Shaw and Crompton
Encyclopedia
Shaw and Crompton is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
, in Greater Manchester
, England. It lies on the River Beal
at the foothills of the South Pennines
, 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north of Oldham
, 3.6 miles (5.8 km) southeast of Rochdale
, and 8.7 miles (14 km) to the northeast of the city of Manchester
. It is regularly referred to as Shaw.
Historically
a part of Lancashire
, Crompton (as it was originally known) and its surroundings have provided evidence of ancient British and Anglian
activity in the area. During the Middle Ages
, Crompton formed a small township
of scattered woods, farmsteads, moorland, and swamp with a small and close community of families. The local lordship was weak or absent, and so Crompton failed to emerge as a manor
with its own lord and court. Farming was the main industry of this broadly independent and self-supporting rural area, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system.
The introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution
initiated a process of rapid and unplanned urbanisation. A building boom began in Crompton during the mid-19th century, when suitable land for factories in Oldham was becoming scarce. By the late-19th century Crompton had emerged as a densely populated mill town
. Forty-eight cotton mill
s—some of the largest in the United Kingdom—have been recorded as existing in the area. At its spinning
zenith, as a result of an interwar
economic boom associated with the textile industry, Shaw and Crompton was reported to have had more millionaire
s per capita than any other town in the world. Imports of foreign cotton goods began the decline in the region's textile industry during the mid-20th century; Shaw and Crompton's last mill closed in 1989.
Today, Shaw and Crompton, which covers 4.5 square miles (11.7 km²), is a predominantly residential area of mixed affluence with a population of 21,721. Its double name has been said to make it "distinctive, if not unique". The legacy of its industrial past can be seen in its six surviving cotton mill
s, all of which are home to large distribution companies, among them Shop Direct Group's Shaw National Distribution Centre, a major employer in the area.
The name Shaw
is derived from the Old English word sceaga, meaning "wood". The name Crompton is also of Old English derivation, from the words crom or crumb, meaning "bent" or "crooked", and ton, for "hamlet or village". A local historian stated that "this name aptly describes the appearance of the place, with its uneven surface, its numerous mounds and hills, as though it had been crumpled up to form these ridges". The University of Nottingham
's Institute for Name-Studies has offered the suggestion that the name Crompton means "river-bend settlement", which may reflect Crompton's location on a meander
of the River Beal
.
The dual name of both Shaw and Crompton has been said to make the town "distinctive, if not unique", while preference of Shaw over Crompton and vice versa has been (and to a limited extent remains) a minor local controversy and point of confusion. Today, the single name of Shaw seems to have won preference in the locality.
Shaw was originally a hamlet
and sub-district of Crompton, and appears to have originated as the commercial and ecclesiastic
centre of Crompton because of a small chapel sited there dating back to the 16th century. Before then, Whitfield had been the largest village in Crompton. In 1872, Shaw was noted as one of three villages in Crompton. However, due to Shaw's urbanisation following the construction of a major road from Werneth
to Littleborough, and the establishment of a post office sub-district named and situated in Shaw, it came to dominate Crompton. Additionally, a separate ecclesiastical parish was created for the township in 1835, which was given the name Shaw because of the church's location on Shaw Moor, in Crompton. The names merged to form the present day Shaw and Crompton, which boundary markers have used since at least the 1950s.
has been discovered on Crompton Moor
, providing evidence of Bronze Age
human activity. It is believed that the area was inhabited by Ancient Britons, and that the Brigantes
gave the River Beal
its name. An ancient track, perhaps of Roman origin, crosses the modern Buckstones Road leading to Castleshaw Roman fort
in neighbouring Saddleworth
.
In 616 Æthelfrith of Bernicia
, an Anglo-Saxon
King, crossed the Pennines with an army and passed through Manchester
to defeat the Britons
in the Battle of Chester
. A wave of Anglian
colonists followed this military conquest and their settlements are identified by the Old English
suffix ton in local place names. Royton
, Middleton
, Moston
, Clayton
, Ashton
and Crompton are localities northeast of Manchester which may have been founded during that colonisation, suggesting that Crompton as a settlement could date from the 7th century.
During Anglo-Saxon England
, it is assumed from toponymic evidence
that the township
of Crompton formed around a predominantly Anglian community with a few Norse
settlers, and within the extensive Hundred of Salfordshire
. Following the Norman conquest of England
, Crompton was part of a vast estate given to Roger the Poitevin
, the maternal nephew of William the Conqueror
. It was unmentioned in the Domesday Book
of 1086; the first recorded use of the name Crompton for the township was discovered in legal documents relating to Cockersand Abbey
near Lancaster
, dating from the early 13th century. The document outlines that Gilbert de Notton, a Norman
who had acquired the land from Roger de Montbegon
, granted his estate to Cockersand Abbey. The Knights Hospitaller
and Whalley Abbey
held small estates in the township. In 1234, about 80 acres (32 ha) of land at Whitfield in Crompton were given to the Hospitallers, a religious order that provided care for poor, sick or injured pilgrims to the Holy Land
. A medieval cross has been discovered in the ruins of a house at Whitfield.
During the High Middle Ages
, Crompton was a collection of scattered woods, farmsteads, moorland, swamp and a single corn mill, occupied by a small and close community of families. The area was thinly populated and consisted of several dispersed hamlets, including Whitfield, High Crompton
, Cowlishaw, Birshaw and Bovebeale (above Beal). These hamlets were situated above the water-logged valley bottoms and below the exposed high moors. Owing to complicated local arrangements of land tenure, inheritance, and absentee landlords, the local lordship was weak, and Crompton failed to emerge as a manor
with its own lord
and court. This slowly facilitated comparative freedoms and independence for the early people of Crompton, which encouraged the influx of families from the neighbouring parish of Rochdale
, including the Buckleys
, Clegg
s, Greaves and Milnes.
During the Late Middle Ages
, the Buckley and Crompton families were recorded as the largest landowners in Crompton, owning land and farmsteads at Whitfield and Crompton Fold respectively. The Crompton family has a well-documented history and can be traced back to the time of Magna Carta
, appearing in the Assize Roll for 1245. Crompton is indigenous to the township, and first appears as a family name in the 13th century, when the locality's principal landowner, Hugh de la Legh, changed his family name to "de Crompton" (of Crompton), to reflect the estate he possessed. The family owned a large historic house
by the name of Crompton Hall
, on the site of Crompton Fold. Crompton Hall first appears in historical records as early as 1442, owned by Thomas de Crompton and his family. The original "medieval" Crompton Hall was demolished around 1848. A second Crompton Hall, set in its own prominent forested grounds, was erected by the family—by then an influential and affluent investor in the local cotton industry—but following the death of the last remaining family members, the site was sold and, in 1950, the house was demolished to make way for an exclusive development of bungalow
s.
Because of the poor soils and rugged terrain, Samuel Lewis said Crompton's inhabitants were "a race of hardy and laborious men". They have also been described as having a reputation for being a "hardy, frugal and somewhat independent breed", which has been attributed to the tradition of absentee landlords and self-sustenance in earlier times. There had been a chapel of ease
at the hamlet of Shaw since at least the early 16th century, but, due to ecclesiastical arrangements for the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham
, the inhabitants were obliged to contribute money towards Oldham Parish Church
, which in turn had obligation to the mother Church of St Mary the Virgin
at Prestwich
. On several occasions during the 15th and 16th centuries, the Archdeacon of Chester
had to intervene because Crompton's inhabitants refused to contribute towards holy bread and candles used at Prestwich. In 1826, a poll was taken regarding the re-building of Oldham Church. Not one person in Crompton voted in favour of the rebuilding and when a rate was levied to raise money for the new church at Oldham
, the people of Crompton refused to pay.
The manufacture of textiles in Crompton can be traced back to 1474, when a lease dated from that year outlines that the occupant of Crompton Park had spinning wheel
s, cards
and loom
s, all of which suggest that cloth was being produced in large quantities. The upland geography of the area constrained the output of crop growing, and so prior to industrialisation the area was used for grazing sheep, which provided the raw material for a local woollen weaving trade. Wills and inventories from the 15th and 16th centuries suggest most families were involved with small scale pasture
, but supplemented their incomes by weaving woollens in the domestic system, and selling cloth, linen
and fustian
s to travelling chapmen
for the markets in Manchester and Rochdale. Despite its remoteness by the Pennines
, by the Early Modern period
the domestic system in Crompton had produced relatively wealthy inhabitants. The most affluent were those involved in cloth and linen, and their wealth was comparable to that of the merchants of Manchester and Salford.
Until the mid-18th century, Crompton's textile sector had been closely linked with that of Rochdale
and Saddleworth
in the north and east; it was a woollen manufacturing district. However, as the demand for cotton
goods increased, Crompton mirrored developments in Oldham and Manchester in the south and southwest, importing raw cotton and making cotton cloth. To ensure that the woollen trade was kept buoyant, a law existed from 1675 to 1814 to encourage Shaw and Crompton's wool production. It required that the deceased were to be buried in woollen garments.
In the second half of the 18th century, the technology of cotton-spinning machinery
improved, and the need for larger buildings to house bigger, better and more efficient equipment became apparent. The profitability of cotton spinning meant that open land that had been used for farming since antiquity, was utilised for purpose-built weavers' cottage
s. Larger buildings were still desired, and construction of two water powered cotton factories (two or three times the size of a cottage) can be traced to 1782. The construction of more mills followed—ten by 1789—facilitating a process of urbanisation and socioeconomic transformation in the region; the population moved away from farming, adopting employment in the factory system
. The introduction of the factory system led to an increase of the township's population; from 872 in 1714 to 3,500 in 1801, mostly as a result of an influx of people from Yorkshire
and Lancashire
looking for employment in the cotton mill
s.
Power loom
s introduced in the early 19th century put an end to the last remnants of the domestic system in Crompton, but not without resistance. Weavers and spinners were paid according to the amount of cloth they produced; independent hand loom weavers saw a drop in their income, and could not compete with the mechanised mass production that was gathering pace in the township. Luddite
s rioted in the township in 1826, smashing 24 power looms at Clegg's mill at High Crompton in protest against their worsening standard of living.
Crompton's damp climate provided the ideal conditions for cotton spinning to be carried out without the cotton drying and breaking, and newly developed 19th-century mechanisation optimised cotton spinning for mass production for the global market. When suitable land in nearby Oldham
(then the largest and most productive mill town in the world) had become scarce in the 1860s, there was a mill building boom in Shaw and Crompton, giving rise to the area as major mill town
. The local townscape became dominated by distinctive rectangular brick-built mills, and its former villages and hamlets agglomerated
as a single town around these factories. Shaw and Crompton railway station
and a goods yard was opened in 1863, allowing improved transportation of textile goods and raw materials to and from the township. Neighbouring Royton
had begun to encroach upon southern boundary, forming a continuous urban cotton-spinning district with Oldham, Lees
and Chadderton
—the Oldham parliamentary constituency
—which was responsible for 13% of the world's cotton production.
The demand for cheap cotton goods from this area prompted the flotation
of cotton spinning companies; the investment was followed by the construction of 12 new cotton mills from 1870 and 1900. In the post-war economic boom of 1919–20, investors did not have the time to build new mills and so were prepared to pay vastly inflated sums for shares in existing companies. Many mills were refloated at valuations of up to £500,000 (£ as of ), or five times what they had cost to build before the war, resulting in the town being nicknamed "The Golden City" as the scramble for shares intensified. Because of this highly profitable share dealing, it was reported in the national press that Shaw and Crompton had more millionaires per capita than any other town in the world. The number of cotton mills in the township peaked at 36 in 1920.
Supplies of raw cotton from the United States were cut during the Lancashire Cotton Famine of 1861–1865, leading to the formation of the Crompton Local Board of Health
in 1863, whose purpose was to ensure social security and maintain hygiene and sanitation in the locality. The Great Depression
, and First and Second World Wars each contributed to periods of economic decline in Shaw and Crompton. Although the industry endured, as imports of cheaper foreign yarn
s increased during the mid-20th century, Shaw and Crompton's textile sector declined gradually to a halt; said to have over-relied upon the textile sector, cotton spinning reduced in the 1960s and 1970s, and by the early 1980s only four mills were operational. In spite of efforts to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of its production, the final cotton was spun in Shaw and Crompton in 1989, in Lilac and Park mills. Of the 48 cotton mills that have occupied Shaw and Crompton, only six are still standing, all of which are now used as distribution centres.
