Royton

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Royton
Royton Town Hall
Royton shown within Greater Manchester
Population	20,961 (2001 Census)
OS grid reference	SD919078
- London	165 miles (267 km) SSE
Metropolitan borough	Oldham
Metropolitan county	Greater Manchester
Region	North West
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	OLDHAM
Postcode district	OL2
Dialling code	0161, 01706
Police	Greater Manchester
Fire	Greater Manchester
Ambulance	North West
European Parliament	North West England
UK Parliament	Oldham West and Royton
List of places: UK • England • Greater Manchester

Coordinates: 53°33′58″N 2°07′16″W / 53.566, -2.121

Royton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham,^[1] in Greater Manchester, England.^[1][2] It is around 7.6 miles (12.3 km) to the northeast of the city of Manchester, 1.7 miles (2.7 km) north-northwest of Oldham and 3.2 miles (5.1 km) south-southeast of Rochdale.

Historically a part of Lancashire, it has been remarked that Royton has the distinction of being the world's first town where a cotton mill was built; at Thorp in 1764.^[3][4] It was also the town where the United Kingdom's last mill Elk hailed as the most modern in the world was built in 1926, but demolished in 1999.^[5]

Today Royton is a predominantly residential town with a total population of 20,961.

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

The University of Nottingham's Institute for Name-Studies has offered the suggestion that the name Royton means "Rye farm or settlement".^[6] The first written record of the name Ryeton (or Ryton) was in a survey of 1212.^[7]

Evidence of Stone Age dwellers exists, as does evidence of Romans and later Norsemen, some of whom settled at Thorp.^[8]

[edit] Industrial Revolution and cotton

Royton was a significant element of the local cotton spinning industry with 30 mills in production at its zenith.^[9]

By 1901, cotton manufacture still remained Royton's chief industry.^[10]

[edit] Governance

[edit] Civic history

Royton was once a township within the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham, in Salfordshire.^[11]

In 1871 Royton was noted as a large village-chapelry, and a sub-district of the Oldham registration district.^[12]

From 1894 to 1974, Royton formed its own Royton Urban District local government unit within the administrative county of Lancashire.^[13]

With the coming of local government reforms in 1974, the town's independent Urban District status was abolished, and Royton has since formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, within Greater Manchester,^[1][14] and remained part of the County Palatine of Lancaster^[15] which was unaffected by the 1974 boundary changes^[16]),

[edit] Parliamentary representation

From 1918 to 1950, Royton formed its own Royton Parliamentary constituency.

Royton has formed part of the Oldham West and Royton parliamentary constituency and since 1997, is represented in the House of Commons by Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Michael Meacher. Royton has two of the twenty wards of the wider Oldham Borough: Royton North and Royton South.

[edit] Geography

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, highlighting Royton in red.

It has been documented that Royton has a good community spirit and relative prosperity, which, in turn have made it a popular residential area^[17] having some of the highest house prices around Oldham - with some properties valued at over £500,000.

Divisions and suburbs of Royton include Thornham, Haggate, Holden Fold, Heyside, Thorp, Oozewood, Salmon Fields, Long Sight, Higginshaw and Stott Field.

[edit] Landmarks

Royton War Memorial.

[edit] War memorial

The Royton War Memorial is found at the summit of Tandle Hill, and is dedicated to the men of Royton who gave their lives during the First World War. It is an obelisk that had a sculpture of winged victory on it.

Commissioned by the Royton War Memorial Committee and unveiled on October 22, 1921, by the Earl of Derby. Originally the memorial, which is constructed from Portland stone, bore plaques listing the fallen and a bronze statue of an angel. The original plaques were stolen in 1969, and replacements were later installed in the grounds of St Paul’s Church, Royton.^[18]

[edit] Library

Royton's library was donated by Andrew Carnegie in 1911.^[19]

[edit] Town hall

Adjacent to the library and undoubtedly the focus of Royton is the town hall, with its clock tower, which is topped by a copper cupola. The tower has an unusual feature in that the clock on the east face is noticeably smaller than the other three. Local legend has it that civic rivalry with neighbouring Shaw and Crompton led to the reduced size of the east face, though topography strongly suggests that people in the more populous areas of Shaw would in any case be unable to see the clock tower. Three inscriptions are to be found on the tower:‘Tempus Fugit’ (time flies), ‘Sic Labitur Aetas’ (so the years pass by) and ‘Finem Respice’ (have regard to the end).

[edit] Education

Royton has two secondary schools; Our Lady's R.C. High School and Royton and Crompton School. Royton also has several primary schools. Including Thorp Primary School, situated on Thorp Estate and S.s. Aidan and Oswalds Primary.

[edit] Community facilities

Royton boasts a swimming pool, an amateur cricket club, which plays in the Central Lancashire League (winning it on two occasions in 1914 and 1980),^[20] and Oldham Athletic Football Club's ground lies partly within Royton; Boundary Park lies at the meeting point of Royton and Chadderton, hence the name.

[edit] Politics

Royton has formed part of the Oldham West and Royton parliamentary constituency and since 1997 is represented in the House of Commons by Labour MP Michael Meacher. Royton has two of the twenty wards of the wider Oldham Borough; Royton North and Royton South.

In the 2005 general election, the constituency of Oldham West and Royton was held by the Labour candidate, Michael Meacher MP, who received almost 50% of all votes. The Conservatives came second with 21.3% followed by the Liberal Democrats (20%), the British National Party (6.9%) and the United Kingdom Independence Party with 2.6%.^[21]

In the 2006 local elections, Labour won in Royton North and the Liberal Democrats won in Royton South. Across the two wards, Labour polled 2190 votes; the BNP 1536 votes; the Liberal Democrats 1483 votes; and the Conservatives 1453 votes.^[22] The BNP began contesting elections in Royton after major race riots in neighbouring Oldham in 2001, and has since shown to be amongst Labour's main local opposition in the two wards. However, the BNP have not won a seat to represent Royton or any part of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in the House of Commons or as part of the Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council.

[edit] Transport

Royton is easily accessed on the roads, with the A671 linking Rochdale and Oldham and the A627(M), just outside the centre of Royton, which links with the M62 motorway at Junction 20.

There are frequent buses running through Royton towards Rochdale and towards Oldham and Ashton-under-Lyne on First Manchester's 409 service. There is also frequent services running towards Manchester with services 24, 181 and 182 plus the 20 which runs at peak times. Other destinations which can be reached from Royton are Chadderton, Middleton, Shaw and Stalybridge. The bus services in Royton are:

There is currently no train station in Royton. There used to be a train station in the town with the line running towards the main Oldham Loop Line where the line joined up just north at Derker. Nowadays, the nearest train stations to Royton (depending on whereabouts in Royton you are) are Shaw and Crompton, Derker, Oldham Mumps, Oldham Werneth railway station and Mills Hill, which are all within a 3-mile radius of Royton centre.

[edit] Notable people

Local celebrities from the Royton area include glamour model Michelle Marsh, football manager Les Chapman^{[citation needed]}, and the Oscar nominated Oliver! actor, Jack Wild.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• www.eroyton.co.uk, a community forum for Royton.