143-582: Park Bridge is an area of Ashton-under-Lyne , in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside , in Greater Manchester , England. It is situated in the Medlock Valley , by Ashton-under-Lyne's border with Oldham . Park Bridge anciently lay within the medieval manor of Ashton; however, there is no record of Park Bridge until the 17th century. The name is probably a reference to the medieval Lyme Park, in
286-490: A cholera outbreak in the town in 1832. The Ashton Poor Law Union was established in 1837 and covered most of what is now Tameside. A new workhouse was built in 1850 which provided housing for 500 people. It later became part of Tameside General Hospital . Construction on the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway (SA&MR) began in 1837 to provide passenger transport between Manchester and Sheffield . Although
429-754: A market square and 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 Ashton-under-Lyne, but overwhelmingly the land use in the town is residential; industrial areas and terraced houses give way to suburbs and rural greenery as the land rises out of the town in the east. The older streets are narrow and irregular, but those built more recently are spacious, lined by "substantial and handsome houses". Areas and suburbs of Ashton-under-Lyne include Cockbrook, Crowhill, Guide Bridge, Hartshead, Hazelhurst, Hurst, Limehurst, Ryecroft, Taunton, and Waterloo. As of
572-513: A "new Jerusalem". He founded the Christian Israelite Church , and from 1822 to 1831 Ashton-under-Lyne was the religion's headquarters. Wroe intended to build a wall around the town with four gateways, and although the wall was never constructed, the four gatehouses were. Popular opinion in the town turned against Wroe when he was accused of indecent behaviour in 1831, but the charges were dismissed. The Church spread to Australia, where it
715-547: A "single parish-township", but was divided into four divisions (sometimes each styled townships): Ashton Town, Audenshaw , Hartshead, and Knott Lanes. Ashton Town was granted a royal charter in 1414, giving it the right to hold a market . All four divisions lay within the Hundred of Salford , an ancient division of the county of Lancashire. In 1827, police commissioners were established for Ashton Town, tasked with bringing about social and economic improvement. In 1847, this area
858-517: A French traveler of the 17th century who visited Safavid Persia , spoke approvingly of the vast cotton farms of Persia. Cotton ( Gossypium herbaceum Linnaeus) may have been domesticated 5000 BC in eastern Sudan near the Middle Nile Basin region, where cotton cloth was being produced. Around the 4th century BC, the cultivation of cotton and the knowledge of its spinning and weaving in Meroë reached
1001-538: A commercial chain in which raw cotton fibers were (at first) purchased from colonial plantations , processed into cotton cloth in the mills of Lancashire , and then exported on British ships to captive colonial markets in West Africa , India , and China (via Shanghai and Hong Kong). By the 1840s, India was no longer capable of supplying the vast quantities of cotton fibers needed by mechanized British factories, while shipping bulky, low-price cotton from India to Britain
1144-598: A community based station which broadcast from the town on 103.6 FM. The local newspaper is the Tameside Reporter , published on Thursdays. In 1732, an Act of Parliament was passed which permitted the construction of a turnpike from Manchester, then in Lancashire, to Salters Brook in Cheshire. The road passed through Ashton-under-Lyne as well as Audenshaw , Mottram-in-Longdendale , and Stalybridge . A turnpike trust
1287-704: A deficit spiral that led to the country declaring bankruptcy in 1876, a key factor behind Egypt's occupation by the British Empire in 1882 . During this time, cotton cultivation in the British Empire , especially Australia and India, greatly increased to replace the lost production of the American South. Through tariffs and other restrictions, the British government discouraged the production of cotton cloth in India; rather,
1430-607: A farmer who farmed one of the biggest cotton operations. He produced over sixty thousand bales. Cotton remained a key crop in the Southern economy after slavery ended in 1865. Across the South, sharecropping evolved, in which landless farmers worked land owned by others in return for a share of the profits. Some farmers rented the land and bore the production costs themselves. Until mechanical cotton pickers were developed, cotton farmers needed additional labor to hand-pick cotton. Picking cotton
1573-484: A great deal of resources would have been required, likely restricting its cultivation to the elite. In the first to third centuries CE, recovered cotton fragments all began to mirror the same style and production method, as seen from the direction of spun cotton and technique of weaving. Cotton textiles also appear in places of high regard, such as on funerary stelae and statues. During the Han dynasty (207 BC - 220 AD), cotton
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#17328519783581716-584: A high level. The export of textiles was one of the sources of wealth for Meroë. Ancient Nubia had a "culture of cotton" of sorts, evidenced by physical evidence of cotton processing tools and the presence of cattle in certain areas. Some researchers propose that cotton was important to the Nubian economy for its use in contact with the neighboring Egyptians. Aksumite King Ezana boasted in his inscription that he destroyed large cotton plantations in Meroë during his conquest of
1859-512: A huge fire ravaged the Victorian market hall, and a temporary building called "The Phoenix Market Hall" was built on Old Cross Street on the opposite side of the Old Market hall. Described as the "heart of Ashton", the market was rebuilt and officially opened on 1 December 2008. Lying within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire since the early 12th century , Ashton anciently constituted
2002-568: A large IKEA store. In 2018, a large new development opened in Ashton town centre including a new college campus for Tameside College , new council offices and a library. Improvements were also made to the open-air market, including new kiosks and stalls. In 2019, work began on a brand-new transport interchange for the town centre to make getting into the town much easier via bus and Metrolink . This opened in August 2020. Evidence of prehistoric activity in
2145-559: A long period and the closure of the railway in 1959 further dented the profits. The ironworks finally closed in 1963, still under the control of the Lees family. The abandoned ironworks fell into decay and was demolished or reduced to ruins in the 1970s. Because the buildings were not recorded before their demolition, the site of the ironworks is of interest to archaeologists – particularly the University of Manchester Archaeological Unit – as part of
2288-422: A new market for British goods, while the capital amassed from Bengal after its 1757 conquest was used to invest in British industries such as textile manufacturing and greatly increase British wealth. British colonization also forced open the large Indian market to British goods, which could be sold in India without tariffs or duties , compared to local Indian producers who were heavily taxed , while raw cotton
2431-494: A new revenue system that was biased in favour of higher value cash crops such as cotton and indigo , providing state incentives to grow cash crops, in addition to rising market demand. The largest manufacturing industry in the Mughal Empire was cotton textile manufacturing , which included the production of piece goods , calicos , and muslins , available unbleached and in a variety of colours. The cotton textile industry
