| Mossley | |
|---|---|
 View of Mossley | |
  Mossley Location withinGreater Manchester | |
| Population | 11,557 (Parish, 2021)[1] 11,410 (Built up area, 2021)[2] |
| OS grid reference | SD9702 |
| Civil parish |
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| Metropolitan borough | |
| Metropolitan county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE |
| Postcode district | OL5 |
| Dialling code | 01457 |
| Police | Greater Manchester |
| Fire | Greater Manchester |
| Ambulance | North West |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | www.mossley-council.co.uk |
| |
Mossley (/ˈmɒzli/) is a town andcivil parish inTameside,Greater Manchester, England,[4] in the upperTame Valley and the foothills of thePennines, 3 miles (4.8 km) south-east ofOldham and 9 miles (14.5 km) east ofManchester.
The town grew up straddling the threehistoric counties ofLancashire,Cheshire andYorkshire. It was placed entirely in Lancashire in 1889, and became part of Greater Manchester in 1974. At the2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 11,410 and the parish population was 11,557.
Mossley means "a woodland clearing by a swamp or bog". The earliest record of the name here dates from around 1319.[5]
Mossley—alongside neighbouringStalybridge andUppermill inSaddleworth—helped launch the annualWhit Friday Band Contest, an internationally known brass band event, which began in 1884 in Uppermill.[6]
George Lawton, the son of magistrate and alderman John Lawton, inherited a family fortune and when he died in August 1949, he left the bulk of his wealth to the people of Mossley. Part of his £77,760 wealth (equivalent to £3,500,000 in 2023) was left to build a public meeting place, the George Lawton Hall, which opened in 1960.[7]
There are two tiers of local government covering Mossley, atcivil parish (town) andmetropolitan borough level: Mossley Town Council andTameside Metropolitan Borough Council. Tameside Council is a member of theGreater Manchester Combined Authority, which is led by the directly electedMayor of Greater Manchester. There is aMossley ward for elections to Tameside council, which covers a slightly larger area than the parish.[8]
Mossley Town Council generally meets at the Methodist Church on Chapel Street.[9]
The original hamlet of Mossley was in the parish ofAshton-under-Lyne in Lancashire, but lay very close to the boundaries with Cheshire and Yorkshire. As the town grew during theIndustrial Revolution in the 19th century, the urban area came to straddle the three counties. To the east, it extended into thetownships ofStayley andTintwistle, both of which formed part of the parish ofMottram-in-Longdendale in Cheshire. To the north, it extended into the township ofSaddleworth, which was the part ofRochdale parish which lay in theWest Riding of Yorkshire (the rest of Rochdale parish was in Lancashire).[10]
In 1864, a Mossleylocal government district was established, with a newly defined boundary that straddled the three counties and four townships. The district was administered by an elected local board.[11][12]
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Mossley was granted amunicipal charter on 13 March 1885, which converted the local government district into amunicipal borough, with a borough council replacing the board.[13][14][15] The borough council boughtMossley Hall in 1891 to serve as its headquarters, renaming it the Town Hall.[16]
Elected county councils were established in 1889 under theLocal Government Act 1888. The 1888 Act also directed thaturban sanitary districts which straddled county boundaries, as the borough of Mossley did, were to be placed entirely in the county which had the majority of the district's population. Mossley was therefore placed entirely in Lancashire.[17][12] The borough continued to straddle four townships until 1894, when a single township orcivil parish of Mossley was created covering the same area as the borough.[18]
The borough of Mossley was abolished in 1974 under theLocal Government Act 1972. The area became part of theMetropolitan Borough of Tameside inGreater Manchester.[19]
Nosuccessor parish was created for Mossley at the time of the 1974 reforms, and so it becameunparished. A new civil parish of Mossley was established in 1999, with its council taking the name Mossley Town Council. The parish is divided into three wards for town council elections, called Cheshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire, reflecting the historic county boundaries.[20][21]
The town's unofficialcoat of arms includes Cheshire's sheaf of corn, Lancashire's red rose and Yorkshire's white rose to signify the historic demarcation.
From 1918 to 1950 the town gave its name to theMossley constituency which returned a Member of Parliament; for most of the period, the MP wasAustin Hopkinson, who was notable for being elected as anIndependent candidate. The town is now represented by the MP forStalybridge and Hyde.
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Mossley lies amongst the foothills of thePennines, on the western edge ofSaddleworth Moor.
Neighbouring districts and places. | |
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The ecclesiastical parishes correspond to the boundaries of the historic counties:
Mossley railway station is sited on theHuddersfield line. Services are operated byTransPennine Express to locations includingManchester Piccadilly,Stalybridge,Huddersfield,Leeds andHull.[22]
Bus routes that serve Mossley are operated byDiamond North West,Stagecoach Manchester, and South Pennine Community Transport, the former two operatingBee Network services on contract toTfGM.[23]
A tram network operated by theSHMD Joint Board ran lines through Mossley from 1904 to 1945, until their replacement by buses.[24] The second-generation tramwayManchester Metrolink currently terminates at nearby Ashton-under-Lyne for connections to the city centre.
Local news and television programmes are provided byBBC North West andITV Granada. Television signals are received from theWinter Hill TV transmitter[25] and one of the two local relay transmitters (Saddleworth[26] and Brock Bottom[27]).
Local radio stations areBBC Radio Manchester,Capital Manchester and Lancashire,Heart North West,Smooth North West,Greatest Hits Radio Manchester & The North West, andTameside Radio, a community based station.
The local newspaper is theTameside Reporter, published on Thursdays.[28]
Mossley's French twin town isHem, situated near Lille, in the Nord département.[citation needed]
Local sport teams includeMossley A.F.C., Mossley Mayhem Softball Club, Mossley Athletic JFC, Mossley Juniors F.C., Mossley AFC Running Club and Micklehurst Cricket Club.
Mossley's Town Council passed a resolution in November 2009 to make Mossley aFairtrade Town. A group of local campaigners and activist have started the Fairtrade Mossley group to make 2010 the year that Mossley becomes a Fairtrade Town.[29]
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