Place:Saddleworth, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Saddleworth has been, since 1974, a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and hamlets along the west side of the Pennine hills: Austerlands, Delph, Denshaw, Dobcross, Greenfield, Grotton, Lydgate, Scouthead, Springhead, and Uppermill (all redirected here).

Saddleworth, which lies east of the large town of Oldham and east-northeast of the city of Manchester, is broadly rural, and has a scattered population of 24,351, making it one of the larger civil parishes in the United Kingdom. Prior to becoming merged into Oldham (metropolitan borough) in Greater Manchester in 1974, Saddleworth was located in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

For centuries Saddleworth was a centre of home-produced woollen cloth. The cloth reached the markets through an agent who would supply the raw wool and pay for the woven cloth produced. During the 18th and 19th centuries Saddleworth became a centre for cotton spinning and weaving, so much so that by the end of Queen Victoria's reign, mechanized textile production had become a vital part of the local economy. The boom in industry called for greater transport links, including the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and several railways.

Following the Great Depression of the 1920s and '30s Saddleworth's textile sector declined. Much of Saddleworth's architecture and infrastructure dates from its textile processing days however, notably the Saddleworth Viaduct and several cottages and terraces.

Ecclesiastically, Saddleworth was part of the ancient parish of Rochdale in Lancashire and was therefore long talked of as "the part of Yorkshire where Lancastrians lived". The former Saddleworth Urban District was the only part of the West Riding to have been amalgamated into the new county of Greater Manchester in 1974. However, strong cultural links with Yorkshire remain amongst its communities. There are several brass bands in the parish.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Saddleworth.

This is a very extensive article covering the history of Saddleworth from many angles.

Delph

Delph (redirected here) is a village within Saddleworth civil parish. It lies amongst the Pennines on the River Tame below the village of Denshaw, east-northeast of Oldham, and north-northwest of Uppermill. It is the location of St. Thomas's Church, Friarmere, a redundant Anglican church standing on a hillside overlooking the village. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church was built in 1765 to serve a growing local population who otherwise had to go to church in Rochdale or Saddleworth. A bellcote was added to the exterior in the 19th century, and fittings were added to the interior during the same century. Many of these fittings were removed to the new parish church in Delph when the old church was closed. The old church was declared redundant on 16 April 1970, and was vested in the Trust on 24 May 1972.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Friarmere.

Dobcross

Dobcross (redirected here) is a village within Saddleworth civil parish. It is in a valley in the South Pennines, along the course of the River Tame and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, east-northeast of Oldham and west-southwest of Huddersfield.

For centuries, Dobcross was a hamlet, sustained by domestic flannel and woollen cloth production. Many of the original 17th and 18th century barns and weavers' cottages survive today as listed buildings.

Together with neighbouring Delph, Dobcross is, geographically, "considered as the centre of Saddleworth", although is not its largest village centre by some margin. Industrial tycoon Henry Platt was born in Dobcross in 1770.

Research Tips

• GENUKI on Saddleworth. The GENUKI page gives numerous references to local bodies providing genealogical assistance.
• The FamilySearch wiki on the ecclesiastical parish of Rochdale provides a list of useful resources for the local area.
• A Vision of Britain through Time on Saddleworth.
• A Vision of Britain through Time provides links to maps of the West Riding, produced by the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey, illustrating the boundaries between the civil parishes and the rural districts at various dates. The location of individual settlements within the parishes is also shown. These maps all expand to a very large scale.

• Ordnance Survey West Riding 1888. The "Sanitary Districts (which preceded the rural districts) for the whole of the West Riding.
• Ordnance Survey West Riding North 1900 and Ordnance Survey West Riding South 1900. The rural and urban districts, not long after their introduction. NOTE: In 2022 the map of the southern section is not available through the Vision of Britain website. It is unknown if this omission is accidental or if the copy used by the university has been damaged in some way.
• Yorkshire West Riding South and Yorkshire West Riding North revised_1944. These two maps illustrate the urban and rural districts of the whole of the West Riding after the revisions of 1935.
• A further useful map on A Vision of Britain through Time is a boundary map dated 1917. This shows all the boundaries of villages, townships and parishes in the Holmfirth area.