2574-792: A nine-arch viaduct in Ashton collapsed in April 1845, the line was fully opened on 22 December 1845. The SA&MR was amalgamated with the Sheffield and Lincolnshire Junction Railway, the Great Grimsby & Sheffield Railway, and the Grimsby Docks Company in 1847 to form the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR). In 1890, the MS&;LR bought the Old Hall and demolished it to make way for
2717-662: A reference to "tree cotton", Gossypium arboreum , which is native to the Indian subcontinent. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia : Cotton has been spun, woven, and dyed since prehistoric times. It clothed the people of ancient India, Egypt, and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, and their use spread to the Mediterranean countries. In Iran ( Persia ),
2860-424: A result, very little remains of the previous town. In 1730 a workhouse was established which consisted of a house and two cottages; it later came to be used as a hospital. The Ashton Canal was constructed in the 1790s to transport coal from the area to Manchester, with a branch to the coal pits at Fairbottom . Domestic fustian and woollen weaving have a long history in the town, dating back to at least
3003-537: A soft, breathable , and durable textile . The use of cotton for fabric is known to date to prehistoric times; fragments of cotton fabric dated to the fifth millennium BC have been found in the Indus Valley civilization , as well as fabric remnants dated back to 4200 BC in Peru . Although cultivated since antiquity, it was the invention of the cotton gin that lowered the cost of production that led to its widespread use, and it
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#17328519783583146-686: A visitor centre and, from the top of the hill, it is possible to see the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, the Welsh hills and the Holme Moss transmitter in West Yorkshire . The Witchwood public house , in the St Petersfield area of the town, has been a music venue since the 1960s, hosting acts such as Muse , The Coral and Lost Prophets . In 2004, The Witchwood came under threat when
3289-413: A £40 million extension but work on this project has yet to begin. In 2006, after failing twice to gain permission, IKEA announced plans to build its first town-centre store in Ashton-under-Lyne. The store was expected to create 500 new jobs and to attract other businesses to the area. The store opened on 19 October 2006 and covers 296,000 square feet (27,500 m ). At the time of its creation,
3432-485: Is bound on all sides by other towns: Audenshaw , Droylsden , Dukinfield , Mossley , Oldham , and Stalybridge , with little or no green space between them. Ashton experiences a temperate maritime climate , like much of the British Isles . Generally the bedrock of the west of the town consists of coal measures, which were exploited by the coal mining industry, while the east is mainly millstone grit . Overlying
3575-795: Is home to the East Cheshire Harriers, Tameside Athletics Club, and Ashton Cricket Club , which has won the Central Lancashire Cricket League 's first and second division twice each, and the Wood Cup four times. The Ashton Ladysmith Cricket Club is based at the Ladysmith Sport Center at Rose Hill Road and competes in the North Manchester Cricket League. After the Ashton Canal closed in the 1960s, it
3718-607: Is ineffective against many cotton pests, such as plant bugs , stink bugs , and aphids ; depending on circumstances it may still be desirable to use insecticides against these. A 2006 study done by Cornell researchers, the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy and the Chinese Academy of Science on Bt cotton farming in China found that after seven years these secondary pests that were normally controlled by pesticide had increased, necessitating
3861-467: Is still active. As of the 2001 UK census, 68.5% of Ashton residents reported themselves as being Christian, 6.1% Muslim, 5.0% Hindu, and 0.2% Buddhist. The census recorded that 11.4% had no religion, 0.2% had an alternative religion, and 8.7% did not state their religion. The proportion of Hindus in the town was much higher than the average for the borough and the whole of England (1.4% and 1.1% respectively). The percentage of Muslims in Ashton-under-Lyne
4004-504: Is the most widely used natural fiber cloth in clothing today. Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes or 110 million bales annually, accounting for 2.5% of the world's arable land . India is the world's largest producer of cotton. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years. There are four commercially grown species of cotton, all domesticated in antiquity: Hybrid varieties are also cultivated. The two New World cotton species account for
4147-675: The 2001 UK census , Ashton-under-Lyne had a population of 43,236. The 2001 population density was 12,374 inhabitants per square mile (4,778/km ), with a 100 to 96.1 female-to-male ratio. Of those over 16 years old, 30.9% were single (never married) and 50.0% married. Ashton-under-Lyne's 18,347 households included 33.2% single people, 33.0% married couples living together, 8.9% co-habiting couples, and 12.4% single parents with their children; these figures were similar to those of Tameside, however both Tameside and Ashton have higher rates of single-parent households than England (9.5%). Of those aged 16–74, 37.0% had no academic qualifications , similar to
4290-571: The Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization , and cotton may have been an important export from it. Cotton bolls discovered in a cave near Tehuacán , Mexico, have been dated to as early as 5500 BC, but this date has been challenged. More securely dated is the domestication of Gossypium hirsutum in Mexico between around 3400 and 2300 BC. During this time, people between the Río Santiago and
4433-623: The Deep South . To acknowledge cotton's place in the history and heritage of Texas, the Texas Legislature designated cotton the official "State Fiber and Fabric of Texas" in 1997. China's Chang'e 4 spacecraft took cotton seeds to the Moon's far side . On 15 January 2019, China announced that a cotton seed sprouted, the first "truly otherworldly plant in history". Inside the Von Kármán Crater ,
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4576-466: The Delhi Sultanate . During the late medieval period, cotton became known as an imported fiber in northern Europe, without any knowledge of how it was derived, other than that it was a plant. Because Herodotus had written in his Histories , Book III, 106, that in India trees grew in the wild producing wool, it was assumed that the plant was a tree, rather than a shrub. This aspect is retained in
4719-590: The Early Modern period . Accounts dated 1626 highlight that Humphrey Chetham had dealings with clothworkers in Ashton. However, the introduction of the factory system in the 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution , changed Ashton from a market town to a mill town . Having previously been one of the two main towns in the Tame Valley, Ashton-under-Lyne became one of the "most famous mill towns in
4862-455: The Industrial Revolution in Britain provided a great boost to cotton manufacture, as textiles emerged as Britain's leading export. In 1738, Lewis Paul and John Wyatt , of Birmingham , England, patented the roller spinning machine, as well as the flyer-and-bobbin system for drawing cotton to a more even thickness using two sets of rollers that traveled at different speeds. Later, the invention of
5005-461: The James Hargreaves ' spinning jenny in 1764, Richard Arkwright 's spinning frame in 1769 and Samuel Crompton 's spinning mule in 1775 enabled British spinners to produce cotton yarn at much higher rates. From the late 18th century on, the British city of Manchester acquired the nickname " Cottonopolis " due to the cotton industry's omnipresence within the city, and Manchester's role as
