade in the park.[168][169] 2016 marked ten years since the carnival was reinstated by volunteers. The main organiser is Paul Davies who runs the carnival with a number of committee members and volunteers.[170]

• Geesthacht, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
• Kranj, Upper Carniola, Slovenia