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ADMINISTRATION:
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The
Town & Borough of Oldham
In the Greater Manchester Metropolitan County
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St George's Square
and the
Spindles Shopping Centre
The outdoor market
Tommyfield Market
Photos by John Moss
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Contemporary
Oldham
Oldham has
outgrown many of the less fortunate stereotypes of its past. It
is a thoroughly modern and pleasant town, with a great deal of
modern refurbishment in evidence, as well as many examples of
fine civic architecture from the past.
The impressive modern Civic Centre complex has housed most of
the local government's offices since its completion in 1977. Its
dominating tower stands over 200 feet high and was built at a
cost of £6,800,000. Much of its town centre has been made into
traffic-free pedestrian zones, where entertainments and children's
carousels abound. It appears prosperous and thriving, and its
people offer a warm welcome to visitors. Its former hilltop isolation
has been replaced by a fast and effective transport infrastructure,
with the M62 motorway accessing its doorstep, and regular and
plentiful buses and trains connecting it to Manchester and other
neighbouring towns.
Although cotton mills and coal mines have all but disappeared
nowadays, it still retains vestiges of its old Hatting Industry,
and it was in Oldham that the hat worn by Harrison Ford in the
"Indiana Jones" films was made. Town Square has a major bus interchange
with destinations all over Greater Manchester and beyond.
Within a few miles of its busy centre lies open countryside, and
the hills of the Pennines surround it like a girdle. Within the
town are places of retreat, with pedestrian squares like George's
Square offering a green oasis where shoppers and workers may relax
from business amongst well maintained gardens and modern sculptures.
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Shopping
in Oldham
Shopping
in Oldham is facilitated by 3 large shopping complexes - The
Spindles Centre, the Town Square Shopping Centre, and the Tommyfield
Market Hall. The Spindles is hailed as a state of the art shopping
centre, and is prominent in both its size and location in the
heart of the town. As well as over 40 retail shops, banks and
cafés, it includes a 250 seat open food court, all situated
beneath one of Europe's largest stained glass roofs which were
designed by local artist Brian Clarke and depicts the life and
times of one of Oldham's famous sons, the composer Sir William
Walton, who was born in Oldham in 1902. Oldham's Town Square
Shopping Centre is also centrally located, and offers a complex
arrangement of covered malls and clean and spacious shopping
facilities under one roof. Tommyfield Market is claimed to be
the largest indoor permanent market in England, and with its
over 300 traders it might well be, as stalls spread outside
into the market grounds, and every kind of produce and artefact
can be bought here. Its strange name derives from "Tommy's Field",
it having formerly been a meadow which local pig-breeder Tommy
Whittaker rented from local farmer, Sir Nathanial Curzon.
In the past Tommyfield has been the cultural heart of Oldham,
with its once-famous fairs and side-shows, circuses and political
rallies.
Oldham's
Tourist Information Centre is situated inside the Tommyfield
Market Hall. Telephone : 0161-627 1024.
The town
also boasts Oldham College, a renowned local higher educational
establishment, a local orchestra, major theatrical venues like
the Oldham Coliseum and the Grange Arts Centre, and Oldham Athletic
Football Club (known locally as "'latics"). Beyond the town
centre, the borough offers several parks for the visitor.
Saddleworth on the boroughs south-eastern border offers a wild
landscape which extends into the Peak District National Park.
It also is the home of the Saddleworth Museum where visitors
may take afternoon leisure cruises on the local canal. The Medlock
Valley between Ashton-under-Lyne and Oldham provides another
rich natural environment with a network of footpaths and bridleways,
as well as parks and golf courses.
The town has a number of minority ethnic communities, including
Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Ukrainian, Chinese, Indian and Afro-Caribbean.
These communities offer a wide range of cultural experiences
and arts groups as well as excellent restaurants. Among its
other celebrities are numbered the opera singer Dame Eva Turner,
who was born in the town in 1892, the English Cricket Captain
Mike Atherton, and the England Football Team Captain David Platt.
Sports and the arts are well represented in the town, with a
large new Sports Centre, an Art Gallery and town Museum.
Part of Oldham's most recent cultural enterprise has been to
set modern sculptures made by local artists throughout the town
centre. These figure in the Oldham Town Trail, a circular walking
route around the town centre which takes in most of the sites
of interest and importance. A leaflet outlining the Trail is
available from the Tourist Information Centre in Tommyfield
Market.
The
Arms of Oldham
Armorial
Bearings
"Sable, a chevron invected plain and cottised Or between three
owls argent; on a chief engrailed of the second a rose Gules,
barbed and seeded proper, between two annulets also Gules. On
a wreath of the colours, in front of a rock thereon an owl argent,
three roses fessewise Gules, barbed and seeded proper."
Explanation
and description of the Arms
Shield : white and gold with an inverted gold (Or) chevron,
plain and fancy, separating three owls. On the top (Chief) white
(Argent) section a full red rose of Lancashire and on either
side a red ring (Annulet). Crest : An owl standing on a rock
above three Lancashire Roses and a multicoloured wreath. Motto
: "Sapere Aude". (meaning: Dare to be Wise). The arms are largely
based on those of Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter and local philanthropist
who founded the Manchester Grammar School. His arms carried
the Owl with the letters "D.O.M." issuing from the beak on a
scroll - a visual pun "Owl-dom", for the town name as it is
pronounced in local dialect. This device is still in current
use by boys of Manchester Grammar School today, and features
in its simplest form on their blazer pocket badges and school
ties. The rock on which the crest owl stands is thought to represent
Oldham's high geographical setting on the edge of the Pennine
Hills.
Oldham
Districts
The Metropolitan
Borough is named after its largest town, Oldham, but also includes
the outlying towns of Chadderton, Failsworth, Royton and Shaw
and Crompton, the village of Lees and the parish of Saddleworth.
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