Middleton Junction

Middleton Junction railway station was an early junction station on the Manchester and Leeds Railway, it opened when the branch to Oldham opened in 1842. The line through station site opened on 4 July 1839 when the Manchester and Leeds Railway (M&LR) opened a railway between Manchester Oldham Road and Littleborough, the first stage of its main line from Manchester to Leeds.Middleton Junction railway station opened as Oldham Junction on the 31 March 1842 when the M&LR opened the Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch between this new station on the main line and Oldham Werneth. On 11 August 1842 the station was renamed Middleton and in 1852 it started to appear in timetables as Middleton Junction.The station was located at Lane End in Chadderton, a former hamlet which later adopted the place-name Middleton Junction after the area expanded after the opening of the railway. The station site was immediately north of where Grimshaw Lane (now the B6189) crossed the railwayThe station appears to have opened with three platforms, two either side of the mainline and one on the mainline side of the track of the sharply curved branch. The 1848 map shows a building and a few sidings located in the 'v' of the junction.The station was rebuilt in 1882 and by 1893 there were buildings on all what was now four platforms, two sidings in the 'v' of the junction and a goods yard with a shed to the south west of the mainline. The yard was able to handle livestock and was equipped with a two-ton crane. Further to the south and located on both sides of the main line was Middleton Junction Sidings.On 5 January 1857 the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) opened another branch, the Middleton Branch, heading eastwards immediately to the north of the mainline platforms. The branch had only one station its terminus at Middleton.On 12 August 1914 a goods and coal depot was opened at Chadderton. This was at the end of a 1,097-yard (1,003 m) long line which branched off the Oldham line approximately 400 yards (370 m) from Middleton Junction at Chadderton Junction.The line from Chadderton Junction to Oldham was closed to regular passengers in 1958 although some diverted services used it in 1960 and completely on 7 January 1963.The branch line to Middleton closed to passengers on 7 September 1964 and completely on 11 October 1965.The line through the site is still open but the station closed to passengers on 3 January 1966.The Chadderton goods and coal depot remained open and in use until 1988 (the track was eventually lifted in September 1991).

Junction Mill, Middleton Junction is a cotton spinning mill at Middleton junction, Chadderton in Greater Manchester alongside the Rochdale Canal. It was built in 1874 by the Junction Spinning Company Ltd. Bought by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1930s. Closed in 1955 and now in multiple use.

Laurel Mill was a cotton spinning mill in the Mills Hill/Middleton Junction area of Chadderton, Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. It was sited alongside the Rochdale Canal, which, until 1933 boundary changes, formed the boundary with Middleton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It was built in 1905 by the Laurel Mill Company. It was taken over by Messrs Murgatroyd and after a strike in June 1936 it was sold under the terms of the Cotton Spinning Industry Act 1936 out of spinning. Bought by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation before 1951, it was brought back into production baling waste for export. The building closed for the final time in 1966 and was demolished in 1988.

Firwood Park is a suburban area of Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester. It is located a little over one mile to the west of Chadderton's commercial centre on Middleton Road and is contiguous with the Mills Hill, Chadderton Park and Middleton Junction areas of the town. A development of 749 houses, Firwood Park was built in 1990 on a vast tract of land, which at one time was claimed to be the largest private residential development in Europe.

Malta Mill, Middleton is a former cotton spinning mill in the Mills Hill area of Chadderton, Greater Manchester. It lies alongside the Rochdale Canal. It was built in 1904 as a new mule mill, by F. W. Dixon The engine stopped in 1963. The building still stands. Prior to 1933 boundary changes the mill lay within Middleton.

Greengate is an industrial district in the town of Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester. It is located in the south west of Chadderton, close to the town's common borders with Middleton to the west and Moston in the City of Manchester which lies to the south. For postal purposes Greengate lies within the Manchester postal district (M24, Middleton). British aircraft manufacturer Avro, later BAE Chadderton, built a factory at Greengate in 1938–39. It was one of the largest employers in the area. The BAE factory was closed in 2012 and purchased later that year by NOV (formerly National Oilwell Varco), an American multinational working in oil and gas.

Chadderton Power Station refers to a series of two coal-fired power stations, which were situated at Chadderton, Greater Manchester in North West England.

