Royton

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Royton
Lancashire
Royton Town Hall 1.jpg
Royton Town Hall
Location
Grid reference: SD919078
Location: 53°33’58"N, 2°7’16"W
Data
Population: 21,284  (2011)
Post town: Oldham
Postcode: OL2
Dialling code: 0161, 01706
Local Government
Council: Oldham
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Oldham West and Royton

Royton is a town in south-eastern Lancashire, close to the source of the River Irk, near undulating land at the foothills of the South Pennines. It is just a mile and a half north of Oldham and three miles south of Rochdale. The Yorkshire border is a mile or so to the east.

During the Middle Ages, Royton was a small township centred on Royton Hall, a manor house owned by a long succession of great families which included the Byrons and Radcliffes. A settlement expanded outwards from the hall which, by as late as 1780, "contained only a few straggling and mean-built cottages".[1] Farming was the main industry of this rural area, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system.

Royton has the distinction of being the first town where a powered cotton mill was built; at Thorp in 1764,[2] and is one of the first localities in the world to have adopted the factory system. The introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution facilitated a process of unplanned urbanisation in the area, and by the mid-19th century Royton had emerged as a mill town. At its zenith, there were 40 cotton mills—some of the largest in the United Kingdom—employing 80% of the local population.[3] Imports of foreign cotton goods began the decline in Royton's textile industry during the mid-20th century, and its last mill closed in 1998.

Today, fewer than a dozen mills are still standing, the majority of which are used for light engineering or as distribution centres.[4] Despite an economic depression brought about by the demise of cotton spinning, Royton's population has continued to grow as a result of intensive housing redevelopment which has modernised its former Edwardian districts.[4]

Name

The name 'Royton' is Old English in origin, and it has been suggested that the Rye crop is the root of the name;[5] Thus 'Royton' means "rye farmstead".

The first known written record of the name Ryeton (or Ryton) was in a survey of Lancashire in 1212.[2]

History

Early history

There is evidence of Stone Age human activity in the area, by way of a Neolithic stone axe found at Royton Park. The remains of a Roman or Early Mediæval bloomery was discovered in 1836.[6]

The village is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086; Royton does not appear in records until 1212, when it was documented to have been a thegnage estate, or manor, comprising twelve oxgangs of land, with an annual rate of 24 shillings payable by the tenant, William Fitz William, to the King.[1] From William, who died in 1223, Royton passed to his son Thomas, who was still alive in 1254. Thomas's daughter Margery, who married Alexander Luttrell of Somerset, sold the majority of Royton and its outlying land to John de Byron in around 1260. It is from this exchange that the Byron family came to use Royton as their chief place of residence until the early part of the 17th century.[1]

Royton Hall

The early history of Royton is linked closely with what was then its manor house, Royton Hall, which was inhabited by the Byron family for over 350 years.[7] During that period the Byrons' involvement in regional and national affairs added prestige to what was otherwise an obscure and rural township.[7] John de Byron was a witness to the charter of incorporation of 1301, which elevated the township of Manchester to the status of a borough.[7] A descendant of John – also John Byron – served as Sheriff of Lancashire in 1572, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I in 1579.[7] John served as Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire at the time of the Spanish Armada, and sourced infantry from Royton towards the English military.[7] His son, also called John, fought during the Civil War on the side of the Cavaliers. His actions led to making him 1st Baron Byron of Rochdale, a peerage granted by King Charles I.[7] Following the capture and beheading of King Charles, and the rise of Cromwellian England, Baron Byron's possessions, including his lands in Royton, were confiscated.[7] Royton Hall was then purchased by Thomas Percival, a wealthy linen manufacturer whose descendants continued to occupy the hall until around 1814.[7] The hall was then inherited by the Radcliffe Baronets.[8]

Textiles and the Industrial Revolution

Apart from the dignitaries who lived in Royton Hall, the population of Royton during the Middle Ages comprised a small community of retainers and farmers, most of whom were involved with pasture, but supplemented their incomes by weaving woollens in the domestic system.[9] The area was thinly populated and consisted of several hamlets, including Thorp, Heyside and Royton village itself as the nucleus. During the Early Modern period, the weavers of Royton had been using spinning wheels in makeshift weavers' cottages, but as both the demand for cotton goods increased and the technology of cotton-spinning machinery improved during the early-18th century, the need for larger structures to house bigger, better and more efficient equipment became apparent. The construction of a water powered cotton mill by Ralph Taylor at Thorp Clough in 1764, is said to be the first structure of its kind.[2][10] The construction of more mills followed, which initiated a process of urbanisation and socioeconomic transformation in the region; the population moved away from farming, adopting employment in the factory system.[9] The introduction of the factory system led to a tenfold increase of Royton's population in less than a century; from 260 in 1714 to 2,719 in 1810.[9] Despite its growth as a centre for cotton-cloth production, and the construction of a chapel of ease]] in 1754, in 1780 Royton was said to have "contained only a few straggling and mean-built cottages".[1] The people of Royton continued to produce cotton goods (mainly cloth) and sell them at the market in Manchester.[9]