5148-712: The Norte Chico , Moche , and Nazca . Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets, and traded with fishing villages along the coast for large supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and wearing clothing made of it. The Greeks and the Arabs were not familiar with cotton until the Wars of Alexander the Great , as his contemporary Megasthenes told Seleucus I Nicator of "there being trees on which wool grows" in "Indica." This may be
5291-679: The Northern Premier League Premier Division, the seventh tier of English football, playing at Hurst Cross . Curzon Ashton has competed since 2015 in the National League North , the highest level in the club's history; they play at the Tameside Stadium. Other sporting venues include the Richmond Park Athletics Stadium, which has an all-weather running track with facilities for field events and
5434-546: The Peak Forest Canal meet. It has been used several times as a filming location for Coronation Street , including a scene where the character Richard Hillman drove into the canal. The earliest parts of Ashton Town Hall , which was the first purpose-built town hall in what is now Tameside, date to 1840 when it was opened. It has classical features such as the Corinthian columns on the entrance facade . Enlarged in 1878,
5577-629: The Pennines , 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Manchester. Evidence of Stone Age , Bronze Age , and Viking activity has been discovered in Ashton-under-Lyne. The "Ashton" part of the town's name probably dates from the Anglo-Saxon period , and derives from Old English meaning "settlement by ash trees". The origin of the "under-Lyne" suffix is less clear; it possibly derives from the Brittonic -originating word lemo meaning elm or from Ashton's proximity to
5720-678: The 1,512 people from the town who died in the First World War and the 301 who died in the Second World War. The cenotaph is flanked on both sides by bronze lions. The plinth is decorated with military equipment representing the services, as well as bronze tablets listing the Roll of Honour from World War I . Commissioned by the Ashton War Memorial Committee, the statue was sculpted between 1919 and 1922 by John Ashton Floyd , and
5863-461: The 12th century when the manor was part of the barony of Manchester. By the late 12th century, a family who adopted the name Assheton held the manor on behalf of the Gresles , barons of Manchester. Ashton Old Hall was a manor house , the administrative centre of the manor, and the seat of the de Ashton or de Assheton family. With three wings, the hall was "one of the finest great houses in
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6006-503: The 1840s. Indian cotton textiles, particularly those from Bengal , continued to maintain a competitive advantage up until the 19th century. In order to compete with India, Britain invested in labour-saving technical progress, while implementing protectionist policies such as bans and tariffs to restrict Indian imports. At the same time, the East India Company's rule in India contributed to its deindustrialization , opening up
6149-462: The 1860s as a consequence of the cotton famine caused by the American Civil War . The table below details the population change since 1851, including the percentage change since the previous census. St Michael and All Angels' Church is a Grade I listed building that dates back to at least 1262, although it was rebuilt in the 15th, 16th, and 19th centuries. In 1795 it was the only church in
6292-473: The 18th century, textiles had also become important to the town's economy; in the 1700s, 33% of those with jobs worked in textiles and 36% in agriculture. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the second half of the 18th century, the textile industry in the town boomed. It continued to expand until the cotton famine of 1861–1865, after which the industry remained steady until it collapsed after
6435-472: The 1930s most of the firms and mills in the area had closed. At about 4.20 pm on Wednesday 13 June 1917, a fire in an ammunition factory producing TNT caused an explosion that demolished much of the west end of the town. Two gasometers exploded and the explosion destroyed the factory and threw heavy objects long distances. At least 41 people died and about 100 were injured. Sylvain Dreyfus, managing director of
6578-499: The 19th century. India's cotton-processing sector changed during EIC expansion in India in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. From focusing on supplying the British market to supplying East Asia with raw cotton. As the Artisan produced textiles were no longer competitive with those produced Industrially, and Europe preferring the cheaper slave produced, long staple American, and Egyptian cottons, for its own materials. The advent of
6721-495: The 8th or 9th century. Legend claims it was built in a single night in 869 or 870 as a defence against Viking invaders. Further evidence of Dark Age activity in the area comes from the town's name. The "Ashton" part probably derives from the Anglo-Saxon meaning "settlement by ash trees"; the origin of the "under-Lyne" element is less clear: it could derive from the British lemo meaning elm , or refer to Ashton being "under
6864-701: The Arabic-speaking lands in the later medieval era at transformatively lowered prices. The earliest evidence of the use of cotton in the Old World , dated to 5500 BC and preserved in copper beads, has been found at the Neolithic site of Mehrgarh , at the foot of the Bolan Pass in ancient India , today in Balochistan Pakistan. Fragments of cotton textiles have been found at Mohenjo-daro and other sites of
7007-399: The Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge entrances in 1953. Hartshead Pike is a stone tower on top of Hartshead Hill overlooking Ashton and Oldham . The existing building was constructed in 1863 but there has been a building on the site since at least the mid-18th century, although the original purpose is obscure. The pike might have been the site of a beacon in the late 16th century. It has
7150-568: The British to cheap calico and chintz cloth on the restoration of the monarchy in the 1660s. Initially imported as a novelty side line, from its spice trading posts in Asia, the cheap colourful cloth proved popular and overtook the EIC's spice trade by value in the late 17th century. The EIC embraced the demand, particularly for calico , by expanding its factories in Asia and producing and importing cloth in bulk, creating competition for domestic woollen and linen textile producers. The impacted weavers, spinners, dyers, shepherds and farmers objected and
7293-453: The Egyptian cotton industry. By the time of the American Civil war annual exports had reached $ 16 million (120,000 bales), which rose to $ 56 million by 1864, primarily due to the loss of the Confederate supply on the world market. Exports continued to grow even after the reintroduction of US cotton, produced now by a paid workforce, and Egyptian exports reached 1.2 million bales a year by 1903. The English East India Company (EIC) introduced
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#17328519783587436-410: The Industrial Revolution triggered a process of unplanned urbanisation in the area, and by the mid-19th century Ashton had emerged as an important mill town at a convergence of newly constructed canals and railways. Ashton-under-Lyne's transport network allowed for an economic boom in cotton spinning , weaving , and coal mining , which led to the granting of municipal borough status in 1847. In
7579-442: The Mughal era. It was reported that, with an Indian cotton gin, which is half machine and half tool, one man and one woman could clean 28 pounds (13 kg) of cotton per day. With a modified Forbes version, one man and a boy could produce 250 pounds (110 kg) per day. If oxen were used to power 16 of these machines, and a few people's labour was used to feed them, they could produce as much work as 750 people did formerly. In
