1808, will form a subject of notice in the account of the Blue Coat School.

Mr. James Allen, partner with Mr. George Nelson, in the batting manufactory in Bow street, Oldham, about 1800-1804, was the uncle of the late Dr. Allen, bishop of Ely, elder brother of William Allen, Esq., banker of Manchester, and father of the Rev. John Taylor Allen, rector of Alresford, Essex, a relative of Messrs. Taylors, of Hargreaves, Oldham. Mr. George Nelson was father of Messrs. J.R. and H. Nelson, of Waterloo, Oldham, hat manufacturers.

The increasing value imparted to land in this part of the country by manufactures, led in 1801 to steps being taken by several of the principal inhabitants, for the purpose of effecting the enclosure of the six large commons of Greenacres moor, North moor, Higher moor, Lower moor, Sarah moor, and Hollinwood moor, comprising altogether upwards of 200 acres. An act of parliament was accordingly passed in 1802-1803, empowering certain commissioners to divide, allot, and enclose the commons. The commissioners proceeded with due expedition to the discharge of their duty, and in 1807, the waste lands of the township had been all effectually parcelled out amongst the adjacent land owners and occupiers. These proceedings were not popular amongst the body of the people, for the rights of unrestrained pasturage for cattle and fowl, and the advantages of the moors as places of recreation and exercise, had rendered them spots deeply endeared to successive generations. Hollinwood moor was divided amongst thirty-nine allottees, Greenacres moor twenty-nine, North moor twenty-three, and Sarah moor nineteen. Nine years previous to its enclosure, Greenacres moor had become a village of moderate extent, for many houses had been built on various parts of the heath, entirely in consequence of the prosperity attending the early career of the cotton manufacture.

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