Rehearsals by Radicals at Tandle Hill before the Peterloo massacre

The Napoleonic Wars in 1815 had resulted in periods of famine and chronic unemployment for textile weavers. By the beginning of 1819 the pressure generated by poor economic conditions, coupled with discontent over the lack of parliamentary representation in the industrial towns, had enhanced the appeal of political Radicalism in the region.[11] The Manchester Patriotic Union, a group agitating for parliamentary reform, began to organise a mass public demonstration in Manchester to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. Organised preparations took place, and a spy reported that "seven hundred men drilled at Tandle Hill as well as any army regiment would";[12] a few days later, on 3 August, a royal proclamation forbidding the practice of drilling was posted in Manchester.[13]

On 16 August 1819, Royton (like its neighbours) sent a contingent of its townsfolk to Manchester to join the mass political demonstration now known as the Peterloo massacre (owing to the 15 deaths and 400–700 injuries that followed).[14][15] Royton's contingent was of particular note, in that it sent a sizable female section to the demonstration.[16]

Royton's damp climate provided the ideal conditions for cotton spinning to be carried out without the cotton drying and breaking, and newly developed 19th century mechanisation optimised cotton spinning for mass production for the global market. By 1832, there were twelve steam-powered mills in Royton, of which its former hamlets had begun to agglomerate as a town around the cotton factories, a number of small coalpits and new turnpike road from Oldham to Rochdale, which passed through the town centre.[17] The Manchester, Oldham and Royton Railway and a goods yard was constructed in the 1860s, allowing improved transportation of textile goods and raw materials to and from the township.[17] Neighbouring Oldham (which by the 1870s had emerged of the largest and most productive mill town in the world)[18] had begun to encroach upon Royton's southern boundary, forming a continuous urban cotton-spinning district. The demand for cheap cotton goods from this area prompted the flotation of cotton spinning companies; the investment was followed by the construction of 22 new cotton mills in Royton.[19] Together with Oldham, at its peak the area was responsible for 13% of the world's cotton production.

Elk Mill

Supplies of raw cotton from the United States were cut during the American Civil War (1861–65) causing the Lancashire Cotton Famine, which led to the formation of the Royton Local Board of Health in 1863, whose purpose was to ensure social security and maintain hygiene and sanitation in the locality.[17] On 26 November 1884 an explosive device containing gunpowder was detonated in Royton Town Hall, in a cellar underneath the offices of Royton's local board.[20] An anonymous communication was received by the supposed bomber, stating that he intended the explosion for the Royton School Board because children are not allowed to work at the age of 10 years, and because he wanted the abolition of the Factory Acts.[21] There were no fatalities caused by the explosion, and damage to the building was restricted to smoke damage and shattered windows, doors and woodwork.[20]

The Great Depression, and First and Second World Wars each contributed to periods of economic decline in Royton. However, in as late the 1950s, 80% of Royton's population was employed in the textile mills.[4] As imports of cheaper foreign yarns increased during the mid-20th century, Royton's textile sector declined gradually to a halt; cotton spinning reduced in the 1960s and 1970s, and by the early 1980s only four mills were operational.[4] In spite of efforts to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of its production, the last cotton was spun in the town in 1998.[4] Less than a dozen mills are still standing in Royton, the majority of which are now used for light engineering or as distribution centres.[4]

Post-industrial history

Since deindustrialisation, Royton's population has continued to grow as a result of intensive housing redevelopment which has modernised much its former Edwardian terraced housing districts,[4] and the construction of retail and business parks, which provide employment.

Since the turn of the millennium Royton has been earmarked for cosmetic gentrification.

Geography

Described in Samuel Lewis's A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848) as being in "aspect rather wild",[22] Royton lies in a shallow valley amongst undulating land.[15] The sources of the rivers Irk and Beal are to the northeast and east respectively.[15] The Irk meanders southwesterly into Chadderton, and then onwards to Middleton into Manchester before uniting its waters with the River Irwell in Manchester city centre.[15] The general slope of the land decreases in height away from the Pennines, from east to west, but reaches high points of 509 feet at Tandle Hill and 825 feet at the summit of Oldham Edge, a ridge of elevated land which leads to Oldham.[1] The soils of the town are broadly sand with subsoils of clay.[1]

Royton's built environment follows a standard urban structure, consisting of residential dwellings centred around a High Street in the town centre, which is the local centre of commerce. There is a mixture of low-density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Royton, but overwhelmingly the land use in the town is residential.[15]

Tandle Hill is in a 110-acre country park consisting of open grasslands and mature beech woodlands.