7722-449: The North West" of the 14th century. It has been recognised as important for being one of the few great houses in south-east Lancashire and possibly one of the few halls influenced by French design in the country. The town was granted a royal charter in 1414, which allowed it to hold a fair twice a year, and a market on every Monday, making the settlement a market town . According to popular tradition, Sir Ralph de Assheton , who
7865-411: The North West". On Christmas Day 1826, workers in the town formed the Ashton Unity, a sickness and benefits society that was later renamed the Loyal Order of Ancient Shepherds . From 1773 to 1905, 75 cotton mills were established in the town. On his tour of northern England in 1849, Scottish publisher Angus Reach said: In Ashton, too, there lingers on a handful of miserable old men, the remnants of
8008-412: The Northern and Southern hemispheres, but a large proportion of the cotton grown today is cultivated in areas with less rainfall that obtain the water from irrigation. Production of the crop for a given year usually starts soon after harvesting the preceding autumn. Cotton is naturally a perennial but is grown as an annual to help control pests. Planting time in spring in the Northern hemisphere varies from
8151-463: The Pennines. In the Middle Ages , Ashton-under-Lyne was a parish and township and Ashton Old Hall was held by the de Asshetons, lords of the manor . Granted a royal charter in 1414, the manor spanned a rural area consisting of marshland, moorland, and a number of villages and hamlets. Until the introduction of the cotton trade in 1769, Ashton was considered "bare, wet, and almost worthless". The factory system , and textile manufacture during
8294-419: The Río Balsas grew, spun, wove, dyed, and sewed cotton. What they did not use themselves, they sent to their Aztec rulers as tribute, on the scale of ~116 million pounds (53,000 tonnes) annually. In Peru , cultivation of the indigenous cotton species Gossypium barbadense has been dated, from a find in Ancon, to c. 4200 BC , and was the backbone of the development of coastal cultures such as
8437-649: The St Petersfield area in 2006. Until then a popular nightspot, in 2002 several night clubs were brought to the brink of closure after a downturn in trade caused by four murders in three months. According to the 2001 UK census, residents aged 16–74 were employed in the following industries: 22.7% manufacturing, 18.6% retail and wholesale, 11.3% health and social work, 9.8% property and business services, 6.7% construction, 6.5% transport and communications, 5.8% education, 5.6% public administration, 4.3% hotels and restaurants, 3.8% finance, 0.4% agriculture, 0.7% energy and water supply, and 3.9% other. Compared with national figures,
8580-424: The United States, even with the use of humans as slave labor. The gin that Whitney manufactured (the Holmes design) reduced the hours down to just a dozen or so per bale. Although Whitney patented his own design for a cotton gin, he manufactured a prior design from Henry Odgen Holmes, for which Holmes filed a patent in 1796. Improving technology and increasing control of world markets allowed British traders to develop
8723-433: The area comes from Ashton Moss – a 107-hectare (260-acre) peat bog – and is the only one of Tameside's 22 Mesolithic sites not located in the hilly uplands in the north east of the borough. A single Mesolithic flint tool has been discovered in the bog, along with a collection of nine Neolithic flints. There was further activity in or around the bog in the Bronze Age . In about 1911, an adult male skull
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#17328519783588866-443: The area was being redeveloped, but was saved from demolition after a campaign by locals and led by Tom Hingley , drawing support from musicians such as Bert Jansch , The Fall and The Chameleons . The main Ashton-under-Lyne War Memorial, in Memorial Gardens, consists of a central cenotaph on a plinth, surmounted by a sculpted wounded soldier and the figure of "Peace who is taking the sword of honour" from his hand. It commemorates
9009-411: The backbone of the southern American economy. In the United States, cultivating and harvesting cotton became the leading occupation of slaves . During the American Civil War , American cotton exports slumped due to a Union blockade on Southern ports , and because of a strategic decision by the Confederate government to cut exports, hoping to force Britain to recognize the Confederacy or enter
9152-424: The basis of a new indigenous industry, initially producing Fustian for the domestic market, though more importantly triggering the development of a series of mechanised spinning and weaving technologies, to process the material. This mechanised production was concentrated in new cotton mills , which slowly expanded until by the beginning of the 1770s seven thousand bales of cotton were imported annually, and pressure
9295-462: The bedrock are deposits of glacial sand and gravel, clay, and some alluvial deposits . Ashton Moss, a peat bog, lies to the west of the town and was originally much larger. The River Tame forms part of the southern boundary, dividing the town from Stalybridge and Dukinfield, and the River Medlock runs to the west. Ashton's built environment is similar to the urban structure of most towns in England , consisting of residential dwellings centred on
9438-519: The beginning of February to the beginning of June. The area of the United States known as the South Plains is the largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the world. While dryland (non-irrigated) cotton is successfully grown in this region, consistent yields are only produced with heavy reliance on irrigation water drawn from the Ogallala Aquifer . Since cotton is somewhat salt and drought tolerant, this makes it an attractive crop for arid and semiarid regions. As water resources get tighter around
9581-434: The calico question became one of the major issues of National politics between the 1680s and the 1730s. Parliament began to see a decline in domestic textile sales, and an increase in imported textiles from places like China and India . Seeing the East India Company and their textile importation as a threat to domestic textile businesses, Parliament passed the 1700 Calico Act, blocking the importation of cotton cloth. As there
9724-427: The capsule and seeds sit inside the Chang'e 4 lander. Successful cultivation of cotton requires a long frost -free period, plenty of sunshine, and a moderate rainfall, usually from 50 to 100 cm (19.5 to 39.5 in). Soils usually need to be fairly heavy , although the level of nutrients does not need to be exceptional. In general, these conditions are met within the seasonally dry tropics and subtropics in
9867-405: The construction of estates specifically for workers. Workers' housing in Park Bridge , on the border between Ashton and Oldham, was created in the 1820s. The iron works were founded in 1786 and were some of the earliest in the north west. The Oxford Mills settlement was founded in 1845 by the local industrialist and mill-owner Hugh Mason who saw it as a model industrial community. The community
10010-434: The construction of new sidings . In the late 19th century, public buildings such as the market hall, town hall, public library, and public baths were built. A donation from Hugh Mason funded the construction of the baths built in 1870–1871. The Ashton-under-Lyne Improvement Act was passed in 1886 which gave the borough influence over housing and allowed the imposition of minimum standards such as drainage. Coal mining
10153-407: The construction of turnpikes from Ashton-under-Lyne to Doctor Lane Head in Saddleworth, Standedge in Saddleworth, and Oldham respectively. Towards the end of the 19th century, many turnpike trusts were wound up as they were superseded by local government; the last in Tameside to close was the Ashton-under-Lyne to Salters Brook road in 1884. Ashton is now served by the M60 motorway , which cuts through
