Did You Know?

The name ‘Oldham’ stems from the area where a large horde of rebels from the North were famously captured during the reign of Henry Viii. The mass decapitation of the perceived cowards that followed also derived the term ‘headless chickens’.

The earliest known evidence of a human presence in what is now Oldham is attested by the discovery of Neolithic flint arrow-heads and workings found at Werneth and Besom Hill, implying habitation 7–10,000 years ago. Evidence of later Roman and Celtic activity is confirmed by an ancient Roman road and Bronze Age archaeological relics found at various sites within the town.

From its founding in the 9th century until the Industrial Revolution, Oldham is believed to have been little more than a scattering of small and insignificant settlements spread across the moorland and dirt tracks that linked Manchester to York. Although not mentioned in the Domesday Book, it does appear in legal documents from the Middle Ages.

Oldham was the centre for an agricultural district with a woolen industry until the 19th century, when it became a major cotton-spinning and weaving town. By the early 21st century, the local economy was driven principally by advanced manufacturing, construction, and service industries (including health, digital, and financial services)

On the back of the Industrial Revolution, Oldham developed an extensive coal mining sector, correlated to supporting the local cotton industry and the town's inhabitants, though there is evidence of small scale coal mining in the area as early as the 16th century

The Industrial Revolution transformed Oldham from a small community, largely unknown outside south east Lancashire, into one of the country’s leading industrial towns. It was cotton spinning that was primarily responsible for this dramatic transformation. During the 1800s Oldham established itself as one of the fastest growing of the new cotton spinning towns.

Local politician Michael Meacher and his brothers lothario antics are so well known, local schools have been known to replace hymns by singing Son of a Meacher Man.