Since deindustrialisation, Shaw and Crompton's population has continued to grow as a result of intensive housing expansion and redevelopment which has modernised much of its former Victorian
and Edwardian
terraced housing districts. The town has 9,274 residential dwellings, of which one third are Victorian or Edwardian terraces
, built for the cotton mill workers of former times. It is considered a popular residential area of relative prosperity, with a variety of housing types. The Buckstones and Rushcroft areas contain modern housing estates and are amongst the most affluent suburbs of the town. They were built as part of an agreement made in the 1950s between the then Crompton Urban District and the County Borough of Oldham
councils, to alleviate Oldham's chronic shortage of quality housing. The town has subsequently been described as having "good community spirit and relative prosperity, which, in turn, create popular residential areas".
Shaw and Crompton has been used as a filming location for domestic films and television programmes, including The Parole Officer
, Common As Muck
, Scott and Bailey and The Fred Dibnah Story, the latter of which documented Fred Dibnah
's demolition of the Briar and Cape mill chimneys.
Crompton was recorded in 1212 as being one of the five parts of the thegn
age estate of Kaskenmoor, which was held on behalf of King John
by Roger de Montbegon
and William de Nevill. The other parts of this estate were Glodwick
, Sholver
, Oldham
, and Werneth
, names and places still familiar today. Crompton would later form a township
within the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham
, in the hundred of Salford
. Throughout the Middle Ages
, local men acted as jurors and constable
s for the purposes of upholding law and order in the township.
Following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
, Crompton formed part of the Oldham Poor Law Union
, an inter-parish unit established to provide social security
. Crompton's first local authority was a Local board of health
established in 1863; Established with reference to the Local Government Act 1858, Crompton Local Board of Health was a regulatory body responsible for standards of hygiene and sanitation in the township. Following the Local Government Act 1894
, the area of the Local Board became the Crompton Urban District, a local government district within the administrative county
of Lancashire. The urban district council was based out of Shaw/Crompton Town Hall, which opened on 28 December 1894.
Under the Local Government Act 1972
, the town's Urban District
status was abolished, and Shaw and Crompton has, since 1 April 1974, formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
, a local government district of the metropolitan county
of Greater Manchester
. Since 1987, Shaw and Crompton has had civil parish
status, and its own parish council, giving it some limited local government autonomy from that of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, and including the status as a statutory consultee on local planning applications
. The council comprises 14 locally elected members, and is consulted in planning applications that affect the area through the Shaw and Royton Area Committee of Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council. Shaw and Crompton Community Council
, a separate body, meets at least four times per year and is designed to allow local people to put forward their priorities for the area in which they live, suggest improvements and have their say on how services are run on a local basis. Shaw and Crompton does not have a mayor
, but does have a town crier
, a purely ceremonial role. Shaw and Crompton is one of only a few parishes of England that still observes the ancient custom of Beating the bounds
. Originally an annual event, it now takes place every seven years.
In terms of parliamentary representation, Shaw and Crompton after the Reform Act 1832
was represented as part of the Oldham parliamentary borough constituency
, of which the first Members of Parliaments (MPs) were the radicals
William Cobbett
and John Fielden
. Winston Churchill
was the MP between 1900 and 1906. Churchill once stayed at Crompton Hall
, and letters written by him describe how peaceful and tranquil he thought the area to be. Constituency boundaries changed during the 20th century; from 1885 to 1918 Shaw and Crompton lay within Prestwich constituency
, from 1918 to 1950 in Royton constituency
, from 1950 until 1983 in Heywood and Royton constituency
, and from 1983 to 1997 in Littleborough and Saddleworth constituency
. Since 1997, Shaw and Crompton has lain within the parliamentary constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth, and is represented in the House of Commons by Debbie Abrahams
, a member of the Labour Party
.
At 53°34′39"N 2°5′32"W (53.5777°, -2.0928°) Shaw and Crompton lies along the eastern edge of the ancient Lancashire border; Saddleworth
and the Pennines
are close to the east. The larger towns of Rochdale
and Oldham lie to the northwest and south respectively; Royton
is 1.2 miles (1.9 km) west-southwest. There are no motorways in Shaw and Crompton, though a heavy rail line bisects the town from north to south. The town has a post office
under the Oldham post town
. The territory of the civil parish is given as 4.5 square miles (11.7 km²). For purposes of the Office for National Statistics
, Shaw and Crompton forms part of the Greater Manchester Urban Area
, with Manchester city centre
itself 8.7 miles (14 km) southwest of Shaw and Crompton.
Described in Samuel Lewis's A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848) as located in "a bleak situation", Shaw and Crompton is in the valley of the River Beal
, which runs northward through the town towards the village of Newhey
. The land to the east of the town steadily rises, reaching a height of 1283 feet (391 m) at the summit of Crompton Moor
. To the west, the land reaches around 699 feet (213 m) at High Crompton
and 825 feet (251 m) at Whitfield, and from these highpoints the surface slopes away in all directions. The River Irk
rises on Shaw and Crompton's western boundary with Royton
. The geology
is represented by carboniferous
coal measures. The soils of the town are broadly sterile, the poorest being in the upland moors
. Rainfall rises steadily from the Cheshire Plain
in a northeasterly direction, and reaches about 40 inches (102 cm) a year in Shaw and Crompton compared to about 33 inches (84 cm) a year at Ringway.
Shaw and Crompton's built environment
is similar to the urban structure
of most towns in England, consisting of residential dwellings centred around a High Street
in the town centre
, which is the local centre of commerce. There is a mixture of low-density urban areas, suburb
s, semi-rural and rural
locations in Shaw and Crompton, but overwhelmingly the land use
in the town is residential; industrial areas and terraced house
s give way to suburbs and rural greenery as the land rises out of the town. Generally, property in the centre, west, and south of the town is older and smaller in comparison to that found in the east and north.
Shaw and Crompton is divided into two political wards, named "Shaw" and "Crompton" (to the east and west respectively), and residential suburbs, including High Crompton
, Rushcroft, Buckstones, Clough, Jubilee, Shaw Side, Wrens Nest, Cowlishaw, Low Crompton, Nook, Goats, Wood End and Shore Edge.
According to census
data, in 2001 Shaw and Crompton had a total resident population of 21,721, with a population density
of around 4,692 people per square mile (1,811 per km²), and an average age of 39. Around 3% of Shaw and Crompton's population is from a black and minority ethnic
background (which includes a small but long established community of Bangladesh
i heritage), the rest broadly being of white
background.
Of the residents in the combined electoral wards of Shaw and Crompton (which are coterminous with the town) 41.7% were married, 9.2% were cohabiting
couples, and 9.7% were lone parent families. Forty percent of households were made up of individuals and 14% had someone living alone at pension
able age.
The ethnicity
of the town was given as 96% white, 0.5% mixed race
, 2.0% Asian, 0.3% black and 0.2% Chinese or other.
The place of birth of the town's residents was 96.8% United Kingdom (including 95.13% from England), 0.6% Republic of Ireland
, 0.5% from other European Union
countries, and 2.1% from elsewhere in the world. Religion was recorded as 84% Christian, 1.7% Muslim, 0.2% Hindu, 0.2% Buddhist, 0.1% Jewish and <0.1% Sikh. Some 6.8% were recorded as having no religion, 0.1% had an alternative religion, and 5.6% did not state their religion.
The economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 45% in full-time employment, 12% in part-time employment, 7% self-employed, 2.4% unemployed, 2% students with jobs, 3% students without jobs, 13% retired, 4% looking after home or family, 7% permanently sick or disabled, and 2% economically inactive for other reasons. This was roughly in line with the national figures. Of the town's residents aged 16–74, 15% had a higher education
qualification or the equivalent, compared with 20% nationwide.
Below is a table outlining population growth of the area since 1901. Earlier records show that the area had a population of 872 in 1714.
From the 18th century onwards, Shaw and Crompton's economy was closely tied with that of Britain's textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution
, particularly the cotton spinning sector.
Shaw and Crompton has become a base for distribution companies as a result of the town's good transport links, its supply of large, disused mill properties, and its situation between Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Lancashire, and West Yorkshire. It is home to Shop Direct Group's Shaw National Distribution Centre, one of Europe
's largest warehouse distribution centres, and a major employer of the local and wider community. The company occupies three former cotton mills and state-of-the-art purpose-built storage and sorting facilities on a 20 acres (8.1 ha) complex within the town. In 2007, the site became the retail company's only packing and distribution centre for non-bulk items. It employs nearly 1,000 staff, making it the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham's largest private employer. The N Brown Group
, children's toy distributors Toy Options and bakers Warburtons
also have distribution centres in the town.
Warburtons has had one of its 11 major bakeries in Shaw and Crompton since 1965. The "Pennine" bakery produces around 500,000 loaves a week and distributes them to major multiples and independent retailers throughout Greater Manchester, Cheshire
, and Derbyshire
. Located on Glebe Street, it employs around 200 staff and produces a wide range of Warburtons bread products.
Until the 1990s, Shaw and Crompton was the home of Osram
, the multinational lightbulb manufacturer, which occupied Duke Mill and was a significant employer in the area. Production has since been moved away from the United Kingdom.
Trent Mill Industrial Estate, on the edge of the town near Rushcroft, takes its name from the mill that was once there. The business park
is home to several small industrial companies. It was partially destroyed by a fire that started in a plastics factory in the early hours of 28 April 2007.
On 6 August 2007, a 35000 square feet (3,252 m²) Asda
supermarket opened on the site of the former Dawn Mill. A derelict row of houses on Eastway was demolished as part of this development. Two houses on Greenfield Lane were also demolished, allowing the existing ALDI
store to expand—possibly to help it to compete with the new ASDA store. The original planning application was put to a public vote in 2005, and included proposals for 316 parking spaces, improved bus facilities, pedestrian routes linked to Market Street, junction improvements to nearby streets, and the relocation of a local tyre-fitting company. The supermarket cost £20 million to construct, and is the first ASDA store in the United Kingdom to use environmentally friendly
construction techniques, which Wal-Mart
intends to use as a blueprint for all its new ASDA supermarkets. It incorporates a sustainable timber frame and an energy-saving
ventilation system, which together have eradicated the need for 500 tonnes of steel and 450 tonnes of carbon emissions.
The main Crompton War Memorial, located on the High Street, consists of a Scottish granite
plinth surmounted by a large bronze statue flanked by two Rolls of Honour containing the 346 names of those from Shaw and Crompton who fought and died in World War I
. Panels listing the Roll of Honour from World War II
were added and unveiled on 12 November 1950 by Councillor H. M. Turner. Commissioned by the Crompton War Memorial Committee, the statue was conceptualised in 1919 by Richard Reginald Goulden
, and unveiled on 29 April 1923 by General Sir Ian Hamilton
. The original cost for the memorial alone was £4,000, but the total cost, including site and layout, was about £6,067.
The inscription on the memorial reads:
In memory of the men of Crompton who fought and gave their lives to free mankind from the oppression and brutal tyranny of war. 1914–1919.
The symbolic memorial depicts a group in which the central figure is a man defending the future generations, represented by young children, against foreign aggression, represented by a beast. The memorial is also a time capsule. Inside it is a lead casket containing coins, a copy of the local newspaper, three cops of spun cotton, and a length of cloth manufactured in the local area.
A second, smaller war memorial is located in Jubilee Gardens. It is dedicated to the soldiers who fought in the Second Boer War
. It consists of a plaque built into a stone wall that is located between two large bushes.
Its inscription reads:
In memory of the Crompton men who lost their lives in the South African war 1899–1902
It then lists eight men: four who were "killed in action", two who "died of wounds", and two who "died of disease".
In 1995, to mark the 50th anniversary of the ending of the Second World War, a landmark known as The Shaw and Crompton Beacon was erected in Jubilee Gardens.
The inscription on the plaque below reads:
The Shaw and Crompton beacon
erected by the Parish Council in 1995 to
commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of
the ending of World War Two
this plaque was presented by members of the British Legion
Spanning approximately 160 acre (0.6474976 km²), and reaching an elevation of 1282 feet (391 m), Crompton Moor
is one of the largest open spaces run by Oldham Countryside Service. It is a registered common of Greater Manchester, and, since 2003, a designated Site of Biological Importance
.
