Everything about Shaw And Crompton totally explained
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
Pennines, to the northeast of the city of
Manchester, north of
Oldham, and southeast of
Rochdale. It is regularly referred to as
Shaw.
Historically a part of
Lancashire,
Crompton (as it was originally known) experienced rapid
socioeconomic development and
urbanisation following the
Industrial Revolution. It rose to prominence during the late 19th century as a
mill town centred on
cotton spinning and
textile manufacturing. Forty eight separate
cotton mills have been recorded as existing in the area. As a result of an
interwar economic boom associated with the textile industry, according to the national press Shaw and Crompton had more
millionaires per capita at its zenith than any other town in the world.
Today, Shaw and Crompton, which covers, 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 mills, all of which are home to large distribution companies, among them
Littlewoods Shop Direct Group's
Shaw National Distribution Centre, which is a major employer in the area.
History
Toponymy
The name
Shaw is
Anglo-Saxon in origin, coming from the word
sceaga, meaning "wood". The name Crompton is also of Anglo-Saxon derivation, from the words
crom/
crumb, meaning "crooked", and
ton, for "hamlet or village". The
University of Nottingham's Institute for Name-Studies has offered the suggestion that the name Crompton means "River-bend settlement" however; Crompton lies 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",
Shaw was originally a
hamlet and sub-district of Crompton, and appears to have its origins as the commercial and
ecclesiastic centre of Crompton because of the siting of a small chapel there dating back to around the 16th century. Prior to that time, Whitfield had been the largest village in Crompton. and in 1872 as one of three villages. the two areas and names merged to form the present day "Shaw and Crompton", a name which boundary markers have used since as early as the 1950s.
In 616
Æthelfrith of Bernicia, an
Anglo-Saxon King, crossed the Pennines with an army and passed through
Manchester to defeat the
Brythons in the
Battle of Chester.
Some decades later, the de la Legh family—again of Norman descent—acquired the land.
Until the
Industrial Revolution, Crompton was a
township made up of scattered woods, farmsteads, moorland, and swamp with a small community of families. However, as technologies developed and demand increased, the manufacture of cotton in Crompton became more important than wool, and by 1792 the woollen industry had died out, replaced by cotton milling. In the post-
war boom of 1919–20, investors didn't 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, or five times what they'd cost to build before the war,
Shaw and 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. Together with Oldham, at its peak the area was responsible for 13% of the world's cotton production.
The global demand for cotton goods led to a local expansion in both industry and population. In 1801, Shaw and Crompton had a population of 3,482, but by 1911 that had increased to 14,750. The number of cotton mills in the township peaked at 36 in 1920.
| Name |
Architect |
Location |
Built |
Demolished |
Served
(Years)
|
| Beal |
Unknown |
Beal Lane |
c.1832 |
c.1875 |
43
|
| Briar |
P.S. Stott |
Beal Lane |
1906 |
N/A |
-1906}}+
|
| Cape |
P.S. Stott |
Refuge Street |
1900 |
1993 |
93
|
| Clough |
Unknown |
Mark Lane |
1835 |
1934 |
99
|
Cowlishaw /
Victoria |
Unknown |
Scowcroft Lane |
<1789 |
1940 |
>151
|
| Dee |
P.S. Stott |
Cheetham Street |
1907 |
1984 |
77
|
| Duke |
Joseph Stott |
Refuge Street |
1883 |
N/A |
-1883}}+
|
| Fern |
Joseph Stott |
Siddal Street |
1884 |
1983 |
99
|
| Hawk |
A. Turner |
Store Street |
1908 |
1991 |
83
|
| Lilac |
P.S. Stott |
Beal Lane |
1918 |
N/A |
89+
|
| Lily (No.2) |
G. Stott |
Linney Lane |
1918 |
N/A |
-1918}}+
|
| Moorfield |
Joseph Stott |
Durden Street |
1876 |
1974 |
98
|
| New Mill |
Unknown |
Rochdale Road |
1846 |
1884 |
38
|
| Old Brox |
Unknown |
Rochdale Road |
1789 |
1819(BD) |
30
|
Oak /
Tom Taylors |
Unknown |
Moor Street |
1863 |
1937 |
74
|
| Rutland |
F.W. Dixon & Son |
Linney Lane |
1907 |
1993 |
86
|
| Sandy Lane (No.2) |
Unknown |
Rochdale Road |
>1878 |
1975 |
>97
|
| Shaw Lane |
Unknown |
High Street |
>1844 |
1900 |
c.56
|
| Shaw Spinning |
J. Wild |
Salts Street |
1875 |
1972 |
97
|
| Smallbrook |
J. Wild |
Nolan Street |
1875 |
1964 |
89
|
| Trent |
F.W. Dixon & Son |
Duchess Street |
1908 |
1967–1969 |
61
|
| Woodend |
Unknown |
Smallbrook Road |
>1838 |
1920 (BD) |
82
|
| Wye (No.2) |
A. Turner & Son |
Napier Street |
1925 |
1974 |
49
|
'<' = Earlier Than, '>' = Later Than 'c.' = Circa (About), 'BD' = Burnt Down
Two cottage mills, named Holebottom and Millcroft, are also known to have existed. The urban district council was based at Crompton
Town Hall, which opened on
28 December 1894. 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, including three who also act as councillors to the wider Oldham
local authority. The parish council is consulted in planning applications that affect the area. 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 doesn't 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. which was represented in the House of Commons by
Winston Churchill 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. From 1950 until 1983, Shaw and Crompton lay within the
Heywood and Royton constituency.
