A tank was given to Shaw

Description of the area

The township of Crompton (midway between Oldham and Rochdale) has an extreme length of about 3 miles from east to west, with a breadth of a 1½ miles. The River Beal runs northward through a central valley; to the east the ground, broken by one or two cloughs, rises continually until 1,300ft. (398m) is attained on Crompton Moor on the border of Yorkshire; while on the west the highest points near High Crompton and Whitfield, which are separated by a valley, rise to 700 and 825ft (220m); from them the surface slopes away in all directions, but most rapidly to the north. The Irk rises on the boundary between Crompton and Royton. The area is 2 864 acres.

Crompton was never granted manorial status but was made up of a collection of estates, owned by absentee landlords. It consisted of large areas of forest, moor land and swamp,upon which were a collection of small hamlets and farms. Between 1480 and 1500 people were making references in their wills to wool working equipment such as spinning wheels, cards and combs some of which were capable of producing large amounts of cloth. In 1524 the local coal seams first recorded when Richard Wild paid rent of 16d (denary=pennies) to dig coal. In later years this may have encouraged the advent of steam machines in the cotton mills. By 1782 water wheels were being used to produce woollen cloth and small factories, not much bigger than the surrounding cottages, began to spring up. The area had a population of 2 500. Seven year later ten ‘factories’ were recorded. In the early 19th century manufacturing changed from wool to cotton and this was followed by a rapid development of the industry.

One hamlet, Shaw, was later to become the most important. 

In 1974 Crompton became part of Oldham Metropolitan Borough and administrative control passed from Crompton Urban District Council to the new Borough Council. Some degree of local autonomy was returned in 1987 when Crompton was granted Parish Council Status.

A modern map locating the remaining Crompton names

Books written about Shaw and Crompton

Changing Face of Crompton by Frances Stott

Shaw & Crompton 1907: Lancashire Sheet 89.14 (Old Ordnance Survey Maps of Lancashire) Map – Folded Map, 31 Mar 2014

A chronicle of Crompton Unknown Binding – by Elsie Ballard

A History of Crompton and Shaw Pubs Paperback – 1 Nov 1988 by Rob Magee (Author)

Famous people from Shaw.

Philip Gilbert Hamerton, an acclaimed etcher, painter, and art critic was born in the area in 1834.
The town is the home of Oldham-born actress Shobna Gulati, former Oldham Athletic player and manager Andy Ritchie and is the hometown of Kevin O'Toole, a founding member of dance act N-Trance. 
Bobby Ball lived in Shaw.

Other famous people from Shaw include:
Jodie Connor - recording artist, lyricist, fashion model and goodwill ambassador for The Prince's Trust.

Eric Longworth - Shaw-born actor, best known for his semi-regular part in sitcom Dad's Army, as the town clerk of Walmington-on-Sea

I'm sure there are many more..If you know of any please send me a message using the comment box top right of the blog :)

Did you know?

1/ Until the Industrial Revolution SHAW was sparsely populated and consisted of woods, moors and bogs. The local economy depended on sheep for woollen manufacture with small coal pits for fuel and stone quarries for building materials. 
To encourage wool production a law existed between 1675 and 1816 requiring all bodies to be buried in woollen garments.

2/ During the Industrial revolution (between the years 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840) people from Shaw and Crompton used to be referred to as Shaytonians or Cromptonians. ('Shay' being the then pronunciation of 'Shaw')

This is where the name of the 'Shay Wake' pub originates from...
All the Cotton Mills and businesses in Shaw would shut for a fortnight and the town would be like a ghost town..This is when residents of Shaw would go away on holiday. 

That holiday period was originally known as "The Shay Wakes" and later became known as 'Oldham Wakes' in the 20th Century.

3/ Following a building boom during the 1860s–1870s, Shaw and Crompton became a mill town, dominated by large rectangular brick-built cotton mills.
The manufacture of textiles in Shaw and Crompton can be traced back to 1474, when a lease dated from that year outlines that the occupant of Crompton Park had spinning wheels, cards and looms, all of which suggest that cloth was being produced in large quantities.
Prior to industrialisation the majority of land was used for grazing sheep, which provided the raw material for a local woollen weaving trade. 
Most families were involved with small scale pasture in some way, but they supplemented their incomes by weaving woollens in the domestic system, and selling cloth and linen.
By the Early Modern period the inhabitants of Shaw and Crompton were relatively wealthy.
The most affluent were those involved in cloth and linen, and their wealth was comparable to that of the merchants of Manchester and Salford.

4/ Shaw was originally a sub-district of Crompton. However, due to Shaw's urbanisation following the construction of a major road from Werneth to Littleborough, and the establishment of a post office sub-district named and situated in Shaw, it came to dominate Crompton.
The names merged to form the present day Shaw and Crompton, which boundary markers have used since at least the 1950s.

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