Brushes Clough and Pingot are former coal
and sandstone
quarries on Crompton Moor. During the 1970s, quarrying was halted, the land was reclaimed, and thousands of pine trees were planted. The area has since been used for recreation, including hiking, orienteering, and mountain biking. Brushes Clough Reservoir
was constructed in the 19th century by the Oldham County Borough Council
, using stone quarried from this site. The area is now managed by United Utilities
.
Since the 1960s an un-named waterfall (provisionally called Crompton Waterfall) cascades off Crompton Moor
into the now unused Pingot Quarry forming the Old Brook
, a tributary
of the River Beal
.
The Big Lamp was a six-sided gas-powered public street lamp standing 20 feet (6 m) high at the original cross-road junction of Manchester Road, Oldham Road, High Street, and Church Road. It was pulled down on 17 June 1925, when electric lighting was introduced. During the 1990s, the junction was redeveloped to accommodate the new Crompton Way bypass. A large roundabout
was built, and a scaled-down replica of the original Big Lamp was erected in its centre. The new Big Lamp is electrically powered and stands about 6 feet (2 m) high.
Public transport
in Shaw and Crompton is co-ordinated by Transport for Greater Manchester. Shaw and Crompton had a railway line and station between 1863 and 2009, opened initially used for haulage, but later used for passenger and commuter journeys. Shaw and Crompton railway station
was used by passenger trains running between Rochdale and Manchester on the Oldham Loop Line. After initially being rejected in the early 2000s, plans to turn the line into part of the Manchester Metrolink
were accepted by the government on 6 July 2006. Shaw and Crompton railway station closed on 3 October 2009, so that it can be converted from use with heavy rail to part of an expanded Metrolink light rail
tram network. It is estimated to reopen as Shaw and Crompton Metrolink station in 2012.
The bus company First Manchester
provides frequent services to Oldham and Rochdale, with buses also running to Chadderton
, Manchester
, Middleton
, Royton
and Stalybridge
. Other services run in Shaw and Crompton are operated by Bluebird, who run bus links between Shaw and Manchester, and Rossendale Transport
, who operate between Rochdale and Buckstones. There are Shaw Circular routes which are run by Bu-Val, serving the smaller roads of Shaw and Crompton. Shaw and Crompton is located south of junction 21 of the M62 motorway
.
was built. The construction of church schools followed, including Shaw Methodist School in 1842, St Mary's, in 1847 and St James' 1851. Shaw and Crompton is now served by a variety of schools, including some with religious affiliations. All the schools in the town perform either at or above the national average for test results. Crompton House
, a secondary school for 11- to 16-year-olds, also has a sixth form college
of further education
for 16- to 18-year-olds on the same site.
The township of Crompton was originally within the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham
in the Diocese of Lichfield
, until 1541, when, owing to the English Reformation
, this diocese was divided and Crompton became part of the Diocese of Chester
. This in turn was divided in 1847, when the present Diocese of Manchester
was created.
The exact date of the establishment of a place of worship in Crompton is uncertain. Although Shaw Chapel is certain to have been in existence since the early 16th century, it has been put that "Shaw Chapel is even more ancient than Oldham Old Church", as evidenced by the ancient toponymy
of the area. Shaw Chapel was anciently known as St Patrick's Chapel-on-the-Moor, and during the reign of James I of England
, "it was situate in the midst of the common called Shaw Moor, not a single habitation being near it". It is thought to have been constructed following an increase in wealth produced by the localisation of the woollen trade during a very bleak period, although, in 1552 it was noted that it had no endowment, and its ornaments were in poor condition. It was rebuilt in 1739 and enlarged in 1798, and rebuilt again in 1870. It is now known as the Church of Holy Trinity.
Shaw and Crompton has three Church of England
ecclesiastic parishes
: Shaw, High Crompton, and East Crompton. In addition to the established church
, a variety of Reformed denominations, particularly Nonconformism
and Methodism
, have been practiced in Shaw and Crompton. Presbyterian
ministers were recorded preaching at Shaw Chapel in as early as the 1650s. The Religious Society of Friends
held conventicle
s in Whitfield in 1660s and 1670s.
The following is a table of the churches presently in Shaw and Crompton, as of 2007. Others have existed, but have been demolished.
Most of the above churches participate in Shaw's annual Whit Walks
event, when congregations, choirs, and brass bands parade through the streets from their respective churches before taking part in one large, communal, inter-church service. The town centre is also home to a small mosque
.
Shaw and Crompton has communal areas and public facilities, including public parks, sporting establishments, and playing fields. Public house
s in the centre of the town include The Blue Bell, Duke of York, Coach and Horses, and Pineapple. There are many outlying public houses, including The Kings Arms at the Big Lamp, Royal Oak at Cowlishaw, and the Park Inn at Buckstones Road.
Crompton Library is a purpose-built library
housing over 36,000 items including books, CDs, and DVDs that can be borrowed by anyone who lives in the Oldham borough. It has communal Internet facilities. The library was built in the early 1990s after the original 1907 building, which exists now as apartment
s on Beal Lane, became too small.
There are three main public parks in Shaw and Crompton. Dunwood Park lies alongside the Oldham Loop Railway Line
and has a children's play area, bowling green
, and over a mile of wooded pathways along the base of a forested hillside. The land that forms Dunwood Park was presented to Crompton Urban District Council by Captain Abram Crompton JP
on the 22 June 1911, and opened as a park by him on the 14 September 1912. High Crompton Park is in High Crompton
and is home to a tennis court
, bowling green, children's play area, and gardens. Jubilee Gardens are found in the centre of Shaw and Crompton town centre, behind the Crompton War Memorial. Shaw and Crompton has large areas of land reserved for sporting and communal events; these are located off George Street, Edward Road, and Rushcroft Road respectively.
Shaw Market, located on Westway, is open to market retailers and customers every Thursday. At other times most of the market area becomes a public car park. The market area has been used occasionally for fun fairs and other events. Shaw and Crompton town has several public sporting establishments. Crompton Pool is a swimming pool built in 1899 on Farrow Street in the town centre,, and a gym added more recently. Crompton Cricket Club
, is located on Glebe Street.
Playhouse 2 is a 156-seat theatre in the heart of Shaw and Crompton town centre, which used to be an Odeon cinema. It has been the home of the Crompton Stage Society, an amateur theatre company, since 1966. A wide variety of entertainment, professional as well as amateur, is produced each year.
policing in Shaw and Crompton is provided by the Greater Manchester Police
. The force's "(Q) Division" have their headquarters for policing the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
at central Oldham. The nearest police station is at Royton. Public transport
is co-ordinated by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive
. Statutory emergency fire and rescue service
is provided by the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service
.
There are no hospitals in Shaw and Crompton—the nearest are in the larger settlements of Oldham and Rochdale—but some local health care is provided by Crompton Health Centre which is Shaw and Crompton's NHS surgery. It has been subject to a development scheme intended to improve NHS
facilities in the town. The North West Ambulance Service
provides emergency patient transport in the area. Other forms of health care
are provided for locally by several small specialist clinics and surgeries.
Waste management
is co-ordinated by the local authority via the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority
. Locally produced inert waste
for disposal is sent to landfill
at the Beal Valley. Shaw and Crompton's Distribution Network Operator
for electricity is United Utilities
; there are no power station
s in the town. United Utilities also manages Shaw and Crompton's drinking
and waste water; water supplies are sourced from several local reservoirs, including Dovestones
and Chew.
, an acclaimed etcher, painter, and art critic
was born in the area in 1834. The town is the home of Oldham-born actress Shobna Gulati
, former Oldham Athletic
player and manager Andy Ritchie, and is the hometown of Kevin O'Toole, a founding member of dance act N-Trance
. Tommy Cannon
and Bobby Ball
live locally.
Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of 219,600, and spans . The borough is named after its largest town, Oldham, but also includes the outlying towns of Chadderton, Failsworth, Royton and Shaw and Crompton, the village of...
, in Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
, England. It lies on the River Beal
River Beal
The Beal is a small river in Greater Manchester, England, and is a tributary of the River Roch. It rises in the Beal Valley in green space between Sholver and Royton, before continuing northwards through, Shaw and Crompton, Newhey, Milnrow and Belfield....
at the foothills of the South Pennines
South Pennines
South Pennines is a region of moorland and hill country in northern England lying towards the southern end of the Pennines. It is bounded to the west by the Forest of Rossendale and the Yorkshire Dales to the north...
, 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north of Oldham
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
, 3.6 miles (5.8 km) southeast of Rochdale
Rochdale
Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
, and 8.7 miles (14 km) to the northeast of the city of Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. It is regularly referred to as Shaw.
Historically
Historic counties of England
The historic counties of England are subdivisions of England established for administration by the Normans and in most cases based on earlier Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and shires...
a part of Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, Crompton (as it was originally known) and its surroundings have provided evidence of ancient British and Anglian
Angles
The Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
activity in the area. During the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, Crompton formed a small township
Township (England)
In England, a township is a local division or district of a large parish containing a village or small town usually having its own church...
of scattered woods, farmsteads, moorland, and swamp with a small and close community of families. The local lordship was weak or absent, and so Crompton failed to emerge as a manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
with its own lord and court. Farming was the main industry of this broadly independent and self-supporting rural area, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system.
The introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution
Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution
The industrial revolution changed the nature of work and society. Opinion varies as to the exact date, but it is estimated that the First Industrial Revolution took place between 1750 and 1850, and the second phase or Second Industrial Revolution between 1860 and 1900. The three key drivers in...
initiated a process of rapid and unplanned urbanisation. A building boom began in Crompton during the mid-19th century, when suitable land for factories in Oldham was becoming scarce. By the late-19th century Crompton had emerged as a densely populated mill town
Mill town
A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories .- United Kingdom:...
. Forty-eight cotton mill
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
s—some of the largest in the United Kingdom—have been recorded as existing in the area. At its spinning
Spinning (textiles)
Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
zenith, as a result of an interwar
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
economic boom associated with the textile industry, Shaw and Crompton was reported to have had more millionaire
Millionaire
A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. It can also be a person who owns one million units of currency in a bank account or savings account...
s per capita than any other town in the world. Imports of foreign cotton goods began the decline in the region's textile industry during the mid-20th century; Shaw and Crompton's last mill closed in 1989.
Today, Shaw and Crompton, which covers 4.5 square miles (11.7 km²), is a predominantly residential area of mixed affluence with a population of 21,721. Its double name has been said to make it "distinctive, if not unique". The legacy of its industrial past can be seen in its six surviving cotton mill
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
s, all of which are home to large distribution companies, among them Shop Direct Group's Shaw National Distribution Centre, a major employer in the area.
Toponymy
Shaw (woodland)
A shaw is a strip of woodland usually between 5 and 15 metres wide.Shaws commonly form boundaries between fields or line a road. They are usually composed of natural woodland and often have diverse woodland ground vegetation similar to other natural woodlands in the area...
is derived from the Old English word sceaga, meaning "wood". The name Crompton is also of Old English derivation, from the words crom or crumb, meaning "bent" or "crooked", and ton, for "hamlet or village". A local historian stated that "this name aptly describes the appearance of the place, with its uneven surface, its numerous mounds and hills, as though it had been crumpled up to form these ridges". The University of Nottingham
University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public research university based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, with further campuses in Ningbo, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...
's Institute for Name-Studies has offered the suggestion that the name Crompton means "river-bend settlement", which may reflect Crompton's location on a meander
Meander
A meander in general is a bend in a sinuous watercourse. A meander is formed when the moving water in a stream erodes the outer banks and widens its valley. A stream of any volume may assume a meandering course, alternately eroding sediments from the outside of a bend and depositing them on the...
of the River Beal
River Beal
The Beal is a small river in Greater Manchester, England, and is a tributary of the River Roch. It rises in the Beal Valley in green space between Sholver and Royton, before continuing northwards through, Shaw and Crompton, Newhey, Milnrow and Belfield....
.
The dual name of both Shaw and Crompton has been said to make the town "distinctive, if not unique", while preference of Shaw over Crompton and vice versa has been (and to a limited extent remains) a minor local controversy and point of confusion. Today, the single name of Shaw seems to have won preference in the locality.
