Oldham

Flower Delivery Oldham: A Manchester Town with a Textile Manufacturing History

A stroll through Oldham brings you sights of 19th-century red-brick terraced houses, structures that were built to support the cotton mill industry. And the town itself is starkly different from neighbouring areas Bolton and Huddersfield, both of which have some sense of grandeur.

Oldham may pale in comparison to towns located nearby as well as Manchester city centre but you can immediately get a sense of its history. Today, the town is mostly residential but there are still remnants of its history present in the many structures around town.

History

The discovery of flint arrow-heads and workings at Werneth and Besom Hill indicate that Oldham was settled as early as the Neolithic times. A Roman road and Bronze Age relics indicate Roman and Celtic habitation in later years. A number of placenames like Werneth are Celtic in nature.
 
Oldham was a collection of small and insignificant settlements from its founding until the 9th century. Although it’s not mentioned in the Domesday Book, the town does is listed as under the control of minor ruling families and barons in legal documents from the Middle Ages.

With the soil in Oldham being too poor for growing crops, the land was used for grazing sheep, which became a source for the wool weaving trade. The town was at some point the centre of the hatting industry in England before becoming an industrial hub full of textile factories. Cotton spinning and milling were popular industries along with coal mining in later years.
Industrial prosperity decline in the 20th century, leaving traces of what the town once was. Today, Oldham is mostly a residential town.

Attractions

Oldham gives visitors a glimpse of what a milling town looked like. Red-brick buildings are plenty and mills dominate the skyline. But there are other attractions in Oldham other than its textile manufacturing past.

Alexandra Park – named as such to commemorate the marriage of the Prince of Wales to Princess Alexandra of Denmark, this is the town’s first public park with lots of Oldham flowers, a boating lake, seven tennis courts, three bowling greens, and a children’s play area. Oldham itself knows about displaying beautiful flowers in Oldham having been twice named by Britain in Bloom as a Culture Town.

Oldham Town Hall – a Grade II listed Georgian neo-classical structure built years before Oldham received borough status. It hasn’t been used since the mid 80s.

Oldham War Memorial – dedicated to the men from Oldham who died during the First World War. The sculpture shows five soldiers making their way to battle.

Parish Church of St Mary with St Peter – a Grade II* listed building done in Gothic Revival Style. It was designed by a Manchester-based architect called Richard Lane.

Lyceum – another Grade II listed building dating back to 1856 that currently serves as home to the Gallery Oldham.

Do you want to send someone a bouquet of flowers on Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day? You can order flowers for delivery to Oldham from us on special occasions, including birthdays and anniversaries. Just choose a floral arrangement from our selection and place an order when you want to send flowers to Oldham through us!

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