Facts About Mossley

A comprehensive selection of historical photographs can be found at www.tameside.gov.uk/history.

• Mossley in the eighteenth century was a scattered farming community with a strong domestic-based woollen industry. The modern town was spread across three counties, Top Mossley being in Ashton township in Lancashire, Micklehurst in the township of Tintwistle in Cheshire, and the remainder forming part of the Quickmere division of Saddleworth township in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The majority of land was owned by the Stamford estate but, unlike in Ashton, this did not play an active part in the early development of the town. As a result of the division of Mossley between three townships, no census returns are given for the town until after is unification under a local board in 1864 but contemporary accounts of the town can be used to give a rough guide to its growth.
  
  
• St. George's Church was first consecrated in Mossley in 1757 having cost £600, but in 1879 it has become dilapidated and in that year the foundation stone of a new building was laid. It was consecrated in 1882. The photograph shows that it was originally built without a tower and it was five years before the tower was added, in 1887, to house the bells and a clock. The bells were installed in March 1888 and the clock, was given to Mrs Kershaw an Miss Beswick, in March 1887.
  
  
• St. Joseph's Church, in 1856 a Catholic mission under the patronage of St. Bridget was established in Mossley by the Rev. William Wilson. Mass was said in a room in a building known as the old Garrett (above the Old House at Home public house on Neild Street). In 1862 the Rev. Charles Grymonprez built another church. It was dedicated to St. Joseph and could accommodate 300. From 1864 the hall next door to the church building also served as the elementary school with a screen separating the altar during school hours. In 1965 this building was replaced by a new church.
  
  
• John Mayall's life (1803 - 1878) was typical of that of many Victorians who rose from poverty to extreme wealth via the cotton trade, and he exerted great influence on the growth of Mossley. He started work at the age of seven in a woollen mill in Uppermill and such was his success that by 1876 his was the largest privately owned cotton spinning firm in the world. A Congregationalist, he was instrumental in the building of Abney Church and, until the Church was completed in 1855, allowed services to be held in the Britannia Mill which he owned with his brother George. John Mayall was prominent in civic affairs: among many other duties he was Chairman of the Board of Surveyors and a member of the Ashton Board of Guardians. During the latter part of his life he lived at Highfield House. In 1886 his son became the second Mayor of Mossley.
  
  
• Whitehall was designed by William Williamson and built for George Mayall (brother of John Mayall) for his wife Esther, between 1861 and 1864. It was built in the Italianate style, it is of a symmetrical plan of eight bays and two storeys. The stone used for the building is reputed to have come from Macclesfield, while the interior of the house was decorated with heraldic motifs and statutory. The building of the house cost over £60,000. George Mayall is said to have remarked that he kept note of the cost until it reached £60,000 and then gave up. Esther Mayall died before the house was completed and George only used part of the building. It was put to fuller use when Edmund Less Mayall, George's son, brought his wife there. The grounds were later given to the town, but the building was purchased by Mossley on his death for the sum of £4000 and used as Mossley Town Hall until 1974.
  
  
• Scout Tunnel in Mossley is the only tunnel in Tameside and is 200 yards long. If you were to stand at the top of Scout Tunnel looking towards the railway line in the direction of Woodhead Tunnel, there you will see on the hillside a horse which is cut out of heather.
  
  
• The population of Mossley was recorded at 10,089 during the 1991 census - making it the least populated of the 9 towns in the Borough of Tameside.
  
  
• Private Sykes of the 27(S) Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers was born in Mossley in 1885 and was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery in action on 19th April 1917 near Arras in France.
  
  
• Tameside's first Co-op was opened in 1856 on Arundel Street, Mossley.
  
  
• Austin Hopkinson (1879 -1962) - Local industrialist and inventor, was also an MP, first for the Prestwich constituency in October 1918 and then for the Mossley constituency from December 1918 to May 1929 and again from October 1931 until his defeat in July 1945.

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