10296-529: The cotton bolls will increase the dispersal of the seeds. The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, Egypt and India. The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia and Africa. Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds. The fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make
10439-495: The cotton hand-loom weavers. No young persons think of pursuing such an occupation. The few who practice it were too old and confirmed in old habits, when the power-loom was introduced, to be able to learn a new way of making their bread. The cotton industry in the area grew rapidly from the start of the 19th century until the Lancashire Cotton Famine of 1861–1865. The growth of the town's textile industry led to
10582-597: The development of the later iron industry in the north west. In 1975 the Medlock and Tame Valley Conservation Association opened the Park Bridge Museum to encourage interest in the historical significance of Park Bridge. In 1986, the museum became a visitor centre, and in 1995 was renamed the Park Bridge Heritage Centre . As of 2024 the centre was open by appointment only, rather than having general opening to
10725-492: The dual-roller gin was prevalent throughout the Mediterranean cotton trade by the 16th century. This mechanical device was, in some areas, driven by water power. The earliest clear illustrations of the spinning wheel come from the Islamic world in the eleventh century. The earliest unambiguous reference to a spinning wheel in India is dated to 1350, suggesting that the spinning wheel was likely introduced from Iran to India during
10868-514: The early 19th century had the fifth most productive cotton industry in the world, in terms of the number of spindles per capita. The industry was initially driven by machinery that relied on traditional energy sources, such as animal power , water wheels , and windmills , which were also the principal energy sources in Western Europe up until around 1870. It was under Muhammad Ali in the early 19th century that steam engines were introduced to
11011-636: The early 19th century, a Frenchman named M. Jumel proposed to the great ruler of Egypt, Mohamed Ali Pasha , that he could earn a substantial income by growing an extra-long staple Maho ( Gossypium barbadense ) cotton, in Lower Egypt , for the French market. Mohamed Ali Pasha accepted the proposition and granted himself the monopoly on the sale and export of cotton in Egypt ; and later dictated cotton should be grown in preference to other crops. Egypt under Muhammad Ali in
11154-579: The endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungry." (See Vegetable Lamb of Tartary .) Cotton manufacture was introduced to Europe during the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily . The knowledge of cotton weaving was spread to northern Italy in the 12th century, when Sicily was conquered by the Normans , and consequently to
11297-571: The event was in 1795, although the tradition may be older; it continued into the 1830s. The manor remained in the possession of the Assheton family until 1514 when their male line ended. The lordship of the manor passed to Sir George Booth , great-great-grandson of Sir Thomas Ashton , devolving through the Booth family until the Earls of Stamford inherited it through marriage in 1758. The Booth-Greys then held
11440-571: The figure of 35.2% for all of Tameside but significantly higher than the 28.9% figure for all of England, and 12% had an educational qualification such as first degree, higher degree, qualified teacher status, qualified medical doctor, qualified dentist, qualified nurse, midwife, health visitor, or similar, compared with 20% nationwide. In 1931, 10% of Ashton's population was middle class compared with 14% in England and Wales, and by 1971, this had increased steadily to 17% compared with 24% nationally. In
11583-576: The fourth largest GM cotton crop area of 2.6 million hectares in 2011. The initial introduction of GM cotton proved to be a success in Australia ;– the yields were equivalent to the non-transgenic varieties and the crop used much less pesticide to produce (85% reduction). The subsequent introduction of a second variety of GM cotton led to increases in GM cotton production until 95% of the Australian cotton crop
11726-478: The hall provides areas for administrative purposes and public functions. The Old Street drill hall was completed in 1887. There are five parks in the town, three of which have Green Flag Awards . The first park opened in Ashton-under-Lyne was Stamford Park on the border with Stalybridge. The park opened in 1873, after a 17-year campaign by local cotton workers; the land was bought from a local mill-owner for £15,000 (£1.8 million as of 2024) and further land
11869-615: The heart of the global cotton trade. Production capacity in Britain and the United States was improved by the invention of the modern cotton gin by the American Eli Whitney in 1793. Before the development of cotton gins, the cotton fibers had to be pulled from the seeds tediously by hand. By the late 1700s, a number of crude ginning machines had been developed. However, to produce a bale of cotton required over 600 hours of human labor, making large-scale production uneconomical in
12012-574: The history of cotton dates back to the Achaemenid era (5th century BC); however, there are few sources about the planting of cotton in pre-Islamic Iran. Cotton cultivation was common in Merv , Ray and Pars . In Persian poems, especially Ferdowsi 's Shahname , there are references to cotton ("panbe" in Persian ). Marco Polo (13th century) refers to the major products of Persia, including cotton. John Chardin ,
12155-562: The largest such works in Tameside, including a nearby colliery and associated with the Oldham, Ashton and Guide Bridge Railway . The business was inherited by another four generations of the Lees family, until the closure of the site. The ironworks started to decline at the end of the 19th century with the cessation of coal mining in the Medlock Valley in 1887. Competition from the steel industry over
12298-488: The line" of the Pennines . This means that Ashton probably became a settlement some time after the Romans left Britain in the 5th century. An early form of the town's name, which included a burh element, indicates that in the 11th century Ashton and Bury were two of the most important towns in Lancashire. The "under Lyne" suffix was not widely used until the mid-19th century when it became useful for distinguishing
12441-474: The main pests in commercial cotton are lepidopteran larvae, which are killed by the Bt protein in the transgenic cotton they eat. This eliminates the need to use large amounts of broad-spectrum insecticides to kill lepidopteran pests (some of which have developed pyrethroid resistance). This spares natural insect predators in the farm ecology and further contributes to noninsecticide pest management. However, Bt cotton
12584-421: The manor until the 19th century; their patronage, despite being absentee lords, was probably the stimulus for Ashton's growth of a large-scale domestic-based textile industry in the 17th century. Pre-industrial Ashton was centred on four roads: Town Street, Crickets Lane, Old Street, and Cowhill Lane. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the town was re-planned, with a grid pattern of roads. As
12727-559: The medieval period. It is made up of about 180 stalls, and is open six days a week. The farmers' market , with over 70 stalls, is the largest in the region, as is the weekday flea market . Ashton Market Hall underwent a £15 million restoration after it was damaged by fire. The Ashton Renewal Area project has attracted investment in the town centre, encouraging conservation and economic development. The 140,000-square-foot (13,000 m ), two-floored Ashton Arcades shopping centre opened in 1995; permission has been granted for
