OLDHAM-cum-PRESTWICH, a chapelry (parochial),
in the hundred of SALFORD, county palatine of LANCASTER,
comprising the chapelries of Ghadderton and Royton,
and the townships of Crompton and Oldham, and
containing 38,201 inhabitants, of which number, 21,662
are in the township of Oldham, 7 miles (N. B. by E.) from
Manchester. This place, the name of which appears
to indicate some degree either of absolute or of relative
antiquity, is not connected with any event of historical
importance, and has only within the last fifty years
risen into notice from the rapid progress of its manufactures,
for which it is indebted to its vicinity to Manchester,
and to the mines of excellent coal which
abound in the neighbourhood. The town is situated on
elevated ground, near the source of the river Irk, and
is bounded on the east by a branch of the Medlock,
The houses are irregularly built, but, since the extension
of its manufactures, the town has been very much enlarged,
and is undergoing considerable improvement.
It was first lighted with gas on March 1st, 1827, the
works, situated at the bottom of Greaves-street, having
been erected by a company incorporated in 1825, at an
expense, including the laying of the mains, &c., of
"£20,000: it is supplied with water conveyed by iron pipes
from a reservoir covering about twelve acres of ground,
in Strines-dale, about two miles and a half east of the
town, partly in Lancashire and partly in Yorkshire, the
whole .having been constructed at an expense of £28,000:
it is only partially paved. The affairs of the town are
regulated by commissioners appointed under a police
act obtained in 1828, which also provides for the erection
of a town hall and other offices. A subscription
library has been established. Oldham has for a long
period been celebrated for the manufacture of hats,
which was established so early as the fifteenth century,
and is still carried on to a considerable extent; but the
principal manufactures are fustians, velveteens, cotton
and woollen corduroys, and the spinning of cotton,
for which there are now about seventy-five mills in
full operation, for the most part worked by steam, and
not less than one hundred and fifty steam-engines employed
in the other different factories and in the mines.
A great quantity of the coal obtained in the neighbourhood
is sent to Manchester, where it obtains a ready
market, at a superior price; the mines are exceedingly
productive, and afford employment to a considerable
number of persons. The trade of the town is greatly
facilitated by the Oldham canal, constructed in pursuance
of an act of parliament obtained in 1792, which
commences at Hollinwood, and forms a direct communication
with Manchester, the grand mart for the sale
of its manufactures, and with Ashton under Line and
Stockport, and the Rochdale canal, which passes through
the township of Chadderton. A railway has been projected
from Oldham to Manchester, but not yet carried
into effect. A customary market for provisions is
held on Saturday; and fairs are held on the first
Thursday after Candlemas-day, May 2nd, July 8th, and
the first Wednesday after October 12th, for horses, cattle,
sheep, and pedlary. Petty sessions for the Middleton
division of the hundred of Salford are held here
once a fortnight.
The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Chester, endowed with £400 royal
bounty, and £1200 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage
of the Rector of Prestwich. The ancient chapel,,
dedicated to St. Mary, erected in 1476, by " Sir Ralph
Langley, priest of Prestwich," and third warden of
Manchester college, was taken down and rebuilt on a
larger scale, the first stone having been laid on the 16th
of October, 1827, and the expense estimated at upwards
of £12,000; the present edifice, dedicated to St. Paul,
is in the later style of English architecture, with a hand-
some embattled tower surmounted by angular turrets
and pinnacles. St. Peter's chapel was built by subscription
in 1765, and enlarged in 1804; the living is a
perpetual curacy, endowed with £2200 parliamentary
grant, and in the patronage of the Rector of Prestwich.
The church dedicated to St. James, erected in 1829,
by grant from the parliamentary commissioners, at an expense
of £8905.16. 6., is a neat edifice in the later style
of English architecture, with a tower and campanile turret,
and contains two thousand and eighty-one sittings,
of which one thousand two hundred and eighty-five are
free; the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage
of the Incumbent of Oldham; this church is situated
about a quarter of a mile east of the town, where a
subscription library and news-room has been established.
Near Chadderton Hall, within the township of
Oldham, is an episcopal chapel,, built in 1765; and there
are two other chapels of ease at Crompton and Rpyton.
There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of
Friends, Independents, Kilhamitcs, Moravians j Primitive,
Wesleyan, and Independent,Methodists; and Unitarians.
The free grammar school was founded, in 1611, by James
Assheton, Esq., of Chadderton Hall, who endowed it
with an acre of land in the town, which has been let for
building, and the endowment was augmented by the
bequest of £3 per annum from Mr. Thomas Nuttall, in
1726; the whole income is about £35 per annum, and
the school is free to all boys of the town for instruction
in the classics, a quarterly sum being paid for writing
and arithmetic, and six boys are taught English on Mr.
Nuttall's foundation. In 1747, Samuel Scoles gave £16
per annum, for which thirty-nine poor children of the
township of Oldham are instructed at three different
schools. A school was founded by subscription in the
hamlet of Hollingwood, in this parish, in 1786, with an
endowment of £8 per annum, chiefly from a bequest
by the Rev. John Darbey in 1808, and £7 per annum
from another benefaction, for which twenty children are
instructed. Thomas Henshaw, Esq., by "will dated the
14th November 1807, gave the sum of £20,000 for the
endowment of a Blue.coat school at Oldham, and a like
sum for an asylum for the blind at Manchester, and
subsequently added a codicil by which he gave the farther
sum of £20,000, for the endowment of the school,
with liberty to his trustees to establish it either at Oldham
or Manchester on condition that persons at either
place would provide a site and suitable buildings for the
institution in this town, the trustees determined, upon
establishing the school here. The testator having died
in 1810, a bill was filed in the Court of Chancery by
his heirs, praying that the will might be set aside, but
a decree was ultimately obtained by the trustees in
favour of the charity. In consequence of the delay
occasioned by this suit, on the part of the inhabitants
of Oldham and Manchester, on providing land
and building, the sum bequeathed has accumulated to
-nearly £100,000; and three acres of land having been
given for that purpose by R. Radcliffe and Joseph
Jones, Esquires, the first stone of a commodious and substantial
edifice in the English style of architecture, for
the use "of this school, was laid at Oldham-Edge, in April
1829, and the building completed at. an expense of about
£ 8000, defrayed by subscription. There are other benefactions
for the education of boys and girls. A benevolent,
or medical charity, for the relief of the poor, was
established in 1814; and there is also a humane society.
Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, and Mr. Thomas Hen.*
shaw, an opulent hat-manufacturer, whose munificent
charitable endowments are noticed here and in Manchester,
were both natives of this town.