Shaw, Greater Manchester

Crompton War Memorial is a Grade II* listed monument in the Memorial Gardens on High Street in Shaw and Crompton, a civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. It was unveiled on 29 April 1923 by General Sir Ian Hamilton to commemorate those who had fallen in the First World War, and was later updated to include those who died during the Second World War.

Shaw and Crompton is a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, and lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines. It is located 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north of Oldham, 3.6 miles (5.8 km) south-east of Rochdale and 8.7 miles (14 km) north-east of Manchester. Its largest settlement is Shaw. Historically in Lancashire, the area shows evidence of ancient British and Anglian activity. In the Middle Ages, Crompton formed a small township of scattered woods, farmsteads, moorland and swamp. The local lordship was weak or absent, and so Crompton failed to emerge as a manor with its own lord and court. Farming was the main industry of this rural area, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system. The introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution initiated a process of rapid and unplanned urbanisation. A building boom began in Crompton in the mid-19th century, when suitable land for factories in Oldham was becoming scarce. By the late 19th century, Crompton had emerged as a densely populated mill town with forty-eight cotton mills, some of the largest in the United Kingdom, in the area. At its spinning zenith, as a result of an interwar economic boom associated with the textile industry, Shaw and Crompton had more millionaires per capita than any other town in the world. Imports of foreign cotton goods saw a decline in the textile industry by the mid-20th century and the last mill closed in 1989. Shaw and Crompton covers 4.5 square miles (11.7 km2) and is a predominantly suburban area of mixed affluence with a population of 21,065 as of 2011. The legacy of its industrial past can be seen in its three surviving cotton mills, all of which are home to large distribution companies, among them is Yodel based at Shaw National Distribution Centre, a major employer in the area.

Dawn Mill, Shaw was a cotton spinning mill in Shaw and Crompton, Oldham, Greater Manchester. It was built on the site of Shaw Mill at the "dawn" of the 20th century. Dawn Mill was equipped with mule weft spindles in 1950. It was powered by Engines named Venus and Mars, 1800 hp twin tandem compound engine by George Saxon of Manchester. It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1930s and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. It was sold again and used by distribution company DTS Logistics for storing and distributing clothing. It was demolished in 2006 to make way for an Asda supermarket.

The 2012 Oldham explosion occurred on 26 June 2012. A house on Buckley Street in Shaw, a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, England exploded at 10:40am. Twelve neighbouring homes were destroyed in the blast amounting to £1.2m of damage. 175 homes were evacuated. 30 firefighters were at the site of the blast. A two-year-old boy was killed and one man injured. A gas leak was reported before the explosion. The two-year-old was later named as Jamie Heaton and the man as Jamie's neighbour; 27-year-old Andrew Partington.

Hawk Mill, Shaw was a cotton spinning mill in Shaw, Oldham, Greater Manchester. It was built in 1908. It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1931 and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. The mill closed in 1967, and was demolished in 1991.

Shaw and Crompton is a tram stop on the Oldham and Rochdale Line (ORL) of Greater Manchester's light-rail Metrolink system. It opened to passengers on 16 December 2012 and is located in Shaw and Crompton, a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, England. The station sits adjacent to the site of the original Shaw and Crompton railway station, a regional rail station which opened (initially for haulage) on 2 November 1863 and closed on 3 October 2009 for conversion to Metrolink. Known as Shaw railway station between 1974 and 1989, it was along the Oldham Loop Line, which operated from Manchester to Rochdale via Oldham and thus was almost identical to the current Metrolink route.

Trent Mill was a cotton spinning mill on Duchess Street in Shaw and Crompton, Greater Manchester, England. It was built by F.W. Dixon & Son in 1908. It closed and was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in 1929 reopened in 1938 and closed again in 1962, and was demolished in 1967.

Rutland Mill was a cotton spinning mill on Linney Lane, in Shaw and Crompton, Greater Manchester, England. It was built by F. W. Dixon & Son in 1907 for the Rutland Mill Co. Ltd. It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in 1935. By 1964, it was in the Courtaulds Group. In the late 1980s, as Courtaulds moved operations to other parts of the world, the mill was bought by Littlewoods who demolished it and replaced it with a new automated storage warehouse.

Elm Mill, was a four-storey cotton spinning mill in Shaw and Crompton, Greater Manchester, England. It was built in 1890 for the Elm Spinning Company Ltd., and was called Elm Mill until it closed in 1928. It was revived by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in 1929 and called Newby Mill. LCC and all their assets passed to Courtaulds in 1964. Production at Newby finished in 1970, and it was used for warehousing. Subsequently, named Shaw No 3 Mill, it became part of Littlewood's Shaw National Distribution Centre. It was demolished to make way for housing in 2022.

Old Brook is a small watercourse in Shaw and Crompton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester in the northwest of England. It flows from Crow Knowl on Crompton Moor to the River Beal. Its main feature is a waterfall at Pingot Quarry.

Shaw National Distribution Centre (also known as Shaw NDC) was a warehouse distribution centre located in Shaw and Crompton, a town in Greater Manchester, England. It was the main distribution and order processing centre for British retailer The Very Group who used it to store "over 1,000,000 sq ft (93,000 m2) of products", ready for delivery through their distribution arm, Business Express, which later became Home Delivery Network after the merger of Business Express and Reality. In 2011, Home Delivery Network was rebranded as Yodel. Shaw NDC spanned 23 acres (9.3 ha), making it one of Europe's largest warehouse distribution centres during its lifetime. After The Very Group relocated in 2021 to a new purpose-built facility in the East Midlands, four of the buildings on the site, including three cotton mills, have since been demolished to make way for future plans of housing. The remaining purpose-built delivery sortation facility - built in 1999 - is still occupied by delivery company Yodel as their Northern hub in the national network, alongside the Southern hub at Hatfield and Midlands hub at Wednesbury, with future plans to relocate.

Pencil Brook is a small watercourse in High Crompton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, and is a tributary of the River Beal.