12870-496: The mid-20th century, imports of cheaper foreign goods led to the decline of Ashton's heavy industries but the town has continued to thrive as a centre of commerce and Ashton Market is one of the largest outdoor markets in the United Kingdom. Ashton Town Centre is now home to the 140,000-square-foot (13,000 m ), two-floored Ashton Arcades shopping centre (opened 1995), the outdoor shopping complex Ladysmith Shopping Centre, and
13013-405: The name for cotton in several Germanic languages, such as German Baumwolle , which translates as "tree wool" ( Baum means "tree"; Wolle means "wool"). Noting its similarities to wool, people in the region could only imagine that cotton must be produced by plant-borne sheep. John Mandeville , writing in 1350, stated as fact that "There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on
13156-527: The neighbouring districts of Oldham, Mossley, Dukinfield, and Stalybridge. In the early 20th century, the Borough of Ashton-under-Lyne grew; Hurst Urban District was added in 1927, parts of Hartshead and Alt civil parishes in 1935, and parts of Limehurst Rural District in 1954. Since 1956, Ashton has been twinned with Chaumont , France. Under the Local Government Act 1972 , the town's borough status
13299-469: The new textile industries of the Northeastern United States and northwestern Europe. In 1860 the slogan " Cotton is king " characterized the attitude of Southern leaders toward this monocrop in that Europe would support an independent Confederate States of America in 1861 in order to protect the supply of cotton it needed for its very large textile industry. Russell Griffin of California was
13442-513: The north bank of the River Tame , about 35 feet (11 m) above the river. Described in Samuel Lewis 's A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848) as situated "on a gentle declivity", Ashton-under-Lyne lies on undulating ground by the Pennines , reaching a maximum elevation of about 1,000 feet (305 m) above sea level . It is 6.2 miles (10.0 km) east of Manchester city centre , and
13585-522: The north west of the manor of Ashton. For nearly two hundred years from the 18th to the 20th centuries it was the site of the Park Bridge Ironworks. Samuel Lees junior founded Park Bridge ironworks in 1786 on 14 perches of land rented from the Earl of Stamford . Originally the ironworks produced raw iron; the ironworks was one of the largest in 19th century Tameside, and one of the earliest ironworks in
13728-489: The northwest. Samuel Lees' wife, Hannah Lees (née Buckley), inherited ownership of the ironworks on her husband's death in 1804. Under Hannah Lees, the ironworks was expanded including the construction of a weir and a water power building on the River Medlock . The success of the ironworks precipitated the construction of worker housing in the 1820s. Further worker housing was added in the 1840s and 1850s. The ironworks remained
13871-471: The overseas markets shut down in the 1920s. Coal has been mined in Ashton since at least the 17th century. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries demand for coal increased, which led to an expansion of the town's coal industry. The produce of the collieries was transported by canal to Manchester. The industry began to decline during the late 19th century, and by 1904 only the Ashton Moss Colliery
14014-549: The public. The ironworks provided rivets worldwide. The Eiffel Tower and the Titanic both used its rivets in their construction. Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside , Greater Manchester , England. The population was 48,604 at the 2021 census. Historically in Lancashire , it is on the north bank of the River Tame , in the foothills of
14157-410: The raw fiber was sent to England for processing. The Indian Mahatma Gandhi described the process: In the United States, growing Southern cotton generated significant wealth and capital for the antebellum South, as well as raw material for Northern textile industries. Before 1865 the cotton was largely produced through the labor of enslaved African Americans. It enriched both the Southern landowners and
14300-604: The region. In the Meroitic Period (beginning 3rd century BCE), many cotton textiles have been recovered, preserved due to favorable arid conditions. Most of these fabric fragments come from Lower Nubia, and the cotton textiles account for 85% of the archaeological textiles from Classic/Late Meroitic sites. Due to these arid conditions, cotton, a plant that usually thrives moderate rainfall and richer soils, requires extra irrigation and labor in Sudanese climate conditions. Therefore,
14443-651: The rest of Europe. The spinning wheel , introduced to Europe circa 1350, improved the speed of cotton spinning. By the 15th century, Venice , Antwerp , and Haarlem were important ports for cotton trade, and the sale and transportation of cotton fabrics had become very profitable. Under the Mughal Empire , which ruled in the Indian subcontinent from the early 16th century to the early 18th century, Indian cotton production increased, in terms of both raw cotton and cotton textiles. The Mughals introduced agrarian reforms such as
14586-425: The same time frame, there was a decline in the working-class population. In 1931, 34% were working class compared with 36% in England and Wales; by 1971, this had decreased to 29% in Ashton and 26% nationwide. The rest of the population was made up of clerical workers and skilled manual workers. In 1700, the population of Ashton, the Tame Valley's main urban area, was an estimated 550. The town's 18th-century growth
14729-589: The store was the tallest in Britain. Amongst the facilities provided by Ashton Leisure Park are a 14-screen cinema, a bowling alley, and several restaurants. The St Petersfield area of Ashton underwent a £42 million redevelopment and provided 2,000 jobs. The aim of the investment was to create a business district in the town and bring life to a neglected area of Ashton. The development provided 280,000 square feet (26,000 m ) of office space and 400,000 square feet (37,000 m ) of retail and leisure space. Pennine Care NHS Trust relocated its headquarters to
14872-456: The town from other places called Ashton. The Domesday Survey of 1086 does not directly mention Ashton, perhaps because only a partial survey of the area had been taken. However, it is thought that St Michael's Church , mentioned in the Domesday entry for the ancient parish of Manchester , was in Ashton (also spelt Asheton , Asshton and Assheton ). The town itself was first mentioned in
15015-472: The town had a relatively low percentage working in agriculture, public administration, and property, and high rates of employment in construction, at more than triple the national rate (6.8%). The census recorded the economic activity of residents aged 16–74; 2.0% were students with jobs, 3.8% students without jobs, 6.4% looking after home or family, 9.5% permanently sick or disabled, and 3.9% economically inactive for other reasons. Ashton's 4.1% unemployment rate
15158-992: The town has been represented in Parliament as part of the Ashton-under-Lyne parliamentary constituency . During its early years the constituency was represented in the House of Commons by members of the Liberal Party until the late 19th century, when it was broadly held by the Conservative Party . It has been held by the Labour Party since 1935; Angela Rayner has been the constituency's Member of Parliament (MP) since 2015. At 53°29′38″N 2°6′11″W / 53.49389°N 2.10306°W / 53.49389; -2.10306 (53.4941°, −2.1032°), and 160 miles (257 km) north-northwest of London , Ashton-under-Lyne stands on
15301-468: The town, and one of only two in Tameside. There was a great increase in the number of chapels and religious buildings in the area during the 19th century, and by the end of the century there were 44 Anglican churches and 138 chapels belonging to other denominations. The most common denominations amongst the chapels were Catholic , Congregationalist , and Methodist . The 19th-century evangelist John Wroe attempted to turn Ashton-under-Lyne into
