Directions to Tameside

Lying seven miles due east of Manchester, in the North West region of England, Tameside is a neat, compact Borough in an area of scenic beauty, industrial heritage and easy communication with the rest of the country. Tameside is roughly eight miles across - with just under 215,000 people settled in its 40 square miles.

Tameside is framed to the north by the River Medlock, to the south by the River Etherow and the scenic beauty of Werneth Low, to the east by the Pennines, and to the west by the City of Manchester.

The borough was created in 1974 and takes its name from the River Tame which links the nine towns constituting the Borough: Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Denton, Droylsden, Dukinfield, Hyde, Longdendale (comprising the villages of Broadbottom, Hollingworth and Mottram), Mossley and Stalybridge.

It combines a mix of urban and rural landscapes and the area includes historic market towns, a canal network and industrial heritage areas as well as direct motorway links and a 20-minute journey to Manchester International Airport.

Tameside has a strong manufacturing tradition, particularly in the areas of textiles and engineering, food industries and manufacturing of high technology chemical, electronic and computer products. The borough's service sector has also experienced continued growth throughout the 1980s and 1990s and service industries now make up the largest employment sector in Tameside, though employment in the service sector stands below the national average.

There is a rich mixture of different cultures, religions and ethnic groups in Tameside. Over five percent of the population is made up of people from ethnic backgrounds other than European, including Afro-Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Chinese, East African, Asian, Indian and Pakistani families. Many more Tamesiders are of Irish, Italian, Polish and Ukrainian backgrounds.