Royton, from the Church of St Ann

Sights about the town

Royton Town Hall

Historically, Royton's only landmark was Royton Hall, the former manor house, first built as early as the 13th century and rebuilt up to 1814.[7] Part of the hall in its final stage was erected during the 16th century, but the east wing was crafted in the Elizabethan or Jacobean architectural style.[23] In 1794 it was described as "pleasantly seated in a deep valley, surrounded by high grounds. It is a firm, well built stone edifice of ancient date".[7] During the First World War, Royton Hall was used to house Belgian refugees, and following the war was bought by Dr John Thomas Godfrey, but after he took his family to South Africa, it stood empty until it was converted into flats. The hall fell into disrepair in the 1930s and was demolished in 1938.[24] The foundations of the structure were excavated in 2005 leading to the discovery of original panes of glass and a Tudor stair tower.[25]

Royton Town Hall is a purpose-built municipal building opened in September 1880, by James Ashworth, the first Chairman of Royton Local Board of Health.[26] It was constructed in a free style of architecture, and includes a domed roof and clock tower topped by a copper cupola.[26] The clock tower is inscribed on three sides with Latin mottos: "Tempus Fugit" (time flies), "Sic Labitur Aetas" (so the years pass by) and "Finem Respice" (have regards to the end). The clock face on the east side, facing Shaw and Crompton is half the size of the other three. A local tale is that when the Church of Holy Trinity at Shaw was constructed in 1869, it had no clock on the western facade of its clock tower, which faced Royton. The reduced clock face size at Royton Town Hall is said to have been a retaliation.[23]

Royton War Memorial

Royton War Memorial lies at the summit of Tandle Hill, and was erected "in memory of the men of Royton who gave their lives for the freedom and honour of their country" during the First World War.[27] It is a Portland stone obelisk, that originally bore plaques listing the fallen, and had a bronze sculpture of Nike (mythology)|Victory at its base. It was commissioned by the Royton War Memorial Committee and unveiled on 22 October 1921 by Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby.

Royton Library is a Carnegie library, a gift of Andrew Carnegie.[23] It was opened in 1907 by Edward Stanley, 4th Baron Stanley of Alderley, formerly the Member of Parliament for the area. The surnames of four prominent writers—Bacon, Carlyle, Spencer and Milton—are inscribed above one of four windows on the building face, by the entrance.[23]

Sport

  • Football: Royton Town F.C.
  • Cricket: Royton Cricket Club
  • Golf: Crompton and Royton Golf Club, with a prime heathland 18-hole golf course, spanning 6,215 yards.
  • Swimming: Royton Amateur Swimming and Water Polo Club

Churches

St Paul, Royton

Royton had no mediæval church of its own, and lay within the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham. A chapel of ease, St Paul's, under the mother church of Prestwich, St Mary's, was built between 1754 and 1757, paid for by voluntary contributions.[28] It was extended throughout the 19th century as the population of Royton grew, becoming a parish church, with a tower and clock added in 1828 and extensions in 1854 and again in 1883.[28] The nave of the chapel was demolished in 1889 and the existing church building in neo-Gothic style was erected.[29]

  • Church of England: St Paul's
  • Baptist:
  • Methodist:
  • Roman Catholic: St Aidan and St Oswald

Outside links

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about Royton)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Brownbill & Farrer 1911, pp. 112–115.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Manchester City Council, Oldham Towns; Royton, spinningtheweb.org.uk, http://www.spinningtheweb.org.uk/a_display.php?irn=239&QueryPage=&lang=, retrieved 5 January 2007 
  3. ↑ Stott 1994, pp. 8–9.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Stott 1994, p. 9.
  5. ↑ University of Nottingham, Royton, nottingham.ac.uk, http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=12942, retrieved 18 September 2008 
  6. ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 45916 – The remains of a Roman or Medieval bloomery
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9 Stott 1994, p. 5
  8. ↑ Stott 1994, p. 15.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Stott 1994, p. 6.
  10. ↑ Stott 1994, p. 10.
  11. ↑ Frangopulo 1977, p. 30.
  12. ↑ McPhillips 1997, pp. 22–23.
  13. ↑ Reid 1989, p. 125.
  14. ↑ Marlow 1969, p. 95.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 North Chadderton & SW Royton, 1932 (Lancashire Sheet 97.01) (Alan Godfrey Maps) - Ordnance Survey ISBN 978-1-84784-157-5
  16. ↑ Marlow 1969, p. 118.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Stott 1994, p. 7.
  18. ↑ McNeil & Nevell 2000, p. 29.
  19. ↑ Stott 1994, p. 8.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Supposed Attempt to Blow up Royton Town Hall", Manchester Times, 29 November 1884 
  21. ↑ The Attempt to Blow up Royton Town Hall, Huddersfield Daily Chronicle, 19 December 1884 
  22. ↑ Lewis 1848, pp. 707–711.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 (PDF) Royton Heritage Trails, Royton Local History Society, 2006, http://www.zen42299.zen.co.uk/town_trail1.pdf, retrieved 28 July 2008 
  24. ↑ Stott 1994, pp. 14–15.
  25. ↑ "Tudor hall vanishes underground", BBC News, 29 July 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4728587.stm, retrieved 25 July 2008 
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Stott 1994, p. 22.
  27. ↑ Stott 1994, p. 24.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Stott 1994, p. 16.
  29. ↑ Stott 1994, p. 17.
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