SALFORD HUNDRED 



Mumps, where a division takes place ; the Lancashire 

 and Yorkshire line goes northward to Shaw and Roch- 

 dale, with a station at Royton Junction, at which the 

 Royton line goes off to the north-west, and the 

 London and North Western's line runs eastward into 

 Yorkshire. 3 A canal, joining with the Medlock, 

 starts from Hollinwood, where a reservoir was formed 

 in 1801. 



The ancient divisions of the township were Shol- 

 ver, 4 Glodwick, 5 and Werneth, 6 in the north-east, 

 south-east, and south-west respectively ; the modern 

 divisions are Below Town and Above Town. Shol- 

 ver lies near the middle of the Oldham part of the 

 Beal valley ; Broadbent Moss is to the south ; in this 

 division are Fulwood, Besom Hill, Moorside, Water- 

 sheddings, and Springhill. The town has spread 

 south-east to include Glodwick ; to the south are 

 Fenny Hill and Keverlow, and to the west Alexandra 

 Park, replacing the older name of Swine Clough. 

 Werneth Park marks the site of Werneth Hall. 

 About half a mile to the north of this stood Lees 

 Hall and Bent Hall, and about the same distance to 

 the south-east was Chamber Hall. Near this last are 

 Hathershaw and Copster Hill. Hollinwood lies in 

 the south-west corner of the township on the Man- 

 chester road. 



There were 215 hearths liable to the hearth tax in 

 1666. The largest dwellings were those of Benjamin 

 Wrigley (Chamber Hall), with eight hearths ; Thomas 

 Kay (Lees Hall), the same ; Joshua Cudworth 

 (Werneth Hall), six ; and Bent Hall, six also. 8 



Defoe in 1727 thus records his impressions of the 

 Oldham district : * This country seems to have been 

 designed by Providence for the very purposes to which 

 it is now allotted for carrying on a manufacture 

 which can nowhere be so easily supplied with the 

 conveniences necessary for it. Nor is the industry of 

 the people wanting to second these advantages. 

 Though we met few people without doors, yet within 

 we saw the houses full of lusty fellows, some at the 

 dye vat, some at the loom, others dressing the cloths ; 

 the women and children carding or spinning ; all em- 

 ployed, from the youngest to the oldest, scarce any- 

 thing above four years old but its hands were suffi- 

 cient for its own support. Not a beggar to be seen, 

 not an idle person, except here and there in an alms- 

 house, built for those that are ancient and past work- 

 ing. The people in general live long ; they enjoy a 

 good air, and under such circumstances hard labour is 

 naturally attended with the blessing of health, if not 

 riches. The sides of the hills were dotted with 

 houses, hardly a house standing out of a speaking 

 distance from another ; and the land being divided 

 j into small inclosures, every three or four pieces of 

 land had a house belonging to them. . . In the 

 course of our road among the houses we found at 

 every one of them a little rill or gutter of running 



PRESTWICH WITH 

 OLDHAM 



water ; . . . and at every considerable house was a 

 manufactory, which not being able to be carried on 

 without water, these little streams were so parted and 

 guided by gutters and pipes that not one of the houses 

 wanted its necessary appendage of a rivulet. Again, 

 as the dyeing houses, scouring shops, and places where 

 they use this water, emit it tinged with the drugs of 

 the dyeing vat, and with the oil, the soap, the tallow, 

 and other ingredients used by the clothiers in dress- 

 ing and scouring, &c., the lands through which it 

 passes, which otherwise would be exceeding barren, 

 are enriched by it to a degree beyond imagination. 

 Then, as every clothier necessarily keeps one horse at 

 least, to fetch home his wool and his provisions from 

 the market, to carry his yarn to the spinners, his 

 manufacture to the fulling mill, and when finished, to 

 the market to be sold, and the like, so every one 

 generally keeps a cow or two for his family. By this 

 means the small pieces of inclosed land about each 

 house are occupied ; and by being thus fed, are still 

 further improved by the dung of the cattle. As for 

 corn, they scarce grow enough to feed their poultry.' 9 



The assessment for the house duty in 1779 shows 

 only twelve dwellings of 10 rent and upwards. 

 Chamber Hall was rented at j and the curate's house 

 at 6" 



Dr. Aikin in 1793 found Oldham 'pleasantly 

 situated on a high eminence, commanding an exten- 

 sive and delightful prospect.' " 



The modern history of the township is mainly 

 that of the progress of its mining and manufacturing 

 industries, beginning from the early part of the 1 7th 

 century. The great extension of them occurred at 

 the end of the i8th century, on the introduction of 

 machinery ; the growth of the place from a few 

 scattered hamlets to a large well-organized town has 

 since been rapid. The story is told in detail in Edwin 

 Butterworth's Historical Sketches of Oldham Hat- 

 making was formerly an important industry, but de- 

 cayed early last century, after the introduction of the 

 silk hat. 13 Machine-making was introduced about 

 1794. Cotton-mills, however, are the most promi- 

 nent business establishments. The mills in the district 

 are said to consume over a million bales yearly, nearly 

 a third of the cotton used in the kingdom. 



As in most of the unenfranchised towns, the people 

 of Oldham became Radical in politics in the early 

 part of last century, and some movements suspected 

 of sedition found patronage in the town." John Lees, 

 an operative cotton spinner, was one of the victims 

 of the ' Peterloo massacre ' of 1 8 1 9, and the 'Oldham 

 inquest ' which followed was anxiously watched ; the 

 Court of King's Bench, however, decided that the 

 proceedings were irregular, and the jury were dis- 

 charged without giving a verdict. 15 Apart from 

 politics the district was frequently disturbed by bread 

 and labour riots, occasioned by periods of scarcity and 



8 The original line was extended from 

 Werneth to Mumps in 1 847 ; the Oldham 

 and Guide Bridge line was opened in 

 1 86 1 ; the line to Royton and Rochdale 

 in 1863 ; and that to Newton Heath in 

 1880. 



4 Solhher, 1202 ; Solwere, 1275 ; Shol- 

 ver, 1278 ; Sholuere, 1291. 



5 Glothic, 1 21 2; Glotheyk, 1307, 1346; 

 Glodyght, 1474. 



6 Vernet, 1226 (?) ; Wernyth, 1352. 

 8 Subs. R. bdle. 250, no. 9, Lanes. 



' Quoted in E. Butterworth's Oldham 

 (ed. 1856), 99, 100, from the Tour 

 through Gt. Brit. 



10 Oldham Notes and Gleanings, i, 1 90. 



11 Country around Manch. 236. Hats 

 and strong fustians were then the staple 

 manufactures of the place. 



12 Pp. 92 onwards ; a list of the early 

 mills is given, p. 117. An account of the 

 state of trade in 1 846 is printed in Oldham 

 Notes and Gleanings, iii, 74-83. 



13 E. Butterworth, op. cit.izi, 188, 247. 



93 



14 Three Oldham men were sentenced 

 to transportation in 1801 ; ibid. 148. 

 The first public meeting in favour of 

 reform was held on Bent Green in Sept. 

 1816, ibid. 167. John Knight, a local 

 Radical, was several times imprisoned on 

 charges of sedition and treason ; ibid. 



173- 



15 Ibid. 170-2. A full report of the 

 proceedings at the inquest was published 

 by William Hone in 1820. 