Shaw was originally a hamlet
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
and sub-district of Crompton, and appears to have originated as the commercial and ecclesiastic
Ecclesiology
Today, ecclesiology usually refers to the theological study of the Christian church. However when the word was coined in the late 1830s, it was defined as the science of the building and decoration of churches and it is still, though rarely, used in this sense.In its theological sense, ecclesiology...
centre of Crompton because of a small chapel sited there dating back to the 16th century. Before then, Whitfield had been the largest village in Crompton. In 1872, Shaw was noted as one of three villages in Crompton. However, due to Shaw's urbanisation following the construction of a major road from Werneth
Werneth, Greater Manchester
Werneth is an area of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It is west-southwest of Oldham's commercial centre and one of Oldham's most ancient localities.-History:...
to Littleborough, and the establishment of a post office sub-district named and situated in Shaw, it came to dominate Crompton. Additionally, a separate ecclesiastical parish was created for the township in 1835, which was given the name Shaw because of the church's location on Shaw Moor, in Crompton. The names merged to form the present day Shaw and Crompton, which boundary markers have used since at least the 1950s.
Early history
An early type of axe known as a palstavePalstave
A Palstave is a type of early bronze axe. It was common in the mid Bronze Age in north, western and south-western Europe. In the technical sense, although precise definitions differ, an axe is generally deemed to be a palstave if it is hafted by means of a forked wooden handle kept in place with...
has been discovered on Crompton Moor
Crompton Moor
Crompton Moor is an area of moorland in the South Pennines, in North West England. It lies along the northeastern outskirts of Shaw and Crompton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester....
, providing evidence of Bronze Age
Bronze Age Britain
Bronze Age Britain refers to the period of British history that spanned from c. 2,500 until c. 800 BC. Lasting for approximately 1700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the era of Iron Age Britain...
human activity. It is believed that the area was inhabited by Ancient Britons, and that the Brigantes
Brigantes
The Brigantes were a Celtic tribe who in pre-Roman times controlled the largest section of what would become Northern England, and a significant part of the Midlands. Their kingdom is sometimes called Brigantia, and it was centred in what was later known as Yorkshire...
gave the River Beal
River Beal
The Beal is a small river in Greater Manchester, England, and is a tributary of the River Roch. It rises in the Beal Valley in green space between Sholver and Royton, before continuing northwards through, Shaw and Crompton, Newhey, Milnrow and Belfield....
its name. An ancient track, perhaps of Roman origin, crosses the modern Buckstones Road leading to Castleshaw Roman fort
Castleshaw Roman fort
Castleshaw Roman fort was a fort in the Roman province of Britannia. Although there is no evidence to substantiate the claim, it has been suggested that Castleshaw Roman fort is the site of Rigodunum, a Brigantian settlement. The remains of the fort are located on Castle Hill on the eastern side of...
in neighbouring Saddleworth
Saddleworth
Saddleworth is a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and hamlets amongst the west side of the Pennine hills: Uppermill, Greenfield, Dobcross, Delph, Diggle and others...
.
In 616 Æthelfrith of Bernicia
Æthelfrith of Northumbria
Æthelfrith was King of Bernicia from c. 593 until c. 616; he was also, beginning c. 604, the first Bernician king to also rule Deira, to the south of Bernicia. Since Deira and Bernicia were the two basic components of what would later be defined as Northumbria, Æthelfrith can be considered, in...
, an Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
King, crossed the Pennines with an army and passed through Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
to defeat the Britons
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
in the Battle of Chester
Battle of Chester
The Battle of Chester was a major victory for the Anglo Saxons over the native Britons near the city of Chester, England in the early 7th century. Æthelfrith of Northumbria annihilated a combined force from the Welsh kingdoms of Powys, Rhôs and possibly Mercia...
. A wave of Anglian
Angles
The Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
colonists followed this military conquest and their settlements are identified by the Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
suffix ton in local place names. Royton
Royton
Royton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies by the source of the River Irk, on undulating land at the foothills of the Pennines, north-northwest of Oldham, south-southeast of Rochdale and northeast of the city of Manchester.Historically a...
, Middleton
Middleton, Greater Manchester
Middleton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It stands on the River Irk, south-southwest of Rochdale, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester...
, Moston
Moston, Greater Manchester
Moston is a district of Manchester, in North West England, approximately 3 miles north east of the city centre. Historically a part of Lancashire, Moston is a predominantly residential area, with a population of about 12,500 and covering approximately .-History:The name Moston may derive...
, Clayton
Clayton, Greater Manchester
Clayton is a suburb of the city of Manchester, in North West England. It is situated about 3 miles east of the city centre, on Ashton New Road. Clayton takes its name from the Clayton family who owned large parts of land around the area, including Clayton Vale, through which the River Medlock flows...
, Ashton
Ashton-under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it lies on the north bank of the River Tame, on undulating land at the foothills of the Pennines...
and Crompton are localities northeast of Manchester which may have been founded during that colonisation, suggesting that Crompton as a settlement could date from the 7th century.
History of Anglo-Saxon England
Anglo-Saxon England refers to the period of the history of that part of Britain, that became known as England, lasting from the end of Roman occupation and establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror...
, it is assumed from toponymic evidence
Toponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
that the township
Township (England)
In England, a township is a local division or district of a large parish containing a village or small town usually having its own church...
of Crompton formed around a predominantly Anglian community with a few Norse
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
settlers, and within the extensive Hundred of Salfordshire
Salford (hundred)
The hundred of Salford was an ancient division of the historic county of Lancashire, in Northern England. It was sometimes known as Salfordshire, the name alluding to its judicial centre being the township of Salford...
. Following the Norman conquest of England
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
, Crompton was part of a vast estate given to Roger the Poitevin
Roger the Poitevin
Roger the Poitevin was born in Normandy in the mid-1060s and died before 1140 . He was an Anglo-Norman aristocrat, who possessed large holdings in both England and through his marriage in France....
, the maternal nephew of William the Conqueror
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
. It was unmentioned in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
of 1086; the first recorded use of the name Crompton for the township was discovered in legal documents relating to Cockersand Abbey
Cockersand Abbey
Cockersand Abbey is a former abbey near Cockerham in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England. It was founded before 1184 as the Hospital of St Mary on the marsh belonging to Leicester Abbey. It was refounded as a Premonstratensian priory and subsequently elevated to an abbey in 1192...
near Lancaster
Lancaster, Lancashire
Lancaster is the county town of Lancashire, England. It is situated on the River Lune and has a population of 45,952. Lancaster is a constituent settlement of the wider City of Lancaster, local government district which has a population of 133,914 and encompasses several outlying towns, including...
, dating from the early 13th century. The document outlines that Gilbert de Notton, a Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
who had acquired the land from Roger de Montbegon
Roger de Montbegon
Roger de Montbegon was a landowner in northern England , Baron of Horneby, and one of the Magna Carta sureties....
, granted his estate to Cockersand Abbey. The Knights Hospitaller
Knights Hospitaller
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...
and Whalley Abbey
Whalley Abbey
Whalley Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in Whalley, Lancashire, England. After the dissolution of the monasteries, the abbey was largely demolished and a country house was built on the site. In the 20th century the house was modified and it is now the Retreat and Conference House of the...
held small estates in the township. In 1234, about 80 acres (32 ha) of land at Whitfield in Crompton were given to the Hospitallers, a religious order that provided care for poor, sick or injured pilgrims to the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
. A medieval cross has been discovered in the ruins of a house at Whitfield.
During the High Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
, Crompton was a collection of scattered woods, farmsteads, moorland, swamp and a single corn mill, occupied by a small and close community of families. The area was thinly populated and consisted of several dispersed hamlets, including Whitfield, High Crompton
High Crompton
High Crompton is a locality in the west of the Shaw and Crompton parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It is formed around High Crompton Park and Rochdale Road....
, Cowlishaw, Birshaw and Bovebeale (above Beal). These hamlets were situated above the water-logged valley bottoms and below the exposed high moors. Owing to complicated local arrangements of land tenure, inheritance, and absentee landlords, the local lordship was weak, and Crompton failed to emerge as a manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
with its own lord
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
and court. This slowly facilitated comparative freedoms and independence for the early people of Crompton, which encouraged the influx of families from the neighbouring parish of Rochdale
Rochdale (ancient parish)
Rochdale was an ecclesiastical parish of early-medieval origin in northern England, administered from the Church of St Chad, Rochdale. At its zenith, it occupied of land amongst the South Pennines, and straddled the historic county boundary between Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire...
, including the Buckleys
Buckley (surname)
Buckley is a surname originating from either England or Ireland. It is particularly common throughout parts of England and Ireland, as well as Canada and the United States....
, Clegg
Clegg
-Clegg as a surname:Clegg is a surname, and could refer to one of the following:* Alec Clegg, an English educationalist* Barbara Clegg, a British actor* Brian Clegg, an English author* Charles Clegg, an American author* Don Clegg, an English footballer...
s, Greaves and Milnes.
During the Late Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....
, the Buckley and Crompton families were recorded as the largest landowners in Crompton, owning land and farmsteads at Whitfield and Crompton Fold respectively. The Crompton family has a well-documented history and can be traced back to the time of Magna Carta
Magna Carta
Magna Carta is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215 and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions, which included the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority to date. The charter first passed into law in 1225...
, appearing in the Assize Roll for 1245. Crompton is indigenous to the township, and first appears as a family name in the 13th century, when the locality's principal landowner, Hugh de la Legh, changed his family name to "de Crompton" (of Crompton), to reflect the estate he possessed. The family owned a large historic house
Historic house
A historic house can be a stately home, the birthplace of a famous person, or a house with an interesting history or architecture.- Background :...
by the name of Crompton Hall
Crompton Hall
Crompton Hall was a historic house in Crompton, Lancashire, England. It was situated at Crompton Fold.Crompton Hall was in the township for hundreds of years...
, on the site of Crompton Fold. Crompton Hall first appears in historical records as early as 1442, owned by Thomas de Crompton and his family. The original "medieval" Crompton Hall was demolished around 1848. A second Crompton Hall, set in its own prominent forested grounds, was erected by the family—by then an influential and affluent investor in the local cotton industry—but following the death of the last remaining family members, the site was sold and, in 1950, the house was demolished to make way for an exclusive development of bungalow
Bungalow
A bungalow is a type of house, with varying meanings across the world. Common features to many of these definitions include being detached, low-rise , and the use of verandahs...
s.
Because of the poor soils and rugged terrain, Samuel Lewis said Crompton's inhabitants were "a race of hardy and laborious men". They have also been described as having a reputation for being a "hardy, frugal and somewhat independent breed", which has been attributed to the tradition of absentee landlords and self-sustenance in earlier times. There had been a chapel of ease
Chapel of ease
A chapel of ease is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently....
at the hamlet of Shaw since at least the early 16th century, but, due to ecclesiastical arrangements for the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham
Prestwich-cum-Oldham
Prestwich-cum-Oldham was an ancient ecclesiastical parish of the hundred of Salford, within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire, England...
, the inhabitants were obliged to contribute money towards Oldham Parish Church
Oldham Parish Church
The Oldham Parish Church of St. Mary with St. Peter is the Church of England parish church for Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It forms part of the Diocese of Manchester, and is one of several Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester....
, which in turn had obligation to the mother Church of St Mary the Virgin
Church of St Mary the Virgin, Prestwich
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Prestwich, is located in Church Lane, Prestwich, Greater Manchester, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Radcliffe and Prestwich, the archdeaconry of Bolton, and the diocese of Manchester. The church has been designated by English...
at Prestwich
Prestwich
Prestwich is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies close to the River Irwell, north of Manchester city centre, north of Salford and south of Bury....
. On several occasions during the 15th and 16th centuries, the Archdeacon of Chester
Diocese of Chester
The Diocese of Chester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York based in Chester, covering the county of Cheshire in its pre-1974 boundaries...
had to intervene because Crompton's inhabitants refused to contribute towards holy bread and candles used at Prestwich. In 1826, a poll was taken regarding the re-building of Oldham Church. Not one person in Crompton voted in favour of the rebuilding and when a rate was levied to raise money for the new church at Oldham
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
, the people of Crompton refused to pay.
