Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion;
A great-sized monster of ingratitudes
(Troilus & Cressida)
In 1756 the whole town contained but one avenue meriting the name of a street. At its eastern extremity stood the church or parochial chapel, grey in years. Still further to the east stood some low, mean-looking cottages, called Goldburn (i.e., the light stream goill implying light) now Church-street; beneath were four habitations termed Holebottom, being on the verge of the valley. Adjacent to the Church was the Nag’s Head, the principal public-house, deriving its main support from the merriment and love of liquor that but too often prevailed even with the attendants at funerals at the church in those good old days, nearly opposite stood a post and patrol mansion belonging to the Greaves family, who still inherit the property (communicated by Mr. Henry Barlow). One of the dwellings of this period still remains; I allude to the house occupied by Mr. Hargreaves, High-street, bottom of Church-lane, in which the timbers are of great strength, indicating its antiquity. Before the recent improvements High-street, the ancient main street, was very narrow and dangerous; the buildings were of stone, dark and dingy. The house formerly occupied by Mr. Ryley, cooper, standing a few years ago, was a capital specimen of the masonry of our ancestors. The stones were massive and unfinished, but their rudeness was partly concealed by whitewash. The White Horse was an irregular, low, but long edifice, with a spacious paved area in front. Crossing the way, the stately Free Grammar School was beheld, in antique dignity, free from adjacent dwellings; opposite was a house, for the master, of commodious and comfortable dimensions, now no longer visible as a distinct fabric, but lost in the ranges of modern habitations. The house inhabited by Mr. Dodge, bookseller, has an air of old-fashioned gentility, derived from its gables, and was once in the occupation of Mr. Brennand. Nearly opposite the present Angel Inn was a neat dwelling of the Rev. Samuel Townson, curate of Oldham. On the site of the Market-place the chief avenue terminated in Water-street; on the left was Thorp-hill, a number of cottages still standing, but scarcely noticeable amongst the present multitude of new locations. A little lower was a cot named the Orchard. Opposite and over some fields, the site of Manchester-street, was Knot Fold, a cluster of lowly abodes now immersed in West-street, then and still commonly termed Bent (i.e., Saxon, a brow), which was at that time a country lane betwixt hedges leading to Bent Hall and to the bleak waste of Northmoor, at the bottom of Water-street (but I suspect there was no such a name in 1756, and I am positive no such a filthy avenue as now bears that appellation), were two detached huts called Nub Cote, standing a little out of the way, then and still called Bardsley Brow, the present George-street.
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This ended in Fog-lane, at that period a farm in the country, the residence of the Radcliffes, whose estate bordered on Bent Hall Meadow. Fog-lane was the entrance of the village from Manchester, not from Ashton-under-Lyne, the road to the latter winding by the edge of Greenacres Moor, through the “antediluvian” lanes of Alt, whence branched a road to Saddleworth and into Yorkshire. There was then little travelling through Oldham to Yorkshire from Manchester, &c., the general route being by Rochdale; there was no Manchester-street or road to Manchester by Werneth or Royton-street, the line of the present road to Rochdale. The space betwixt Henshaw-street and Cheapside was occupied by a collection of cottages called Smithy-fold, the village forge being doubtless near at hand; not far from the Market-place was a small but strong “lock-up” (termed the dungeon) where the few disorderlies and evil doers in those “ages” were confined until examined by the neighbouring magistrates, perhaps the Greggs, of Chamber, the Percevals, of Royton, and the Radcliffes and Hortons, of Chadderton, for there was no petit session. Fronting Smithy-fold stood Roundthorn and Cockhouse-fold, places still extant, dwellings still denoting by their aspect ancient existence. Adjoining was Priest Hill, three plain stone houses, where the village priest formerly “abided”, and where a moor, designated Priest Hill Moor, stretched out its cold arid extent. At the upper extremity of the town, in a snug hollow, just at the point where the old Middleton-road entered Maygate-lane, and the Rochdale-road diverged over the heights of Oldham Edge, was a deserted house bearing the obnoxious epithet “haunted”, and thence named Boggart Hole. Mill End was so named from a primitive cornmill which stood there. Within my own memory there was a stone quarry in front of the Church, and Yorkshire-street was irregular in consequence. In 1787 some few small mills had been built in Oldham, but steam power was unknown. Gin-horses and water wheels were used as motive power. It is interesting to mark the progress of the cotton trade from 1756 to the time when these chronicle begin. The mill system was initiated during this period. The first mills were only on a small scale and were chiefly confined to spinning. Weaving remained as a domestic manufacture for many years after this. The power loom does not appear to have come into general use in Oldham until about 1818 to 1820. The woollen manufacturers as a class had become almost extinct by the year 1770; from that time cotton became the universal material for employment, as Butterworth says, the hand wheels were all thrown into lumber rooms, the yarn was spun on common jennies, and the carding was done on carding engines. Butterworth gives a list of the principal cotton manufacturers in Oldham from 1750 to 1770 as follows: Thomas Kay, School Croft and Dolstile; |