Mills Hill is an industrial and residential area that lies on the common border of Middleton and Chadderton in Greater Manchester, England. It lies 1.3 miles east of Middleton town centre and 1.4 miles to the west of central Chadderton. It is contiguous with Middleton Junction, Moorclose, Firwood Park and Chadderton Park. Mills Hill lies along the course of the Rochdale Canal and the River Irk.

Mills Hill railway station is in the Mills Hill area of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. The station is 5¾ miles (9 km) north of Manchester Victoria on the Caldervale Line. Mills Hill lies on Middleton's common boundary with Chadderton, and thus serves both communities. During the temporary closure of the Oldham Loop line for its conversion to Metrolink light rail (2009–12) the station acted as an informal railhead for much of the borough of Oldham. With an annual patronage of 314,000 entries and exits per year Mills Hill station is the second busiest unstaffed railway station within Transport for Greater Manchester's area. It is due to this fact that TfGM are pushing for funding to be made available to improve accessibility at the station for disabled passengers. The station is second only to Greenfield Railway Station on the prioritized list for this funding.

Foxdenton is a semi rural locality in Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester. It is located in the west of Chadderton. Middleton Junction lies to the west with Nimble Nook to the east. It is the location of the manorial Foxdenton Hall and its grounds, Foxdenton Park. There were several working farms remaining in Foxdenton until the late 2010s. The commencement of the Broadway Green housing development will, however, see the area become more suburban in character. The farmhouse at Foxdenton Farm is a grade II listed building.Early 19th century gazetteers described Foxdenton as a village in the township of Chadderton.

Middleton Technology School is a coeducational secondary school in the Middleton area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in Greater Manchester, England. Since 1995 the school has specialised in technology, vocational education and Raising Achievement Transforming Learning (RATL). During a 2006 Ofsted inspection the school was described as "Outstanding".

The Oldham Branch Railway was an early railway of the Manchester and Leeds Railway Company connecting Oldham to Manchester. The Manchester and Leeds Railway (M&LR) opened its Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch on 31 March 1842 from its mainline, the Manchester to Littleborough railway line (which had opened on 4 July 1839), at Middleton Junction (called at the time Oldham Junction) to Oldham Werneth. This was the first railway to reach Oldham, albeit up a severe incline to Werneth on the west side of the town.The branch had two stations, the junction at Middleton and the terminus at Oldham.Connecting the two stations the branch was 2 miles (3.2 km) long most of which was the Werneth Incline at 1 mile 1,383 yards (2.874 km) long it was one of the steepest passenger worked railway line in Britain, with a gradient of 1:27 for about one mile (1.6 km).The earliest trains to use this line required cable assistance to get to the top of the incline. The method of working was devised by Captain Laws, the company General Manager; it used a balancing load of mineral wagons and a brake van on a reserved track, with a cable passing round a large drum at the head of the incline. Traffic proceeding up the incline would be attached to the rope and drawn up under control by its own locomotive using the descending load to reduce the effort required. The next descending train would be used to draw the balancing load back up the incline. There were sufficient descending trains, both regular service trains and coal trains from Stockfield Colliery to ensure the service ran without much interruption. This arrangement continued until some time between 1851 and 1856, after which ordinary locomotive working was used.The branch carried heavy traffic in its first few years, an average of 750,000 passengers per year, and plans were quickly made for the branch to be extended through the higher ground into Oldham town centre and beyond.A 1 mile (1.6 km) extension was built by the construction of two tunnels with a cutting between them to the only intermediate station at Oldham Central located just beyond the second tunnel and then to Oldham Mumps. The line and stations opened on 1 November 1847.On 12 August 1914 a goods and coal depot was opened at Chadderton. This was at the end of the 1,097 yards (1,003 m) long Chadderton Branch off the Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch approximately 400 yards (370 m) from Middleton Junction.The line from Chadderton Junction to Oldham was closed to regular passengers in 1958 although some diverted services used it in 1960 and completely on 7 January 1963.Middleton Junction closed to passengers on 3 January 1966.The Chadderton goods and coal depot remained open and in use until 1988 (the track was eventually lifted in September 1991).