Textiles and the Industrial Revolution
Spinning wheel
A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from natural or synthetic fibers. Spinning wheels appeared in Asia, probably in the 11th century, and very gradually replaced hand spinning with spindle and distaff...
s, cards
Carding
Carding is a mechanical process that breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres so that they are more or less parallel with each other. The word is derived from the Latin carduus meaning teasel, as dried vegetable teasels were first used to comb the raw wool...
and loom
Loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...
s, all of which suggest that cloth was being produced in large quantities. The upland geography of the area constrained the output of crop growing, and so prior to industrialisation the area was used for grazing sheep, which provided the raw material for a local woollen weaving trade. Wills and inventories from the 15th and 16th centuries suggest most families were involved with small scale pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
, but supplemented their incomes by weaving woollens in the domestic system, and selling cloth, linen
Linen
Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
and fustian
Fustian
Fustian is a term for a variety of heavy woven, mostly cotton fabrics, chiefly prepared for menswear. It is also used to refer to pompous, inflated or pretentious writing or speech, from at least the time of Shakespeare...
s to travelling chapmen
Chapmen
A chapman was an itinerant dealer or hawker in early modern Britain.-Etymology:Old English céapmann was the regular term for "dealer, seller", cognate to the synonymous Dutch koopman....
for the markets in Manchester and Rochdale. Despite its remoteness by the Pennines
Pennines
The Pennines are a low-rising mountain range, separating the North West of England from Yorkshire and the North East.Often described as the "backbone of England", they form a more-or-less continuous range stretching from the Peak District in Derbyshire, around the northern and eastern edges of...
, by the Early Modern period
Early Modern Britain
Early modern Britain is the history of the island of Great Britain, roughly corresponding to the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Major historical events in Early Modern British history include the English Renaissance, the English Reformation and Scottish Reformation, the English Civil War, the...
the domestic system in Crompton had produced relatively wealthy inhabitants. The most affluent were those involved in cloth and linen, and their wealth was comparable to that of the merchants of Manchester and Salford.
Until the mid-18th century, Crompton's textile sector had been closely linked with that of Rochdale
Rochdale
Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
and Saddleworth
Saddleworth
Saddleworth is a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and hamlets amongst the west side of the Pennine hills: Uppermill, Greenfield, Dobcross, Delph, Diggle and others...
in the north and east; it was a woollen manufacturing district. However, as the demand for cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
goods increased, Crompton mirrored developments in Oldham and Manchester in the south and southwest, importing raw cotton and making cotton cloth. To ensure that the woollen trade was kept buoyant, a law existed from 1675 to 1814 to encourage Shaw and Crompton's wool production. It required that the deceased were to be buried in woollen garments.
In the second half of the 18th century, the technology of cotton-spinning machinery
Cotton-spinning machinery
Cotton-spinning machinery refers to machines which process prepared cotton roving into workable yarn or thread. Such machinery can be dated back centuries. During the 18th and 19th centuries, as part of the Industrial Revolution cotton-spinning machinery was developed to bring mass production to...
improved, and the need for larger buildings to house bigger, better and more efficient equipment became apparent. The profitability of cotton spinning meant that open land that had been used for farming since antiquity, was utilised for purpose-built weavers' cottage
Weavers' cottage
A weavers' cottage was a type of house used by weavers for cloth production in the Domestic system.Weavers' cottages were common in Great Britain, particularly in Yorkshire, usually with dwelling quarters on the lower floors and loom-shops on the top floor...
s. Larger buildings were still desired, and construction of two water powered cotton factories (two or three times the size of a cottage) can be traced to 1782. The construction of more mills followed—ten by 1789—facilitating a process of urbanisation and socioeconomic transformation in the region; the population moved away from farming, adopting employment in the factory system
Factory system
The factory system was a method of manufacturing first adopted in England at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 1750s and later spread abroad. Fundamentally, each worker created a separate part of the total assembly of a product, thus increasing the efficiency of factories. Workers,...
. The introduction of the factory system led to an increase of the township's population; from 872 in 1714 to 3,500 in 1801, mostly as a result of an influx of people from Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
and Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
looking for employment in the cotton mill
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
s.
Power loom
Power loom
A power loom is a mechanized loom powered by a line shaft. The first power loom was designed in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785. It was refined over the next 47 years until a design by Kenworthy and Bullough, made the operation completely automatic. This was known as the...
s introduced in the early 19th century put an end to the last remnants of the domestic system in Crompton, but not without resistance. Weavers and spinners were paid according to the amount of cloth they produced; independent hand loom weavers saw a drop in their income, and could not compete with the mechanised mass production that was gathering pace in the township. Luddite
Luddite
The Luddites were a social movement of 19th-century English textile artisans who protested – often by destroying mechanised looms – against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their way of life...
s rioted in the township in 1826, smashing 24 power looms at Clegg's mill at High Crompton in protest against their worsening standard of living.
Crompton's damp climate provided the ideal conditions for cotton spinning to be carried out without the cotton drying and breaking, and newly developed 19th-century mechanisation optimised cotton spinning for mass production for the global market. When suitable land in nearby Oldham
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
(then the largest and most productive mill town in the world) had become scarce in the 1860s, there was a mill building boom in Shaw and Crompton, giving rise to the area as major mill town
Mill town
A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories .- United Kingdom:...
. The local townscape became dominated by distinctive rectangular brick-built mills, and its former villages and hamlets agglomerated
Agglomeration
In the study of human settlements, an urban agglomeration is an extended city or town area comprising the built-up area of a central place and any suburbs linked by continuous urban area. In France, INSEE the French Statistical Institute, translate it as "Unité urbaine" which means continuous...
as a single town around these factories. Shaw and Crompton railway station
Shaw and Crompton railway station
Shaw and Crompton railway station which opened on 2 November 1863 was a railway station located in Shaw and Crompton, within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England...
and a goods yard was opened in 1863, allowing improved transportation of textile goods and raw materials to and from the township. Neighbouring Royton
Royton
Royton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies by the source of the River Irk, on undulating land at the foothills of the Pennines, north-northwest of Oldham, south-southeast of Rochdale and northeast of the city of Manchester.Historically a...
had begun to encroach upon southern boundary, forming a continuous urban cotton-spinning district with Oldham, Lees
Lees, Greater Manchester
The village consists of a small cluster of shops and businesses on either side of the A669 Lees Road, surrounded by some terraced houses and some small estates...
and Chadderton
Chadderton
Chadderton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England, historically a part of Lancashire...
—the Oldham parliamentary constituency
Oldham (UK Parliament constituency)
Oldham was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Oldham, England. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
—which was responsible for 13% of the world's cotton production.
The demand for cheap cotton goods from this area prompted the flotation
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
of cotton spinning companies; the investment was followed by the construction of 12 new cotton mills from 1870 and 1900. In the post-war economic boom of 1919–20, investors did not have the time to build new mills and so were prepared to pay vastly inflated sums for shares in existing companies. Many mills were refloated at valuations of up to £500,000 (£ as of ), or five times what they had cost to build before the war, resulting in the town being nicknamed "The Golden City" as the scramble for shares intensified. Because of this highly profitable share dealing, it was reported in the national press that Shaw and Crompton had more millionaires per capita than any other town in the world. The number of cotton mills in the township peaked at 36 in 1920.
Supplies of raw cotton from the United States were cut during the Lancashire Cotton Famine of 1861–1865, leading to the formation of the Crompton Local Board of Health
Local board of health
Local Boards or Local Boards of Health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate slaughterhouses and ensure the proper supply of water to their...
in 1863, whose purpose was to ensure social security and maintain hygiene and sanitation in the locality. The Great Depression
Great Depression in the United Kingdom
The Great Depression in the United Kingdom, also known as the Great Slump, was a period of national economic downturn in the 1930s, which had its origins in the global Great Depression...
, and First and Second World Wars each contributed to periods of economic decline in Shaw and Crompton. Although the industry endured, as imports of cheaper foreign yarn
Yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...
s increased during the mid-20th century, Shaw and Crompton's textile sector declined gradually to a halt; said to have over-relied upon the textile sector, cotton spinning reduced in the 1960s and 1970s, and by the early 1980s only four mills were operational. In spite of efforts to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of its production, the final cotton was spun in Shaw and Crompton in 1989, in Lilac and Park mills. Of the 48 cotton mills that have occupied Shaw and Crompton, only six are still standing, all of which are now used as distribution centres.
Post-industrial history
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
and Edwardian
Edwardian architecture
Edwardian architecture is the style popular when King Edward VII of the United Kingdom was in power; he reigned from 1901 to 1910, but the architecture style is generally considered to be indicative of the years 1901 to 1914....
terraced housing districts. The town has 9,274 residential dwellings, of which one third are Victorian or Edwardian terraces
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
, built for the cotton mill workers of former times. It is considered a popular residential area of relative prosperity, with a variety of housing types. The Buckstones and Rushcroft areas contain modern housing estates and are amongst the most affluent suburbs of the town. They were built as part of an agreement made in the 1950s between the then Crompton Urban District and the County Borough of Oldham
County Borough of Oldham
Oldham was, from 1849 to 1974, a local government district in the northwest of England coterminate with the town of Oldham.-Improvement Commissioners:...
councils, to alleviate Oldham's chronic shortage of quality housing. The town has subsequently been described as having "good community spirit and relative prosperity, which, in turn, create popular residential areas".
Shaw and Crompton has been used as a filming location for domestic films and television programmes, including The Parole Officer
The Parole Officer
The Parole Officer is a 2001 film, directed by John Duigan and was the first feature film to star comedian Steve Coogan. The film follows a mismatched group of former criminals as they assist their probation officer in proving his innocence after a murder accusation.-Plot:Simon Garden is a...
, Common As Muck
Common As Muck
Common As Muck was a comedy drama serial made by the BBC about the lives of a crew of binmen; it ran for two series.-Characters:-Series One :...
, Scott and Bailey and The Fred Dibnah Story, the latter of which documented Fred Dibnah
Fred Dibnah
Frederick "Fred" Dibnah MBE , born in Bolton, was an English steeplejack and eccentric with a keen interest in mechanical engineering who became a cult television personality....
's demolition of the Briar and Cape mill chimneys.
Governance
Thegn
The term thegn , from OE þegn, ðegn "servant, attendant, retainer", is commonly used to describe either an aristocratic retainer of a king or nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England, or as a class term, the majority of the aristocracy below the ranks of ealdormen and high-reeves...
age estate of Kaskenmoor, which was held on behalf of King John
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
by Roger de Montbegon
Roger de Montbegon
Roger de Montbegon was a landowner in northern England , Baron of Horneby, and one of the Magna Carta sureties....
and William de Nevill. The other parts of this estate were Glodwick
Glodwick
Glodwick is an area of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It is south-east of Oldham town centre.Glodwick is a multi-ethnic residential area in the south of the Oldham, home particularly to a large community of Pakistanis and British Pakistanis....
, Sholver
Sholver
Sholver is an area of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. An elevated, residential area, it lies near the middle of the Oldham part of the valley of the River Beal, northeast of Oldham's commercial centre, nearly at the northeastern-most extremity of the town, by open countryside close to the...
, Oldham
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
, and Werneth
Werneth, Greater Manchester
Werneth is an area of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It is west-southwest of Oldham's commercial centre and one of Oldham's most ancient localities.-History:...
, names and places still familiar today. Crompton would later form a township
Township (England)
In England, a township is a local division or district of a large parish containing a village or small town usually having its own church...
within the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham
Prestwich-cum-Oldham
Prestwich-cum-Oldham was an ancient ecclesiastical parish of the hundred of Salford, within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire, England...
, in the hundred of Salford
Salford (hundred)
The hundred of Salford was an ancient division of the historic county of Lancashire, in Northern England. It was sometimes known as Salfordshire, the name alluding to its judicial centre being the township of Salford...
. Throughout the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, local men acted as jurors and constable
Constable
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions.-Etymology:...
s for the purposes of upholding law and order in the township.
Following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, sometimes abbreviated to PLAA, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Lord Melbourne that reformed the country's poverty relief system . It was an Amendment Act that completely replaced earlier legislation based on the...
, Crompton formed part of the Oldham Poor Law Union
Poor Law Union
A Poor Law Union was a unit used for local government in the United Kingdom from the 19th century. The administration of the Poor Law was the responsibility of parishes, which varied wildly in their size, populations, financial resources, rateable values and requirements...
, an inter-parish unit established to provide social security
Social security
Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
. Crompton's first local authority was a Local board of health
Local board of health
Local Boards or Local Boards of Health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate slaughterhouses and ensure the proper supply of water to their...
established in 1863; Established with reference to the Local Government Act 1858, Crompton Local Board of Health was a regulatory body responsible for standards of hygiene and sanitation in the township. Following the Local Government Act 1894
Local Government Act 1894
The Local Government Act 1894 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level under the Local Government Act 1888...