15444-471: The use of pesticides at similar levels to non-Bt cotton and causing less profit for farmers because of the extra expense of GM seeds. However, a 2009 study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Stanford University and Rutgers University refuted this. They concluded that the GM cotton effectively controlled bollworm. The secondary pests were mostly miridae (plant bugs) whose increase was related to local temperature and rainfall and only continued to increase in half
15587-489: The vast majority of modern cotton production, but the two Old World species were widely used before the 1900s. While cotton fibers occur naturally in colors of white, brown, pink and green, fears of contaminating the genetics of white cotton have led many cotton-growing locations to ban the growing of colored cotton varieties. The word "cotton" has Arabic origins , derived from the Arabic word قطن ( qutn or qutun ). This
15730-491: The villages and then taken to towns in the form of yarn to be woven into cloth textiles, was advanced by the diffusion of the spinning wheel across India shortly before the Mughal era, lowering the costs of yarn and helping to increase demand for cotton. The diffusion of the spinning wheel, and the incorporation of the worm gear and crank handle into the roller cotton gin, led to greatly expanded Indian cotton textile production during
15873-500: The villages studied. Moreover, the increase in insecticide use for the control of these secondary insects was far smaller than the reduction in total insecticide use due to Bt cotton adoption. A 2012 Chinese study concluded that Bt cotton halved the use of pesticides and doubled the level of ladybirds, lacewings and spiders. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) said that, worldwide, GM cotton
16016-535: The war. The Lancashire Cotton Famine prompted the main purchasers of cotton, Britain and France , to turn to Egyptian cotton. British and French traders invested heavily in cotton plantations. The Egyptian government of Viceroy Isma'il took out substantial loans from European bankers and stock exchanges. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, British and French traders abandoned Egyptian cotton and returned to cheap American exports, sending Egypt into
16159-417: The west end of Ashton (Junction 23). Cotton Cotton (from Arabic al-qutn ) is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll , or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae . The fiber is almost pure cellulose , and can contain minor percentages of waxes , fats , pectins , and water . Under natural conditions,
16302-560: The works, helped to fight the fire but died in the subsequent explosion. The second of the five victims of the Moors murders , 12-year-old John Kilbride, lived in the town. He was lured away from the town's market on 23 November 1963 by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley before being murdered and buried on Saddleworth Moor . His body was found in October 1965. Ashton became a part of the newly formed Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in 1974. In May 2004,
16445-571: The world, economies that rely on it face difficulties and conflict, as well as potential environmental problems. For example, improper cropping and irrigation practices have led to desertification in areas of Uzbekistan , where cotton is a major export. In the days of the Soviet Union , the Aral Sea was tapped for agricultural irrigation, largely of cotton, and now salination is widespread. Cotton can also be cultivated to have colors other than
16588-517: The world. A long-term study on the economic impacts of Bt cotton in India, published in the Journal PNAS in 2012, showed that Bt cotton has increased yields, profits, and living standards of smallholder farmers. The U.S. GM cotton crop was 4.0 million hectares in 2011 the second largest area in the world, the Chinese GM cotton crop was third largest by area with 3.9 million hectares and Pakistan had
16731-523: The yellowish off-white typical of modern commercial cotton fibers. Naturally colored cotton can come in red, green, and several shades of brown. The water footprint of cotton fibers is substantially larger than for most other plant fibers. Cotton is also known as a thirsty crop; on average, globally, cotton requires 8,000–10,000 liters of water for one kilogram of cotton, and in dry areas, it may require even more such as in some areas of India, it may need 22,500 liters. Genetically modified (GM) cotton
16874-459: Was lord of the manor in the mid-14th century and known as the Black Knight, was an unpopular and cruel feudal lord . After his death, his unpopularity led the locals to parade an effigy of him around the town each Easter Monday and collect money. Afterwards the effigy would be hung up, shot, and set on fire, before being torn apart and thrown into the crowd. The first recorded occurrence of
17017-426: Was GM in 2009 making Australia the country with the fifth largest GM cotton crop in the world. Other GM cotton growing countries in 2011 were Argentina, Myanmar, Burkina Faso, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa and Costa Rica. Cotton has been genetically modified for resistance to glyphosate a broad-spectrum herbicide discovered by Monsanto which also sells some of the Bt cotton seeds to farmers. There are also
17160-547: Was a source of income for families across the South. Rural and small town school systems had split vacations so children could work in the fields during "cotton-picking." During the middle 20th century, employment in cotton farming fell, as machines began to replace laborers and the South's rural labor force dwindled during the World Wars. Cotton remains a major export of the United States, with large farms in California, Arizona and
17303-456: Was abolished, and Ashton has, since 1 April 1974, formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside , within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester . Ashton-under-Lyne is divided into four wards : Ashton Hurst, Ashton St. Michaels, Ashton St Peters, and Ashton Waterloo. After the 2012 local elections , all twelve seats were held by Labour councillors . Since the Reform Act 1832
17446-569: Was above the national rate of 3.3%. The town's most prominent football teams are Ashton United F.C. and Curzon Ashton F.C. Ashton United was the first team in the Manchester Football Association to win an FA Cup tie, when they beat Turton 3–0 in 1883. In 1885, they were the first winners of the Manchester Senior Cup , beating Newton Heath (who later became Manchester United ) in the final. They currently compete in
17589-641: Was decided to turn the Portland Basin warehouse into a museum. In 1985, the first part of the Heritage Centre and Museum opened on the first floor of the warehouse. The restoration of the building was complete in 1999; the museum details Tameside's social, industrial, and political history. The basin next to the warehouse is the point at which the Ashton Canal , the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and
17732-459: Was developed to reduce the heavy reliance on pesticides. The bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) naturally produces a chemical harmful only to a small fraction of insects, most notably the larvae of moths and butterflies , beetles , and flies , and harmless to other forms of life. The gene coding for Bt toxin has been inserted into cotton, causing cotton, called Bt cotton , to produce this natural insecticide in its tissues. In many regions,
17875-494: Was donated by George Grey, 7th Earl of Stamford . A crowd of between 60,000 and 80,000 turned out to see the Earl of Stamford formally open the new facility on 12 July 1873. It now includes a boating lake and a memorial to Joseph Rayner Stephens , commissioned by local factory workers to commemorate his work promoting fair wages and improved working conditions. A conservatory was opened in 1907 and Coronation gates were installed at both
