Royton railway station

Royton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 21,284 in 2011. Close to the source of the River Irk, near undulating land at the foothills of the South Pennines, it is 1.7 miles (2.7 km) northwest of Oldham, 3.2 miles (5.1 km) southeast of Rochdale and 7.6 miles (12.2 km) northeast of Manchester. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, Royton and its surroundings have provided evidence of ancient British, Roman and Viking activity in the area. During the Middle Ages, Royton formed a small township centred on Royton Hall, a manor house owned by a long succession of dignitaries which included the Byrons and Radcliffes. A settlement expanded outwards from the hall which, by as late as 1780, "contained only a few straggling and mean-built cottages". Farming was the main industry of this rural area, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system. Royton has the distinction of being the first town where a powered cotton mill was built; at Thorp in 1764, and is one of the first localities in the world to have adopted the factory system. The introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution facilitated a process of unplanned urbanisation in the area, and by the mid-19th century Royton had emerged as a mill town. At its zenith, there were 40 cotton mills—some of the largest in the United Kingdom—employing 80% of the local population. Imports of foreign cotton goods began the decline in Royton's textile industry during the mid-20th century, and its last mill closed in 2002. Today, fewer than a dozen mills are still standing, the majority of which are used for light engineering or as distribution centres. Despite an economic depression brought about by the demise of cotton spinning, Royton's population has continued to grow as a result of intensive housing redevelopment which has modernised its former Edwardian districts.

Royton Town Hall is a municipal building in Rochdale Road, Royton, Greater Manchester, England. The town hall was the headquarters of Royton Urban District Council.

Our Lady's R.C. High School was a Roman Catholic high school and sixth form for 11- to 18-year-olds, located in Royton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. The school was a specialist school in Mathematics and Computing, and contained over 80 members of staff, with over 1200 students. The sixth form college offered 19 (as of the 2007/08 academic year) courses. The school had a dispute in 2010 after Headteacher R. Whittaker was suspended. His Deputy Headteacher, C. Spillaine became Acting Headteacher, but left the school at the end of 2010 after disagreements with the students. The most recent Headteacher was Mr Thornton who left when the school merged with St Augustine of Canterbury RC High School to form Blessed John Henry Newman RC College, a joint Roman Catholic School.

The Oldham Academy North (TOAN) is a mixed gender secondary school with academy status for 11- to 16-year-olds located in the Royton area of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. The academy is sponsored by E-ACT. The school relocated to a new campus in Royton in 2013. It is also the home to Shaw Millionaires Ball Hockey Club. In September 2019, TOAN opened the doors to its new £5 million building, which facilitates the entire Humanities' classrooms - along with several miscellaneous subjects and a "state-of-the-art" lecture theatreSome of the former headteachers were (oldest first): Gillian McMullen (at Grange School), Colette Burgess, Martin Knowles,Christopher Davis and Rachel Hallam.

The Royton Branch was a mile-long Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway built double track branch railway line in Greater Manchester, England, that ran from Royton Junction (renamed Royton in 1978) on the Oldham Loop Line to Royton.

Royton Ring Mill was a cotton mill in Royton, Greater Manchester, England. It was built in 1908 and extended in 1912. It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in 1935 and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. Production finished in 1966. It was extended again in 1969 and used for other purposes. It has now been demolished, the street has been renamed and houses have replaced it.

The Royal Oldham Hospital is a NHS hospital in the Coldhurst area of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. It is managed by the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust. The hospital has its own volunteer-run radio station, Radio Cavell, which broadcasts at 1350 AM.

Boundary Park is a football stadium in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. Its name originates from the fact that it lies at the northwestern extremity of Oldham, with Royton and Chadderton lying immediately north and west respectively.Boundary Park was originally known as the Athletic Ground when it was opened in 1896 for Oldham's first professional football club, Oldham County F.C.. When County folded in 1899, Pine Villa F.C. took over the ground and changed their name to Oldham Athletic. Oldham Athletic A.F.C. have played their home games here since the stadium was opened. Oldham RLFC left their traditional home, Watersheddings, in 1997 and moved to Boundary Park, although they briefly moved to Hurst Cross in Ashton-under-Lyne in 2002, where they played until 2009, when the football club decided that they no longer wanted them as tenants.

Madina Masjid & Islamic Centre (Bengali: মদিনা মসজিদ ও ইসলামিক সেন্টার) is a mosque in Oldham, United Kingdom. It was established in 1987, making it one of the oldest mosques in the area.

E-ACT Royton and Crompton Academy is a coeducational, secondary academy school for 11- to 16-year-olds in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England.

Coldhurst (or more rarely Cold Hurst) is an area of Oldham and an electoral ward of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. At the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001, it had a population of 11,935, increasing to 13,201 at the 2011 Census. The electoral ward spans most of Oldham's town centre, although the name Coldhurst conventionally applies to the area immediately north of the centre. The district of Westwood and a small adjoining part of Chadderton in the Busk area also lie within the Coldhurst ward district. Historically a part of Lancashire, Coldhurst was formerly a chapelry within the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham, in the Salfordshire hundred.An old hall existed in the locality belonging to Abram Crompton Esq, which gave its name to Crompton Street. Coldhurst is said to have been the scene of an action in the English Civil War in which the parliamentarians were defeated.Following the Industrial Revolution, Coldhurst was the site of considerable industry and commerce, including coal mining, cotton spinning and hat manufacture.Coldhurst is the home of a significant community of South Asian (particularly Bangladeshi) heritage. 37% of the population is non-white and most of the white residents live in what have been described as "bleak council developments". In 2001, Coldhurst was in the 5% most deprived wards in the United Kingdom.A photograph of Coldhurst during the Victorian era was used as part of the "Made of Manchester" promotion of the home strip worn by Manchester United F.C. for the 2012–13 season.

Thorp Mill, Royton was built by Ralph Taylor at Thorp Clough in 1764. This is reputed to be the first cotton mill in Lancashire to be powered by water. Ralph Taylor bought three existing cottages which he converted into a mill. This was a carding mill, and was powered by a water wheel driven from Thorp Clough, a tributary of the River Irk. The mill closed in 1788 when the mill and contents were advertised for sale by the then owner James Taylor. It was advertised again in 1792, and the buildings reverted to cottages, and were subsequently demolished. The mill is marked by a blue plaque. Thorp itself is higher up the clough and is the oldest hamlet in Royton, Lancashire. The construction of more mills followed, which initiated a process of urbanisation and socioeconomic transformation in the region; the population moved away from farming, adopting employment in the factory system. The introduction of which led to a tenfold increase of Royton's population in less than a century; from 260 in 1714 to 2,719 in 1810. The introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution facilitated a process of unplanned urbanisation in the area, and by the mid-19th century Royton had emerged as a mill town.