, the area of the Local Board became the Crompton Urban District, a local government district within the administrative county
Administrative counties of England
Administrative counties were a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government from 1889 to 1974. They were created by the Local Government Act 1888 as the areas for which county councils were elected. Some large counties were divided into several administrative...
of Lancashire. The urban district council was based out of Shaw/Crompton Town Hall, which opened on 28 December 1894.
Under the Local Government Act 1972
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....
, the town's Urban District
Urban district
In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....
status was abolished, and Shaw and Crompton has, since 1 April 1974, formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of 219,600, and spans . The borough is named after its largest town, Oldham, but also includes the outlying towns of Chadderton, Failsworth, Royton and Shaw and Crompton, the village of...
, a local government district of the metropolitan county
Metropolitan county
The metropolitan counties are a type of county-level administrative division of England. There are six metropolitan counties, which each cover large urban areas, typically with populations of 1.2 to 2.8 million...
of Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
. Since 1987, Shaw and Crompton has had civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
status, and its own parish council, giving it some limited local government autonomy from that of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, and including the status as a statutory consultee on local planning applications
Planning permission
Planning permission or planning consent is the permission required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to build on land, or change the use of land or buildings. Within the UK the occupier of any land or building will need title to that land or building , but will also need "planning...
. The council comprises 14 locally elected members, and is consulted in planning applications that affect the area through the Shaw and Royton Area Committee of Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council. Shaw and Crompton Community Council
Community council
A community council is a public representative body in Great Britain.In England they may be statutory parish councils by another name, under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, or they may be non-statutory bodies...
, a separate body, meets at least four times per year and is designed to allow local people to put forward their priorities for the area in which they live, suggest improvements and have their say on how services are run on a local basis. Shaw and Crompton does not have a mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
, but does have a town crier
Town crier
A town crier, or bellman, is an officer of the court who makes public pronouncements as required by the court . The crier can also be used to make public announcements in the streets...
, a purely ceremonial role. Shaw and Crompton is one of only a few parishes of England that still observes the ancient custom of Beating the bounds
Beating the bounds
Beating the bounds is an ancient custom still observed in some English and Welsh parishes. A group of old and young members of the community would walk the boundaries of the parish, usually led by the parish priest and church officials, to share the knowledge of where they lay, and to pray for...
. Originally an annual event, it now takes place every seven years.
In terms of parliamentary representation, Shaw and Crompton after the Reform Act 1832
Reform Act 1832
The Representation of the People Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of England and Wales...
was represented as part of the Oldham parliamentary borough constituency
Oldham (UK Parliament constituency)
Oldham was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Oldham, England. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
, of which the first Members of Parliaments (MPs) were the radicals
Radicalism (historical)
The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
William Cobbett
William Cobbett
William Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...
and John Fielden
John Fielden
John Fielden , also known as Honest John Fielden, was a British social reformer and benefactor. He was the third son of Joshua Fielden, and began working in his father's mill at the age of 9. With his brothers, he expanded the family cotton business at Todmorden to become a wealthy businessman...
. Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
was the MP between 1900 and 1906. Churchill once stayed at Crompton Hall
Crompton Hall
Crompton Hall was a historic house in Crompton, Lancashire, England. It was situated at Crompton Fold.Crompton Hall was in the township for hundreds of years...
, and letters written by him describe how peaceful and tranquil he thought the area to be. Constituency boundaries changed during the 20th century; from 1885 to 1918 Shaw and Crompton lay within Prestwich constituency
Prestwich (UK Parliament constituency)
Prestwich was a constituency in the county of Lancashire of the House of Commons for the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Created by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, it was represented by one Member of Parliament...
, from 1918 to 1950 in Royton constituency
Royton (UK Parliament constituency)
Royton was, from 1918 to 1950, a parliamentary constituency of the United Kingdom, centred on Royton in North West England. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.-History:The constituency was...
, from 1950 until 1983 in Heywood and Royton constituency
Heywood and Royton (UK Parliament constituency)
Heywood and Royton was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Heywood and Royton districts in the north-west of Greater Manchester. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
, and from 1983 to 1997 in Littleborough and Saddleworth constituency
Littleborough and Saddleworth (UK Parliament constituency)
Littleborough and Saddleworth was a parliamentary constituency in Greater Manchester, England. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
. Since 1997, Shaw and Crompton has lain within the parliamentary constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth, and is represented in the House of Commons by Debbie Abrahams
Debbie Abrahams
Deborah Angela Elspeth Abrahams is a British politician, who has been the Labour Member of Parliament for the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency since a by-election in January 2011. Her previous career was as a public health consultant.-Early and professional life:Abrahams was born in...
, a member of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
.
Geography
Saddleworth
Saddleworth is a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and hamlets amongst the west side of the Pennine hills: Uppermill, Greenfield, Dobcross, Delph, Diggle and others...
and the Pennines
Pennines
The Pennines are a low-rising mountain range, separating the North West of England from Yorkshire and the North East.Often described as the "backbone of England", they form a more-or-less continuous range stretching from the Peak District in Derbyshire, around the northern and eastern edges of...
are close to the east. The larger towns of Rochdale
Rochdale
Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
and Oldham lie to the northwest and south respectively; Royton
Royton
Royton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies by the source of the River Irk, on undulating land at the foothills of the Pennines, north-northwest of Oldham, south-southeast of Rochdale and northeast of the city of Manchester.Historically a...
is 1.2 miles (1.9 km) west-southwest. There are no motorways in Shaw and Crompton, though a heavy rail line bisects the town from north to south. The town has a post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
under the Oldham post town
OL postcode area
The OL postcode area, also known as the Oldham postcode area, is a group of postcode districts around Ashton-under-Lyne, Bacup, Heywood, Littleborough, Oldham, Rochdale and Todmorden in England....
. The territory of the civil parish is given as 4.5 square miles (11.7 km²). For purposes of the Office for National Statistics
Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.- Overview :...
, Shaw and Crompton forms part of the Greater Manchester Urban Area
Greater Manchester Urban Area
The Greater Manchester Urban Area is an area of land defined by the Office for National Statistics consisting of the large conurbation that encompasses the city of Manchester and the continuous metropolitan area that spreads outwards from it, forming much of Greater Manchester in North West England...
, with Manchester city centre
Manchester City Centre
Manchester city centre is the central business district of Manchester, England. It lies within the Manchester Inner Ring Road, next to the River Irwell...
itself 8.7 miles (14 km) southwest of Shaw and Crompton.
Described in Samuel Lewis's A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848) as located in "a bleak situation", Shaw and Crompton is in the valley of the River Beal
River Beal
The Beal is a small river in Greater Manchester, England, and is a tributary of the River Roch. It rises in the Beal Valley in green space between Sholver and Royton, before continuing northwards through, Shaw and Crompton, Newhey, Milnrow and Belfield....
, which runs northward through the town towards the village of Newhey
Newhey
Newhey is a suburban village in the Milnrow area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England...
. The land to the east of the town steadily rises, reaching a height of 1283 feet (391 m) at the summit of Crompton Moor
Crompton Moor
Crompton Moor is an area of moorland in the South Pennines, in North West England. It lies along the northeastern outskirts of Shaw and Crompton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester....
. To the west, the land reaches around 699 feet (213 m) at High Crompton
High Crompton
High Crompton is a locality in the west of the Shaw and Crompton parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It is formed around High Crompton Park and Rochdale Road....
and 825 feet (251 m) at Whitfield, and from these highpoints the surface slopes away in all directions. The River Irk
River Irk
The River Irk is a river in Greater Manchester in North West England that flows through the northern suburbs of Manchester before merging with the River Irwell in Manchester city centre....
rises on Shaw and Crompton's western boundary with Royton
Royton
Royton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies by the source of the River Irk, on undulating land at the foothills of the Pennines, north-northwest of Oldham, south-southeast of Rochdale and northeast of the city of Manchester.Historically a...
. The geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
is represented by carboniferous
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"...
coal measures. The soils of the town are broadly sterile, the poorest being in the upland moors
Moorland
Moorland or moor is a type of habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, found in upland areas, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils and heavy fog...
. Rainfall rises steadily from the Cheshire Plain
Cheshire Plain
The Cheshire Plain is a relatively flat expanse of lowland situated almost entirely within the county of Cheshire in northwest England. It is bounded by the hills of North Wales to the west, and the Peak District of Derbyshire and North Staffordshire to the east and southeast...
in a northeasterly direction, and reaches about 40 inches (102 cm) a year in Shaw and Crompton compared to about 33 inches (84 cm) a year at Ringway.
Shaw and Crompton's built environment
Built environment
The term built environment refers to the human-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from personal shelter and buildings to neighborhoods and cities that can often include their supporting infrastructure, such as water supply or energy networks.The built...
is similar to the urban structure
Urban structure
Urban structure is the arrangement of land use in urban areas. Sociologists, economists, and geographers have developed several models, explaining where different types of people and businesses tend to exist within the urban setting. Three models are described in this article...
of most towns in England, consisting of residential dwellings centred around a High Street
High Street
High Street, or the High Street, is a metonym for the generic name of the primary business street of towns or cities, especially in the United Kingdom. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in city centres, and is most often used in reference to retailing...
in the town centre
Town centre
The town centre is the term used to refer to the commercial or geographical centre or core area of a town.Town centres are traditionally associated with shopping or retail. They are also the centre of communications with major public transport hubs such as train or bus stations...
, which is the local centre of commerce. There is a mixture of low-density urban areas, suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
s, semi-rural and rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
locations in Shaw and Crompton, but overwhelmingly the land use
Land use
Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
in the town is residential; industrial areas and terraced house
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
s give way to suburbs and rural greenery as the land rises out of the town. Generally, property in the centre, west, and south of the town is older and smaller in comparison to that found in the east and north.
Shaw and Crompton is divided into two political wards, named "Shaw" and "Crompton" (to the east and west respectively), and residential suburbs, including High Crompton
High Crompton
High Crompton is a locality in the west of the Shaw and Crompton parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It is formed around High Crompton Park and Rochdale Road....
, Rushcroft, Buckstones, Clough, Jubilee, Shaw Side, Wrens Nest, Cowlishaw, Low Crompton, Nook, Goats, Wood End and Shore Edge.
Demography
| Shaw and Crompton compared | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| UK Census 2001 United Kingdom Census 2001 A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194.... |
Shaw and Crompton | Oldham (Met. District) Metropolitan Borough of Oldham The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of 219,600, and spans . The borough is named after its largest town, Oldham, but also includes the outlying towns of Chadderton, Failsworth, Royton and Shaw and Crompton, the village of... |
England |
| Total population | 21,721 | 217,273 | 49,138,831 |
| Foreign born | 3.2% | 8.2% | 9.2% |
| White | 96% | 86% | 91% |
| Asian | 2.0% | 12% | 4.6% |
| Black | 0.3% | 0.6% | 2.3% |
| Christian | 84% | 73% | 72% |
| Muslim | 1.7% | 11% | 3.1% |
| Hindu | 0.2% | 0.1% | 1.1% |
| No religion | 6.8% | 8.9% | 15% |
| Over 65 years old | 15% | 14% | 16% |
| Unemployed | 2.4% | 3.7% | 3.3% |
According to census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
data, in 2001 Shaw and Crompton had a total resident population of 21,721, with a population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
of around 4,692 people per square mile (1,811 per km²), and an average age of 39. Around 3% of Shaw and Crompton's population is from a black and minority ethnic
Minority group
A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...
background (which includes a small but long established community of Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
i heritage), the rest broadly being of white
White British
White British was an ethnicity classification used in the 2001 United Kingdom Census. As a result of the census, 50,366,497 people in the United Kingdom were classified as White British. In Scotland the classification was broken down into two different categories: White Scottish and Other White...
background.
Of the residents in the combined electoral wards of Shaw and Crompton (which are coterminous with the town) 41.7% were married, 9.2% were cohabiting
Cohabitation
Cohabitation usually refers to an arrangement whereby two people decide to live together on a long-term or permanent basis in an emotionally and/or sexually intimate relationship. The term is most frequently applied to couples who are not married...
couples, and 9.7% were lone parent families. Forty percent of households were made up of individuals and 14% had someone living alone at pension
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
able age.
