Online Encyclopedia

OLDHAM

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 74 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OLDHAM  , a municipal

county and
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parliamentary borough of
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Lancashire, England, 7 M . N.E. of Manchester, on the
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London & North-Western,
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Great Central and Lancashire &
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Yorkshire
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railways and the Oldham canal . Pop . (1891) 131,463; (1901) 137,246 . The
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principal railway station is called Mumps, but there are several others . The
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town lies high, near the source of the small
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river Medlock . Its growth as a manufacturing centre gives it a wholly
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modern appearance . Among several handsome churches the
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oldest
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dates only from the later 18th century . The principal buildings and institutions include the town-hall, with tetrastyle portico copied from the Ionic temple of
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Ceres near Athens, the reference library,
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art gallery and museum, the Union Street
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baths, commemorating
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Sir Robert Peel the statesman, and the county court . Of educational establishments the chief are the
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Lyceum, a
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building in
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Italian style, containing
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schools of art and science, and including an
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observatory; the largely-endowed blue-coat school founded in 18o8 by Thomas Henshaw, a wealthy manufacturer of hats; the Hulme grammar school (1895), and municipal technical schools . The Alexandra Park, opened in 1865, was laid out by operatives who were thrown out of employment owing to the cotton famine in the years previous to that date . The site is picturesquely undulating and terraced .

Oldham is one of the most important centres of the cotton manufactures, the

consumption of cotton being about one-fifth of the
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total importation into the
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United
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Kingdom, the factories numbering some 230, and the spindles over 13 millions, while some 35,000 operatives are employed . The principal manufactures are fustians, velvets, cords, shirtings, sheetings and nankeens . There are also large foundries and mill and cotton machinery
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works; and works for the construction of
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gas-meters and sewing-
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machines; while all these
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industries are assisted by the immediate presence of collieries . There are extensive markets and numerous fairs are held . Oldham was incorporated in 1849, and became a county borough in 1888 . The corporation consists of a mayor, 12 aldermen and 36 councillors . The parliamentary borough has returned two members since 1832 .
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Area of municipal borough, 4736 acres . A
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Roman road, of which some traces are still
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left, passes through the site of the township, but it does not appear to have been a Roman station . It is not mentioned in Domesday; but in the reign of Henry III . Alwardus de Aldholme is referred to as holding
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land in
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Vernet (Werneth) . A daughter and co-heiress of this Alwardus conveyed Werneth Hall and its
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manor to the Cudworths, a branch of the Yorkshire
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family, with whom it remained till the early
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part of the 18th century .

From the Oldhams was descended

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Hugh Oldham, who died bishop of Exeter in 1519 . From entries in the church registers it would appear that linens were manufactured in Oldham as early as 163o . Watermills were introduced in 1770, and with the adoption of Arkwright's inventions the cotton industry grew with great rapidity .

End of Article: OLDHAM
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JOHN OLDHAM (1653–1683)

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