Portal:Greater Manchester/Selected article/8

Shaw and Crompton is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, and is regularly referred to as Shaw. Crompton (as it was originally known) has provided evidence of ancient British and Anglian activity in the area. During the Middle Ages, Crompton formed a small township with weak local lordship, and so it failed to emerge as a manor with its own lord and court. Farming was the main industry of this area, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system.

The introduction of textile manufacture initiated a process of rapid and unplanned urbanisation. A building boom began in Crompton during the mid-19th century, when suitable land in Oldham was becoming scarce. By the late-19th century Crompton had emerged as a densely populated mill town. At its spinning zenith, Shaw and Crompton was reported to have had more millionaires per capita than any other town in the world. Imports of foreign cotton goods began the decline in the region's textile industry during the mid-20th century; Shaw and Crompton's last mill closed in 1989. Today, Shaw and Crompton is a predominantly residential area of mixed affluence with a population of 21,721.