The ethnicity
Ethnic groups of the United Kingdom
People from various ethnic groups reside in the United Kingdom. Migration from what are now the Northern European states has been happening for millennia, with other groups such as British Jews also well established...
of the town was given as 96% white, 0.5% mixed race
Multiracial
The terms multiracial and mixed-race describe people whose ancestries come from multiple races. Unlike the term biracial, which often is only used to refer to having parents or grandparents of two different races, the term multiracial may encompass biracial people but can also include people with...
, 2.0% Asian, 0.3% black and 0.2% Chinese or other.
The place of birth of the town's residents was 96.8% United Kingdom (including 95.13% from England), 0.6% Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, 0.5% from other European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
countries, and 2.1% from elsewhere in the world. Religion was recorded as 84% Christian, 1.7% Muslim, 0.2% Hindu, 0.2% Buddhist, 0.1% Jewish and <0.1% Sikh. Some 6.8% were recorded as having no religion, 0.1% had an alternative religion, and 5.6% did not state their religion.
The economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 45% in full-time employment, 12% in part-time employment, 7% self-employed, 2.4% unemployed, 2% students with jobs, 3% students without jobs, 13% retired, 4% looking after home or family, 7% permanently sick or disabled, and 2% economically inactive for other reasons. This was roughly in line with the national figures. Of the town's residents aged 16–74, 15% had a higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
qualification or the equivalent, compared with 20% nationwide.
Below is a table outlining population growth of the area since 1901. Earlier records show that the area had a population of 872 in 1714.
| Year | 1901 | 1911 | 1921 | 1931 | 1939 | 1951 | 1961 | 1971 | 1991 | 2001 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 13,427 | 14,750 | 14,917 | 14,764 | 12,796 | 12,559 | 12,708 | 17,026 | 21,093 | 21,721 | ||||
| Source:A Vision of Britain through Time Great Britain Historical GIS The Great Britain Historical GIS , is a spatially-enabled database that documents and visualises the changing human geography of the British Isles, although is primarily focussed on the subdivisions of the United Kingdom mainly over the 200 years since the first census in 1801... |
||||||||||||||
Economy
Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution
The industrial revolution changed the nature of work and society. Opinion varies as to the exact date, but it is estimated that the First Industrial Revolution took place between 1750 and 1850, and the second phase or Second Industrial Revolution between 1860 and 1900. The three key drivers in...
, particularly the cotton spinning sector.
Shaw and Crompton has become a base for distribution companies as a result of the town's good transport links, its supply of large, disused mill properties, and its situation between Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Lancashire, and West Yorkshire. It is home to Shop Direct Group's Shaw National Distribution Centre, one of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
's largest warehouse distribution centres, and a major employer of the local and wider community. The company occupies three former cotton mills and state-of-the-art purpose-built storage and sorting facilities on a 20 acres (8.1 ha) complex within the town. In 2007, the site became the retail company's only packing and distribution centre for non-bulk items. It employs nearly 1,000 staff, making it the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham's largest private employer. The N Brown Group
N Brown Group
N Brown Group plc is a British business group and a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index based in Manchester, England. It trades as a home shopping retailer under several names, including JD Williams, Jacamo, SimplyBe and High and Mighty.-History:...
, children's toy distributors Toy Options and bakers Warburtons
Warburtons
Warburtons is a British baking firm based founded by Thomas Warburton in 1876 in Bolton, then in Lancashire, now in Greater Manchester, England. For much of its history Warburtons only had bakeries in Lancashire and it remains a family-owned company....
also have distribution centres in the town.
Warburtons has had one of its 11 major bakeries in Shaw and Crompton since 1965. The "Pennine" bakery produces around 500,000 loaves a week and distributes them to major multiples and independent retailers throughout Greater Manchester, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, and Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
. Located on Glebe Street, it employs around 200 staff and produces a wide range of Warburtons bread products.
Until the 1990s, Shaw and Crompton was the home of Osram
Osram
Osram, founded 1919, is part of the industry sector of Siemens AG and one of the two leading lighting manufacturers in the world. The name is derived from osmium and Wolfram , as both these elements were commonly used for lighting filaments at the time the company was founded...
, the multinational lightbulb manufacturer, which occupied Duke Mill and was a significant employer in the area. Production has since been moved away from the United Kingdom.
Trent Mill Industrial Estate, on the edge of the town near Rushcroft, takes its name from the mill that was once there. The business park
Business park
A business park or office park is an area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. All of the work that goes on is commercial, not industrial or residential....
is home to several small industrial companies. It was partially destroyed by a fire that started in a plastics factory in the early hours of 28 April 2007.
On 6 August 2007, a 35000 square feet (3,252 m²) Asda
Asda
Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...
supermarket opened on the site of the former Dawn Mill. A derelict row of houses on Eastway was demolished as part of this development. Two houses on Greenfield Lane were also demolished, allowing the existing ALDI
ALDI
ALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG, doing business as ', short for "Albrecht Discount", is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany...
store to expand—possibly to help it to compete with the new ASDA store. The original planning application was put to a public vote in 2005, and included proposals for 316 parking spaces, improved bus facilities, pedestrian routes linked to Market Street, junction improvements to nearby streets, and the relocation of a local tyre-fitting company. The supermarket cost £20 million to construct, and is the first ASDA store in the United Kingdom to use environmentally friendly
Environmentally friendly
Environmentally friendly are terms used to refer to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies claimed to inflict minimal or no harm on the environment....
construction techniques, which Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
intends to use as a blueprint for all its new ASDA supermarkets. It incorporates a sustainable timber frame and an energy-saving
Energy conservation
Energy conservation refers to efforts made to reduce energy consumption. Energy conservation can be achieved through increased efficient energy use, in conjunction with decreased energy consumption and/or reduced consumption from conventional energy sources...
ventilation system, which together have eradicated the need for 500 tonnes of steel and 450 tonnes of carbon emissions.
War memorials
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
plinth surmounted by a large bronze statue flanked by two Rolls of Honour containing the 346 names of those from Shaw and Crompton who fought and died in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Panels listing the Roll of Honour from World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
were added and unveiled on 12 November 1950 by Councillor H. M. Turner. Commissioned by the Crompton War Memorial Committee, the statue was conceptualised in 1919 by Richard Reginald Goulden
Richard Reginald Goulden
Richard Reginald Goulden was a sculptor.Born in Dover, he went to school at Dover College from where he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art...
, and unveiled on 29 April 1923 by General Sir Ian Hamilton
Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton
General Sir Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton GCB GCMG DSO TD was a general in the British Army and is most notably for commanding the ill-fated Mediterranean Expeditionary Force during the Battle of Gallipoli....
. The original cost for the memorial alone was £4,000, but the total cost, including site and layout, was about £6,067.
The inscription on the memorial reads:
The symbolic memorial depicts a group in which the central figure is a man defending the future generations, represented by young children, against foreign aggression, represented by a beast. The memorial is also a time capsule. Inside it is a lead casket containing coins, a copy of the local newspaper, three cops of spun cotton, and a length of cloth manufactured in the local area.
A second, smaller war memorial is located in Jubilee Gardens. It is dedicated to the soldiers who fought in the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
. It consists of a plaque built into a stone wall that is located between two large bushes.
Its inscription reads:
It then lists eight men: four who were "killed in action", two who "died of wounds", and two who "died of disease".
In 1995, to mark the 50th anniversary of the ending of the Second World War, a landmark known as The Shaw and Crompton Beacon was erected in Jubilee Gardens.
The inscription on the plaque below reads:
erected by the Parish Council in 1995 to
commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of
the ending of World War Two
this plaque was presented by members of the British Legion
Crompton Moor
Crompton Moor
Crompton Moor is an area of moorland in the South Pennines, in North West England. It lies along the northeastern outskirts of Shaw and Crompton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester....
is one of the largest open spaces run by Oldham Countryside Service. It is a registered common of Greater Manchester, and, since 2003, a designated Site of Biological Importance
Site of Biological Importance
A Site of Biological Importance is one of the non-statutory designations used locally by the Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Staffordshire County Councils in England to protect locally valued sites of biological diversity which are described generally as Local Wildlife Sites by the UK Government...
.
Brushes Clough and Pingot are former coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
and sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
quarries on Crompton Moor. During the 1970s, quarrying was halted, the land was reclaimed, and thousands of pine trees were planted. The area has since been used for recreation, including hiking, orienteering, and mountain biking. Brushes Clough Reservoir
Brushes Clough Reservoir
Brushes Clough Reservoir is on Crompton Moor in Shaw and Crompton, Greater Manchester, England. It was created in the 19th century by the damming of Leornardin Brook. The outlet of the reservoir flows through Brushes Clough to merge with Old Brook, a tributary of the River Beal....
was constructed in the 19th century by the Oldham County Borough Council
County Borough of Oldham
Oldham was, from 1849 to 1974, a local government district in the northwest of England coterminate with the town of Oldham.-Improvement Commissioners:...
, using stone quarried from this site. The area is now managed by United Utilities
United Utilities
United Utilities Group PLC is the UK's largest listed water business. The Group owns and manages the regulated water and waste water network in the north west England, through it subsidiary United Utilities Water PLC , which is responsible for the vast majority of the group's assets and...
.
Since the 1960s an un-named waterfall (provisionally called Crompton Waterfall) cascades off Crompton Moor
Crompton Moor
Crompton Moor is an area of moorland in the South Pennines, in North West England. It lies along the northeastern outskirts of Shaw and Crompton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester....
into the now unused Pingot Quarry forming the Old Brook
Old Brook
Old Brook is a small watercourse in Shaw and Crompton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester which flows from Crow Knowl on Crompton Moor to the River Beal. Its main feature is a waterfall at Pingot Quarry....
, a tributary
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
of the River Beal
River Beal
The Beal is a small river in Greater Manchester, England, and is a tributary of the River Roch. It rises in the Beal Valley in green space between Sholver and Royton, before continuing northwards through, Shaw and Crompton, Newhey, Milnrow and Belfield....
.
Big Lamp
Roundabout
A roundabout is the name for a road junction in which traffic moves in one direction around a central island. The word dates from the early 20th century. Roundabouts are common in many countries around the world...
was built, and a scaled-down replica of the original Big Lamp was erected in its centre. The new Big Lamp is electrically powered and stands about 6 feet (2 m) high.
Transport
Public transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...
in Shaw and Crompton is co-ordinated by Transport for Greater Manchester. Shaw and Crompton had a railway line and station between 1863 and 2009, opened initially used for haulage, but later used for passenger and commuter journeys. Shaw and Crompton railway station
Shaw and Crompton railway station
Shaw and Crompton railway station which opened on 2 November 1863 was a railway station located in Shaw and Crompton, within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England...
was used by passenger trains running between Rochdale and Manchester on the Oldham Loop Line. After initially being rejected in the early 2000s, plans to turn the line into part of the Manchester Metrolink
Manchester Metrolink
Metrolink is a light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. It consists of four lines which converge in Manchester city centre and terminate in Bury, Altrincham, Eccles and Chorlton-cum-Hardy. The system is owned by Transport for Greater Manchester and operated under contract by RATP Group...
were accepted by the government on 6 July 2006. Shaw and Crompton railway station closed on 3 October 2009, so that it can be converted from use with heavy rail to part of an expanded Metrolink light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
tram network. It is estimated to reopen as Shaw and Crompton Metrolink station in 2012.
The bus company First Manchester
First Manchester
First Manchester is one of the bus companies serving Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England. It forms part of FirstGroup, a company operating transport services across the British Isles and in North America...
provides frequent services to Oldham and Rochdale, with buses also running to Chadderton
Chadderton
Chadderton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England, historically a part of Lancashire...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Middleton
Middleton, Greater Manchester
Middleton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It stands on the River Irk, south-southwest of Rochdale, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester...
, Royton
Royton
Royton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies by the source of the River Irk, on undulating land at the foothills of the Pennines, north-northwest of Oldham, south-southeast of Rochdale and northeast of the city of Manchester.Historically a...
and Stalybridge
Stalybridge
Stalybridge is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 22,568. Historically a part of Cheshire, it is east of Manchester city centre and northwest of Glossop. With the construction of a cotton mill in 1776, Stalybridge became one of...
. Other services run in Shaw and Crompton are operated by Bluebird, who run bus links between Shaw and Manchester, and Rossendale Transport
Rossendale Transport
Rossendale Transport is a bus operator running within the Borough of Rossendale and into surrounding areas, including Rochdale, Bury, Manchester, Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn and Todmorden...
