The great consumption of coal which ensued as the inevitable consequence of the introduction of the steam engine as the moving power of cotton mills, served to develope the mineral resources of the district, and stimulated the colliery proprietors to extraordinary activity, in working the mines to the fullest extent and upon the most efficient plan of which they were capable. Messrs. James Lees and Joseph Jones proved more than equal to the energy and enterprise required in such spirit-stirring times; and Mr. Edward Evans, sen., of Edge lane, son of Mr. John Evans, of Oldham edge, rendered himself, by his own unaided efforts, not only an extensive colliery proprietor, but skilfully practical in the engineering of mines.

Oldham had by this time (1796) become comparatively a large village, and yet it continued to be surrounded by extensive moors, or unenclosed commons. The formation of two excellent turnpike roads, one to Manchester and the other to Saddleworth, uniting with the road thence to Huddersfield, had placed the village on one of the great lines of communication from Lancashire to Yorkshire, and this route being nearer and more direct from Manchester to Leeds than the ancient course by Rochdale, or the more recent one by Ashton-under-Lyne, the number of carriages and travellers passing through Oldham, both by day and night, was already large, and daily increasing. The communications to Rochdale on the north, and Ashton-under-Lyne on the south, were about to be greatly improved, and the place was rendering available to the utmost its local resources, as well as deriving considerable improvement from its extended intercourse with other communities. The Manchester and Huddersfield new road passing the entire length of the village, became the principal street, casting into the rear the ancient road from Rochdale to Ashton-under-Lyne; the new road to Rochdale afterwards formed a new street, and the new road to Ashton became another; the houses ranging along the lane

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