HISTORY, DIRECTORY, & GAZETTEER, of the COUNTY PALATINE of LANCASTER in TWO VOLUMES |
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OLDHAM is a township and parochial chapelry, (connected with Prestwich,) in the Hundred of Salford, in the Deanery of Manchester, and in the Archdeaconry of Chester, 7 miles S.S.E. of Rochdale, 7 miles N.E. of Manchester, 17 miles S.W. of Huddersfield, and 190 miles from London. The three townships of Chadderton, Crompton, and Royton, are within this chapelry; and the following are the returns of the number of inhabitants in each township respectively, in 1801, 1811, and 1821, with the estimated annual value of the lands, messuages, and other buildings in each.
Of the 6982 families in this chapelry, 215 of them are employed chiefly in agriculture, and 6667 in trade, manufactures, or handicraft, and the remaining 100 are either engaged in professional pursuits or unemployed. Oldham is strictly within the parish of Prestwich, but the descendant has so much outgrown the parent, that the chapelry has begun to take precedency of the parish, and though in the population returns published by the authority of parliament, in 1811, the term "Prestwich-cum-Oldham," is applied to this parish; yet, in the succeeding return of 1821, the words are reversed, and they stand "Oldham-cum-Prestwich," but the inhabitants of Oldham, and of the other townships in the chapelry, still marry at Prestwich church, and the rector of Prestwich, in virtue of his office, holds the patronage of the living of Oldham. With some degree of subordination, there is, however, much of independence in the church of Oldham. The townships of Oldham, Chadderton, Crompton, and Royton, support Oldham church by a rate, without contributing in any way towards the church of Prestwich, and the inhabitants of these townships have the rites of sepulture and baptism at Oldham church only. The register books of Oldham and Prestwich are quite distinct and unconnected, and each place has its separate churchwardens. Growing, as this extensive chapelry is, in wealth and in importance, and containing, as it does, a population of 40,000 souls at least, the greater part of whom are at a distance of eight miles from the parish church of Prestwich, it was hoped and expected, when Earl Grosvenor purchased the advowson of that living some years ago, that he would have erected Oldham into a separate parish, under the authority of parliament, after the example of Chorley and several other places in this county, where
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