Oldham History

After recently celebrating 150 years of municipal status and heading into the new Millennium, Oldham is experiencing a period of renewal and economic regeneration that has parallels with the way the Borough developed during the latter half of the 19th century, when it enjoyed a phase of remarkable growth.

Although Oldham's existence can be traced back to the 11th century, it was the Industrial Revolution - and cotton in particular - that laid the foundations for the town's prosperity. By the end of the 19th century Oldham was recognised near and far as nothing less than the greatest cotton spinning town in the world.

Achieving this mantle was by no means straightforward - Oldham was blessed with fewer natural resources than its neighbouring rivals. It is on a hillside and it had poor transport links. In addition, its high altitude - 700 feet above sea level - posed severe engineering challenges to canal and railway builders. Yet the original town grew to a point when it was consuming more raw cotton and spinning more yarn than any other single centre of the industry.

This level of success was achieved largely through the determination, perseverance and ingenuity of Oldham's people, who put to good use what advantages the town possessed - its high humidity, its reserves of coal and its proximity to the factories burgeoning on both sides of the Pennines, especially those in and around Manchester. As world demand for cotton grew, so Oldham's share of spindleage increased. By 1890 it has risen to 11.4 million out of 87.7 million - 13 per cent of the world's total production.

With this increase in market share came an increase in the size and number of Oldham's mills - from 50,000 spindles in 1870, to 90,000 by 1890 and no fewer than 17.8 million at the industry's peak in 1926 - 30 per cent of the total for the whole of Lancashire. The number of mills rose to a peak of 320 in 1918.

Oldham's industrial workers played a prominent role in the struggle for the vote, electing radical candidates John Fielden and William Cobbett and forming a Hampden Club in 1816. There was also a flourishing female political union in the town, 150 of whose members attended the meeting in Manchester on 16 August 1819 that resulted in the Peterloo Massacre.

When times were good for the mills they were also good for other industries. Mill construction provided the building industry with 50 years of highly profitable activity and the Oldham machine and steam engine manufacturers who gave life to the mills - notably Hibbert and Platt, Buckley and Taylor, Urmston and Thompson, Woolstenhulme and Rye - earned themselves legendary engineering reputations as well as generating wealth and creating jobs for thousands.

Contrary to what might have been expected, the rapid period of industrialisation left vast swathes of the rural landscape virtually untouched. Today two-thirds of the Borough remain open countryside.

On the doorstep is the Pennine moorland of Saddleworth, extending into the Peak District National Park. The dramatic scenery of this countryside offers up a host of contrasts from the isolation of the reconstructed site of Castleshaw Roman Fort, one of a series built on the Roman military road from Chester to York, to the delightful village of Uppermill. Dobcross, once the commercial heart of the district, remains one of the most attractive villages in the Pennines and was used as the setting for the film Yanks. Its numerous weavers' cottages, clothiers' and merchants' houses surrounding the village square have remained virtually unchanged in 200 years.

Moving from the surrounding countryside into the town itself is to step into a rich municipal heritage. In the very centre of Oldham is Alexandra Park. The park, built in 1865, was funded by a government loan designed to boost jobs when the American Civil War caused supplies of cotton to dry up and left many people out of work. Alexandra Park covers 72 acres, with a boating lake at its heart, and features a statue of Joseph 'Blind Joe' Howarth (who held the job of town crier for 40 years) and a pagoda built as a meteorological observatory in 1899 to commemorate the town's Golden Jubilee.

Also in the centre of the town, and once its cultural heart, is Tommyfield, in years gone by famous for fairs, side-shows and circuses and a rallying point for mass political meetings. The name derives from Tommy's-Field, a meadow which was rented by pig breeder Tommy Whittaker from the landowner Sir Nathanial Curzon. Today it is home to one of the largest outdoor permanent markets in the north of England.

Much of Oldham's town centre architecture is Victorian. The original Town Hall, with its impressive facade, was built in 1841. It was from the Town Hall steps that Sir Winston Churchill made his inaugural acceptance speech when he was first elected as a Conservative MP in 1900.

Close by is Oldham Coliseum, the town's repertory theatre, together with the striking parish church of St Mary's, designed by local architect Richard Lane in crude Gothic style. The parish church was built in 1830 and its interior was painstakingly restored to its original unusual design in 1974.

Architectural historians can also enjoy the splendour of Foxdenton Hall, a brick-built manor house in the classic Renaissance style dating from around 1700.

Werneth Park was presented to the Council by Marjory Lees following the death of her mother, Dame Sarah Lees, the cotton heiress, in 1935. In 1936 it was opened to the public. Originally the home of the Platt family's private orchestra, (the Platt name is legendary in Oldham engineering history) the beautiful Werneth Park Music Rooms are now used by many local groups and societies.

In 1999 Oldham celebrated 150 years of municipal status and democratic heritage. A wide variety of events not only highlighted the achievements of the area and its people past and present, but also looked forward to exciting developments as the new Millennium dawned.

Exhibitions, festivals and special events covering the fields of education, commerce, culture, industry, sport, music and theatre took place throughout the year. On the 13 June, the actual 150th anniversary of the Granting of the Charter of Incorporation, the whole community united in a series of formal and informal events culminating in a torchlight procession and fireworks.

The ongoing regeneration and redevelopment of the Borough ensures that future generations living and working in Oldham will have as much to be proud of in their town as anybody has had at any time in its rich and vibrant history.

Oldham Mumps

The area around the main railway station on the edge of Oldham town centre is known as 'Mumps'. The name Mumps or Mumps bridge first appears in the Oldham Parish Registers at the end of the 17th century. The origin of the name is not certain. Ga-mumpi is a very old word that means the land at the meeting of two streams. A stream used to run from Gravel Walks which met another stream which came from Bridgewater Street and down Brook Street (diverted when the railway was built). Another possible source for the name is that in early English dialect mumps meant alms, and a mumper was a beggar; as there was once a workhouse in the district it may have derived its name from this source.