18018-562: Was found in the moss; it was thought to belong to the Romano-British period – similar to the Lindow Man bog body – until radiocarbon dating revealed that it dated from 1,320 to 970 BC. The eastern terminus of the early medieval linear earthwork Nico Ditch is in Ashton Moss ( grid reference SJ909980 ); it was probably used as an administrative boundary and dates from
18161-565: Was fuelled by an influx of people from the countryside attracted by the prospect of work in its new industries, mirroring the rest of the region. In the early 19th century, Irish immigrants escaping from the Great Irish Famine were also drawn to the area by the new jobs created. The availability of jobs created by the growth of the textile industry in the town led to Ashton's population increasing by more than 400% between 1801 and 1861, from 6,500 to 34,886. The population dropped by 9% during
18304-401: Was grown by Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan . Egyptians grew and spun cotton in the first seven centuries of the Christian era. Handheld roller cotton gins had been used in India since the 6th century, and was then introduced to other countries from there. Between the 12th and 14th centuries, dual-roller gins appeared in India and China. The Indian version of
18447-418: Was imported from India without tariffs to British factories which manufactured textiles from Indian cotton, giving Britain a monopoly over India's large market and cotton resources. India served as both a significant supplier of raw goods to British manufacturers and a large captive market for British manufactured goods. Britain eventually surpassed India as the world's leading cotton textile manufacturer in
18590-484: Was incorporated under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 , as a municipal borough with the name "Ashton-under-Lyne", giving it borough status . When the administrative county of Lancashire was created by the Local Government Act 1888 , the borough fell under the newly created Lancashire County Council . The borough's boundaries changed during the late 19th century through small exchanges of land with
18733-451: Was invented in India during the early Delhi Sultanate era of the 13th–14th centuries, came into use in the Mughal Empire some time around the 16th century, and is still used in India through to the present day. Another innovation, the incorporation of the crank handle in the cotton gin, first appeared in India some time during the late Delhi Sultanate or the early Mughal Empire. The production of cotton, which may have largely been spun in
18876-537: Was nearly double the national average of 3.1%, and was higher than the average of 2.5% for Tameside. As of October 2013, six mosques were located in the town, including one on Hillgate Street in Penny Meadow (Ashton Central Mosque, formerly known as Markazi Jamia Mosque) and one on Katherine Street in West End (Masjid Hamza Mosque). In the medieval period, farming was important in Ashton, particularly arable farming. By
19019-443: Was no punishment for continuing to sell cotton cloth, smuggling of the popular material became commonplace. In 1721, dissatisfied with the results of the first act, Parliament passed a stricter addition, this time prohibiting the sale of most cottons, imported and domestic (exempting only thread Fustian and raw cotton). The exemption of raw cotton from the prohibition initially saw 2 thousand bales of cotton imported annually, to become
19162-429: Was not as important to the town as the textile industry, but in 1882 the Ashton Moss Colliery had the deepest mine shaft in the world at 870 metres (2,850 ft). Ashton's textile industry remained constant between 1865 and the 1920s. Although some mills closed or merged, the number of spindles in use increased. With the collapse of the overseas market in the 1920s, the town's cotton industry went into decline, and by
19305-422: Was planted on an area of 25 million hectares in 2011. This was 69% of the worldwide total area planted in cotton. GM cotton acreage in India grew at a rapid rate, increasing from 50,000 hectares in 2002 to 10.6 million hectares in 2011. The total cotton area in India was 12.1 million hectares in 2011, so GM cotton was grown on 88% of the cotton area. This made India the country with the largest area of GM cotton in
19448-479: Was provided with a recreational ground, a gymnasium, and an institute containing public baths, a library, and a reading room. Mason estimated that establishing the settlement cost him around £10,000 and would require a further £1,000 a year to maintain (about £600,000 and £60,000 respectively as of 2024), and that its annual mortality rate was significantly lower than in the rest of the town. A poor supply of fresh water and dwellings without adequate drainage led to
19591-446: Was put on Parliament, by the new mill owners, to remove the prohibition on the production and sale of pure cotton cloth, as they could easily compete with anything the EIC could import. The acts were repealed in 1774, triggering a wave of investment in mill-based cotton spinning and production, doubling the demand for raw cotton within a couple of years, and doubling it again every decade, into
19734-592: Was responsible for a large part of the empire's international trade. India had a 25% share of the global textile trade in the early 18th century. Indian cotton textiles were the most important manufactured goods in world trade in the 18th century, consumed across the world from the Americas to Japan . The most important center of cotton production was the Bengal Subah province, particularly around its capital city of Dhaka . The worm gear roller cotton gin , which
19877-476: Was responsible for collecting tolls from traffic; the proceeds were used for road maintenance. The trust for Manchester to Salters Brook was one of over 400 established between 1706 and 1750, a period in which turnpikes became popular. It was the first turnpike to be opened in Tameside , and driven by economic growth, more turnpikes were opened in the area in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Acts of Parliaments were passed in 1765, 1793, and 1799 permitting
20020-407: Was still operational, the last colliery to be opened in the area. Ashton town centre, which is the largest in Tameside, developed in the Victorian period. Many of the original buildings have survived, and as a result, the town centre is protected by Tameside Council as a conservation area. As well as being populated by leading high-street names, Ashton has an outdoor market which was established in
20163-587: Was the usual word for cotton in medieval Arabic . Marco Polo in chapter 2 in his book, describes a province he calls Khotan in Turkestan, today's Xinjiang , where cotton was grown in abundance. The word entered the Romance languages in the mid-12th century, and English a century later. Cotton fabric was known to the ancient Romans as an import, but cotton was rare in the Romance-speaking lands until imports from
20306-456: Was time-consuming and expensive. This, coupled with the emergence of American cotton as a superior type (due to the longer, stronger fibers of the two domesticated native American species, Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense ), encouraged British traders to purchase cotton from plantations in the United States and in the Caribbean . By the mid-19th century, " King Cotton " had become
20449-626: Was unveiled on 16 September 1922 by General Sir Ian Hamilton . The tablet on the front of the memorial reads: Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North West and ITV Granada . Television signals are received from the Winter Hill TV transmitter. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Manchester on 95.1 FM, Capital Manchester and Lancashire on 102.0 FM, Heart North West on 105.4 FM, Smooth North West on 100.4 FM, XS Manchester on 106.1 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Manchester & The North West on 96.2 FM, and Tameside Radio ,
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