Geography
At (53.5777°, -2.0928°) Shaw and Crompton lies along the eastern edge of the ancient Lancashire border;
West Yorkshire and the
Pennine hills are close to the east. The larger towns of
Rochdale and Oldham lie to the northwest and south respectively;
Royton is 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 . For purposes of the
Office for National Statistics, Shaw and Crompton forms part of the
Greater Manchester Urban Area, with
Manchester City Centre itself 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 at the summit of
Crompton Moor. To the west, the land reaches around at
High Crompton and at Whitfield, and from these highpoints the surface slopes away in all directions. The
geology is represented by
carboniferous coal measures.
Rainfall rises steadily from the
Cheshire Plain in a northeasterly direction, and reaches about a year in Shaw and Crompton compared to about a year at
Ringway. There is a mixture of low-density
urban areas,
suburbs, semi-rural and
rural locations in Shaw and Crompton, but overwhelmingly the
land use in the town is residential; Industrial areas and
terraced houses 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 contrast to that found in the east and north.
Shaw and Crompton contains two separate
political wards, appropriately 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.
Demography
| Shaw and Crompton compared |
| UK Census 2001 |
Shaw and Crompton |
Oldham (Met. District) |
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 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
Bangladeshi heritage), the rest broadly being of
white background. 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 to suit families, couples, individuals and professionals. 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.
Below is a table outlining population growth of the area since 1901. Earlier records show that the area had a population of 7,032 in circa 1871, and a century earlier consisted of just "six families". It employs nearly 1,000 staff, making it the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham's largest private employer. 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.
On
August 6,
2007 a
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 £20million 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. Commissioned by the Crompton War Memorial Committee, the statue was conceptualised in 1919 by
Richard Reginald Goulden, and unveiled on
April 29,
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.
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
Crompton Moor
Spanning approximately, and reaching an elevation of,
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 Interest.
Brushes Clough and Pingot are former
coal and
sandstone quarries set amongst 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.
Big Lamp
The Big Lamp was a six-sided gas-powered public street lamp standing high at the original cross-road junction of Manchester Road, Oldham Road, High Street, and Church Road. It was pulled down on
June 17 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 high. Once the new lamp appeared, the roundabout became known as the Big Lamp Roundabout, and the public house reverted to its original name. Today
Shaw and Crompton railway station is used by passenger trains running between Rochdale and Manchester on the
Oldham Loop railway line.
After initially being rejected, plans to turn the line into part of the
Manchester Metrolink were accepted by the government on
July 6,
2006. Work is expected to start in 2008. The conversion will be likely to result in the decommissioning of the conventional
heavy rail service on this line, with trams running along most of the existing line, which it's planned to re-route into Oldham town centre.
The bus company
First Manchester provides frequent services to Oldham and Rochdale, with buses running on to the
Trafford Centre and the suburbs of Rushcroft, Wrens Nest, and Buckstones. There is also a 'Shaw Circular' route, bus 403, which is run by Row Travel, who took over from Bluebird in December 2007, which serves the smaller roads of Shaw and Crompton.
GMPTE co-ordinates the bus routes in the area. Shaw and Crompton is located south of Junction 21 of the
M62 motorway, which connects the town with other parts of Greater Manchester, as well as counties of England as far as
Merseyside and
South Yorkshire.
Education
Almost every suburb of Shaw and Crompton is served by a school of some kind, 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.
Royton and Crompton School is located just inside the border of the Crompton electoral ward, however its official street address is part of neighbouring Royton town. It was specifically built to serve both areas.
Religion
The township of Crompton was originally within the parish of
Prestwich-cum-Oldham in the
Diocese of Lichfield, until 1541, when 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. It has communal Internet facilities. The library was built in the early 1990s after the original 1907 building, which exists now as
apartments 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, and Saturday morning. 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
Crompton Cricket Club, is located on Glebe Street in the town.
"Playhouse2" is a 156 seat
theatre in the heart of Shaw and Crompton town centre. 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.
Filmography
Shaw and Crompton has been featured in several British-made television programmes and films:
- The film The Parole Officer features a scene in which Steve Coogan is seen driving a car along Grains Road. The scene was filmed near the junction of Grains Road and Buckstones Road at Dog Hill, and the Shaw and Crompton skyline is a background.
- The first series of the BBC's Common As Muck featured scenes filmed in the local area. Locations on Market Street, High Street, Rochdale Road, and Westway were used, including the Cricketers public house, Shaw Meat Centre (now Shaw Farm Produce), and Healds (now Tesco).
- Bolton celebrity steeplejack Fred Dibnah visited the cotton mills of the area as part of the BBC documentary The Fred Dibnah Story. The film included Fred's unique approach to the demolition of the Briar and Cape chimneys.
Public services
Home Office 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 stations in the town. United Utilities also manages Shaw and Crompton's
drinking and
waste water;
Notable people
People from Shaw and Crompton are called "Shaytonians" or "Cromptonians". former
Oldham Athletic player and manager
Andy Ritchie, Although a native of
Rochdale, television and movie actress
Anna Friel was a pupil at
Crompton House Church of England High School, which lies in the area.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Shaw And Crompton'.
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