, who operate between Rochdale and Buckstones. There are Shaw Circular routes which are run by Bu-Val, serving the smaller roads of Shaw and Crompton. Shaw and Crompton is located south of junction 21 of the M62 motorway
M62 motorway
The M62 motorway is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting the cities of Liverpool and Hull via Manchester and Leeds. The road also forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 and E22...
.
Education
There had been private cottage schools in the area from a very early time, but Crompton's first public school was founded in 1791. In 1838, the Shaw National SchoolNational Society for Promoting Religious Education
The National Society for Promoting Religious Education, often just referred to as the National Society, is a Church of England body in England and Wales for the promotion of church schools and Christian education....
was built. The construction of church schools followed, including Shaw Methodist School in 1842, St Mary's, in 1847 and St James' 1851. Shaw and Crompton is now served by a variety of schools, including some with religious affiliations. All the schools in the town perform either at or above the national average for test results. Crompton House
Crompton House
Crompton House Church of England High School is a mixed gender voluntary aided Church of England secondary school and sixth form for 11–18 year olds, located in the High Crompton area of Shaw and Crompton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England...
, a secondary school for 11- to 16-year-olds, also has a sixth form college
Sixth form college
A sixth form college is an educational institution in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Belize, Hong Kong or Malta where students aged 16 to 18 typically study for advanced school-level qualifications, such as A-levels, or school-level qualifications such as GCSEs. In Singapore and India, this is...
of further education
Further education
Further education is a term mainly used in connection with education in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is post-compulsory education , that is distinct from the education offered in universities...
for 16- to 18-year-olds on the same site.
Religion
Prestwich-cum-Oldham
Prestwich-cum-Oldham was an ancient ecclesiastical parish of the hundred of Salford, within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire, England...
in the Diocese of Lichfield
Diocese of Lichfield
The Diocese of Lichfield is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury, England. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Chad in the city of Lichfield. The diocese covers 4,516 km² The Diocese of Lichfield is a Church of England...
, until 1541, when, owing to the English Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
, this diocese was divided and Crompton became part of the Diocese of Chester
Diocese of Chester
The Diocese of Chester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York based in Chester, covering the county of Cheshire in its pre-1974 boundaries...
. This in turn was divided in 1847, when the present Diocese of Manchester
Anglican Diocese of Manchester
The Diocese of Manchester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York, England. Based in the city of Manchester, the diocese covers much of the county of Greater Manchester and small areas of the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire.-History:...
was created.
The exact date of the establishment of a place of worship in Crompton is uncertain. Although Shaw Chapel is certain to have been in existence since the early 16th century, it has been put that "Shaw Chapel is even more ancient than Oldham Old Church", as evidenced by the ancient toponymy
Toponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
of the area. Shaw Chapel was anciently known as St Patrick's Chapel-on-the-Moor, and during the reign of James I of England
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
, "it was situate in the midst of the common called Shaw Moor, not a single habitation being near it". It is thought to have been constructed following an increase in wealth produced by the localisation of the woollen trade during a very bleak period, although, in 1552 it was noted that it had no endowment, and its ornaments were in poor condition. It was rebuilt in 1739 and enlarged in 1798, and rebuilt again in 1870. It is now known as the Church of Holy Trinity.
Shaw and Crompton has three Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
ecclesiastic parishes
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
: Shaw, High Crompton, and East Crompton. In addition to the established church
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, a variety of Reformed denominations, particularly Nonconformism
English Dissenters
English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.They originally agitated for a wide reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell....
and Methodism
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
, have been practiced in Shaw and Crompton. Presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
ministers were recorded preaching at Shaw Chapel in as early as the 1650s. The Religious Society of Friends
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
held conventicle
Conventicle
A conventicle is a small, unofficial and unofficiated meeting of laypeople, to discuss religious issues in a non-threatening, intimate manner. Philipp Jakob Spener called for such associations in his Pia Desideria, and they were the foundation of the German Evangelical Lutheran Pietist movement...
s in Whitfield in 1660s and 1670s.
The following is a table of the churches presently in Shaw and Crompton, as of 2007. Others have existed, but have been demolished.
Most of the above churches participate in Shaw's annual Whit Walks
Pentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
event, when congregations, choirs, and brass bands parade through the streets from their respective churches before taking part in one large, communal, inter-church service. The town centre is also home to a small mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
.
Community facilities
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
s in the centre of the town include The Blue Bell, Duke of York, Coach and Horses, and Pineapple. There are many outlying public houses, including The Kings Arms at the Big Lamp, Royal Oak at Cowlishaw, and the Park Inn at Buckstones Road.
Crompton Library is a purpose-built library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
housing over 36,000 items including books, CDs, and DVDs that can be borrowed by anyone who lives in the Oldham borough. It has communal Internet facilities. The library was built in the early 1990s after the original 1907 building, which exists now as apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
s on Beal Lane, became too small.
There are three main public parks in Shaw and Crompton. Dunwood Park lies alongside the Oldham Loop Railway Line
Manchester to Rochdale via Oldham Line
The Oldham Loop Line was a local railway route in Greater Manchester, England, used by trains that ran from Manchester Victoria station to Rochdale railway station...
and has a children's play area, bowling green
Bowling green
A bowling green is a finely-laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of lawn for playing the game of lawn bowls.Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on them...
, and over a mile of wooded pathways along the base of a forested hillside. The land that forms Dunwood Park was presented to Crompton Urban District Council by Captain Abram Crompton JP
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
on the 22 June 1911, and opened as a park by him on the 14 September 1912. High Crompton Park is in High Crompton
High Crompton
High Crompton is a locality in the west of the Shaw and Crompton parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It is formed around High Crompton Park and Rochdale Road....
and is home to a tennis court
Tennis court
A tennis court is where the game of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the center. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles.-Dimensions:...
, bowling green, children's play area, and gardens. Jubilee Gardens are found in the centre of Shaw and Crompton town centre, behind the Crompton War Memorial. Shaw and Crompton has large areas of land reserved for sporting and communal events; these are located off George Street, Edward Road, and Rushcroft Road respectively.
Shaw Market, located on Westway, is open to market retailers and customers every Thursday. At other times most of the market area becomes a public car park. The market area has been used occasionally for fun fairs and other events. Shaw and Crompton town has several public sporting establishments. Crompton Pool is a swimming pool built in 1899 on Farrow Street in the town centre,, and a gym added more recently. Crompton Cricket Club
Crompton C.C.
Crompton Cricket Club are an English cricket team, based in Shaw and Crompton, Greater Manchester, England. The club plays its home games at Glebe Street and competes in the Central Lancashire League....
, is located on Glebe Street.
Playhouse 2 is a 156-seat theatre in the heart of Shaw and Crompton town centre, which used to be an Odeon cinema. It has been the home of the Crompton Stage Society, an amateur theatre company, since 1966. A wide variety of entertainment, professional as well as amateur, is produced each year.
Public services
Home OfficeHome Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
policing in Shaw and Crompton is provided by the Greater Manchester Police
Greater Manchester Police
Greater Manchester Police is the police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England...
. The force's "(Q) Division" have their headquarters for policing the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of 219,600, and spans . The borough is named after its largest town, Oldham, but also includes the outlying towns of Chadderton, Failsworth, Royton and Shaw and Crompton, the village of...
at central Oldham. The nearest police station is at Royton. Public transport
Public transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...
is co-ordinated by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive
Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive
Transport for Greater Manchester is the public body responsible for co-ordinating public transport services throughout Greater Manchester, in North West England. The organisation traces its origins to the Transport Act 1968, when the SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive was established to...
. Statutory emergency fire and rescue service
Fire service in the United Kingdom
The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales...
is provided by the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory emergency fire and rescue service for the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, England.Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service covers an area of approximately...
.
There are no hospitals in Shaw and Crompton—the nearest are in the larger settlements of Oldham and Rochdale—but some local health care is provided by Crompton Health Centre which is Shaw and Crompton's NHS surgery. It has been subject to a development scheme intended to improve NHS
National Health Service (England)
The National Health Service or NHS is the publicly funded healthcare system in England. It is both the largest and oldest single-payer healthcare system in the world. It is able to function in the way that it does because it is primarily funded through the general taxation system, similar to how...
facilities in the town. The North West Ambulance Service
North West Ambulance Service
The North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust was formed on 1 July 2006 as part of Health Minister Lord Warner's plans to reduce the number of NHS ambulance service trusts operating in the United Kingdom....
provides emergency patient transport in the area. Other forms of health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
are provided for locally by several small specialist clinics and surgeries.
Waste management
Waste management
Waste management is the collection, transport, processing or disposal,managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics...
is co-ordinated by the local authority via the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority
Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority
The Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority is a waste disposal authority created under the Local Government Act 1985 to carry out the waste management functions and duties of the Greater Manchester County Council after its abolition in 1986....
. Locally produced inert waste
Inert waste
Inert waste is waste which is neither chemically or biologically reactive and will not decompose. Examples of this are sand, drywall, and concrete. This has particular relevance to landfills as inert waste typically requires lower disposal fees than biodegradable waste or hazardous waste....
for disposal is sent to landfill
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
at the Beal Valley. Shaw and Crompton's Distribution Network Operator
Distribution Network Operator
Distribution network operators are companies licensed to distribute electricity in Great Britain by the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets....
for electricity is United Utilities
United Utilities
United Utilities Group PLC is the UK's largest listed water business. The Group owns and manages the regulated water and waste water network in the north west England, through it subsidiary United Utilities Water PLC , which is responsible for the vast majority of the group's assets and...
; there are no power station
Power station
A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....
s in the town. United Utilities also manages Shaw and Crompton's drinking
Drinking water
Drinking water or potable water is water pure enough to be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though only a very small proportion is actually...
and waste water; water supplies are sourced from several local reservoirs, including Dovestones
Dovestones Reservoir
Dovestone Reservoir is a reservoir situated in a valley above the village of Greenfield, in Saddleworth,Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. Situated within the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the edge of the Peak District national park in the Pennines...
and Chew.
Notable people
People from Shaw and Crompton are called Shaytonians or Cromptonians. Philip Gilbert HamertonPhilip Gilbert Hamerton
Philip Gilbert Hamerton , was an English artist and art critic and author.He was born at Laneside, a hamlet in Crompton, Lancashire, England. His mother died giving birth to him, and his father died ten years later...
, an acclaimed etcher, painter, and art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
was born in the area in 1834. The town is the home of Oldham-born actress Shobna Gulati
Shobna Gulati
Shobna Gulati is an English actress, writer, and dancer of Indian origin, best known for playing Anita in Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies, and Sunita Alahan in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street from 2001 to 2006, a role to which she returned at the end of 2009...
, former Oldham Athletic
Oldham Athletic A.F.C.
Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is an English association football club based at Boundary Park, on Sheepfoot Lane in Oldham, Greater Manchester. The club currently competes in the Football League One, the third tier of the English league...
player and manager Andy Ritchie, and is the hometown of Kevin O'Toole, a founding member of dance act N-Trance
N-Trance
N-Trance are a British electronic music group, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, who were formed by Kevin O'Toole and Dale Longworth, in 1990. The group has sold over 5 million records worldwide and some of their hit singles include "Set You Free", "Forever", as well as covers of the popular 1970s...
. Tommy Cannon
Tommy Cannon
Tommy Cannon is a comedian and the feed member of comedy double act Cannon and Ball, along with Bobby Ball....
and Bobby Ball
Bobby Ball
Bobby Ball is one half of the comedy double act Cannon and Ball, along with Tommy Cannon.He married his first wife, Joan, in 1964, with whom he had two sons, Robert and Darren , who are now a comedy double act in their own right, performing under their surname 'Harper'. Bobby and his first wife...
live locally.
External links
- www.genuki.org, information about Crompton at GENUKIGENUKIGENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. Its aim is "to serve as a "virtual reference library" of genealogical information that is of particular relevance to the UK & Ireland"...
. - Crompton: from the Normans to the Tudors A comprehensive historical reference site.
- www.ShawLive.tv, Local internet TV service, Community information and webcams.
- www.shawcam.co.uk, Website featuring picture gallery, discussion boards, and live video feed of Shaw and Crompton.
- www.shawlife.co.uk, Message board with picture galleries and articles contributed by local residents.
- www.dunwoodpark.co.uk, Home page of local park.