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John Ogden, Northmoor; John Scholes, Greenacres Moor; Samuel Smethurst, Bent; John Lees, Side of Moor; John Hilton, Hathershaw; Joseph Dunkerley, Rhodes’s; James Newton, Oldham; John Smethurst, Bent; Robert Williams Dalton, Bent; John Haigh, Fog-lane; Thomas Winterbottom, Goldburn; John Lees, Mumps; John Wareing, Waterhead Mill; and Michael Rowbottom, Burnley-lane. Cotton spinning must have been carried on by these gentlemen chiefly in large rooms at their own homes, as there does seem to be any record of the existence of a cotton mill in Oldham before 1776. Butterworth also states that from 1776 to 1778, when Arkwright and Hargreaves’ inventions had become fully established six small cotton mills were erected in Oldham township, namely – Water-street, near the present Baptist Chapel in Manchester-street, owned by Mr. James Smethurst, of Goldburn, worked by horse power (gin-horse); Holedbottom, Yorkshire-street, owner, Mr. Joseph Milne, horse power; Wallshaw, Mumps, owner, Mr. James Lees, horse power; Acre Mill, near Pit Bank, water power, owner, Mr. John Lees; Higher Sheepwashes, owner, Mr. John Brierley, water power; and Lees Hall, near North Moor, Mr. William Clegg, water power. The earliest cotton mills in the out-townships were Clough Mill, Chadderton, Mr. Joel Halliwell, water power; Bank Mill, Chadderton, Mr. Thomas Ashton, water power; Top of Fold Mill, Royton, Messrs. John and Edmund Taylor, horse power; Thorp Clough Mill, Royton, Mr. Ralph Taylor, water power; Low Crompton, Messrs. John Milne and John Travis, water power; and Greenfield Mill, Crompton, Messrs, Milne and Newton, horse power. The staple trade at that time was the spinning of cotton yarn for warps and hosiery by means of Dutch wheels – they are described as horizontal wheels, moving from 12 to 20 spindles. The first machine makers were Edmund and Samuel Elson, of Tetlow Fold, North Moor, and, after these, Jonathan Ogden and Heap and Cowper, of Glodwick. From 1778 to 1788 five new mills were built in the township, the total number being 25 in 1788. The manufacture of hats had obtained a firm footing in Oldham long before 1787. Besides the Cleggs, of Bent, who were the principal hatters, we find George Seddon, Fog-lane; Abraham Mills, Tithe Barn Fold; James Nield, Boggart Hole; and others, who carried on hatting in a small way, nor must we overlook the Henshaws of Hargreaves, who became in the long run the principal hatters in the town.
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The first steam engine in Oldham was erected at Messrs. Jones & Co.’s colliery in Broadway-lane, in 1790 to 92, and, in 1794, the first steam engine was erected as the moving power for the cotton mill at Higher Lees Hall for Mr. William Clegg. The 30 years previous to 1787 were evidently years of prosperity and progress in Oldham. In the town or village the number of inhabitants was quadrupled between 1756 and 1788, despite the fact that a number of families engaged in the woollen trade had during that time removed to Bradford, in Wiltshire, for the purpose of continuing their old business. According to Mr. John Higson, late of Lees, the number of spinning factories in Lancashire in 1787 was 42, and, according to E. Butterworth, more than one half of them must have been in Oldham parish, so that it seems Oldham had a good start of the cotton trade, and, in 1887, it still maintains the lead. Most of the entries in the first few books of these chronicles consist of obituary notices. It may seem to some that many of these might have been eliminated from these papers. I can fancy, however, that many who read these chronicles will think differently. No doubt many an Oldham greybeard will be able to point out to his children or grandchildren the name of his grand-father or great-grandfather, and may teach his offspring to remember with pride that they were bred and born in Oldham. By this means some five or six generations will be united together whose lives conjointly extend over the most eventful period in the history of their own beloved native town. I am indebted to the kindness of the directors of the Oldham Lyceum for being allowed to peruse and write out these chronicles, and for that kindness I now tender them my respectful thanks. Since that permission was given I am informed that these memoranda have been presented to the Free Library in Union-street. One can quite see how these chronicles would perplex Edwin Butterworth. He would not like to quote them literally for many reasons. When he was writing his histories the “annalist”, if Rowbottom was he, could not have been long dead, and when Edwin Butterworth issued his edition in 1832, some of the incidents would then, perhaps, be too “fresh” for publication. Moreover, many of them would be too trifling for his notice. At the same time, the careful reader of Edwin Butterworth’s last history cannot fail to detect the source whence he obtained much of his general information. To us some of these annals speak across the century with living voice out of the tumult of discontent and social disorder. They are as milestone marking our progress. They will show many of us the pit whence we were dug. Nor, indeed, speak they alone to us who still remain in this country or as resident citizens of no mean city. |
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William Rowbottom's Diary as published in the Oldham Standard |
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