Chadderton

Chadderton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies along the course of the River Irk and the Rochdale Canal, on undulating land in the foothills of the Pennines. The name is believed to date from the 7th century when Angles colonised the region following the Battle of Chester. A late-19th-century factory-building boom transformed the town into a major mill town.

About Chadderton in brief

Summary ChaddertonChadderton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies along the course of the River Irk and the Rochdale Canal, on undulating land in the foothills of the Pennines. Historically part of Lancashire, Chadderton’s early history is marked by its status as a manorial township, with its own line of lords and overlords. A late-19th-century factory-building boom transformed the town into a major mill town, and the second most populous urban district in the UK. More than 50 cotton mills had been built in the town by 1914. The town continued to grow as a result of suburbanisation and urban renewal in the mid-20th century, with many of its red-brick cotton mills now used as warehouses or distribution centres. The first known written record of the name Chadderton is in a legal document relating to land tenure, in about 1220. It is believed to date from the 7th century when Angles colonised the region following the Battle of Chester. It has been suggested that the Anglian settlers found a few Brythonic Celts already inhabiting what is now called Chaddleton, and borrowed their name for the hill, adding their own word for a settlement to the end. Archaic spellings include Chaderthon, Chaderton, Chaterton and Chatherton. The name is not recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086.

Its first appearance in a written record is in the legal document from around 1220, which states that Robert, Rector of Prestwich, gave land to Richard, son of Gilbert, in exchange for an annual fee of one silver penny. Following the Norman conquest, Ch Adderton was made a constituent manor of the wider Royal Estate of Tottington, an extensive fee held by the Norman overlord, Roger de Montbegon. In about 1235, the sub-manor of Chaddor and Foxdenton passed from Richard de Trafford of Clitheroe to Geoffrey de Trafford, who adopted the surname of Ch adderton. Throughout the Middle Ages, the manor constituted a township, centred on the banks of the river Irk, on the fold of the Chaddersand Fold, known as Chadder Fold. The manor consisted of a cluster of institutions, including Cockersand Abbey and the Knights of Hospitaller, and this lent the township a strong local character. It passed to the Barons Lacy of Lacye and then onto local families, before passing to the De Trafford family in the High Middle Ages. Relics found at a tumulus in the Early Middle Ages date from the early period of Anglo-Saxon England, probably from the early year of the period. The local road name Streetbridge suggests that the Romans once marched along it on a path which may have led to Blackstone Edge.