Mossley

Mossley (/ˈmɒzli/) is a town and civil parish in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. It is located in the upper Tame Valley and the foothills of the Pennines, 3 mi south-east of Oldham and 9 mi east of Manchester.

The historic counties of Lancashire, Cheshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire meet in Mossley and local government wards and church parishes correspond to their boundaries. Mossley had a population of 10,921 at the 2011 Census. It is the only parished area of Tameside, having had a parish council since 1999.

Toponymy
Believed to originate in around 1319, the name Mossley means "a woodland clearing by a swamp or bog".

Events
Mossley—alongside neighbouring Stalybridge and Uppermill in Saddleworth—helped launch the annual Whit Friday Band Contest, an internationally known brass band event. This came about when the three towns held unconnected brass band events on 6 June 1884.

Public venue
George Lawton, the son of magistrate and alderman John Lawton, inherited a family fortune and when he died in August 1949, he left the bulk of his wealth to the people of Mossley. Part of his £77,760 wealth was left to build a public meeting place, the George Lawton Hall.

Governance
Following the passing of the Public Health Act 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 63) and the Local Government Act 1857, a Local Board of Health was established in Mossley in 1864. On 13 March 1885 Mossley was granted a Charter of Incorporation to become a municipal borough, replacing the local board. The council was based at Mossley Town Hall. The whole borough was unified under the administrative county of Lancashire under the Local Government Act 1888. In 1974 the borough of Mossley was absorbed under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972 into the new metropolitan borough of Tameside in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester. It became an unparished area.

Under the provisions of the Local Government and Rating Act 1997 local electors were given the right to request that a new parish and council be created in unparished areas. The people of Mossley exercised this right and a civil parish for Mossley was established in 1999. The civil parish council voted to adopt town status and Mossley now has a town mayor. The town has three parish wards based on the historic county borders, with four members representing the Cheshire part, three members the Lancashire part and two members the Yorkshire part. The town's unofficial coat of arms includes Cheshire's sheaf of corn, Lancashire's red rose and Yorkshire's white rose to signify the historic demarcation.

Parliament
From 1918 to 1950 the town gave its name to the Mossley constituency which returned a Member of Parliament; for most of the period, the MP was Austin Hopkinson, who was notable for being elected as an Independent candidate. The town is now represented by the MP for Stalybridge and Hyde.

Geography
Mossley lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines, on the western edge of Saddleworth Moor.

Churches
The eccesiastical parishes correspond to the boundaries of the historic counties:
 * St. Joseph's Church, in the centre of Mossley, is Roman Catholic
 * All Saints' Church is in Micklehurst, aligned to Cheshire
 * St John the Baptist Church is of Yorkshire
 * St George's Church is of Lancashire

Primary schools

 * St. Joseph's R.C. Primary School
 * Livingstone Primary School
 * St. George's Primary School
 * Milton St. John's Primary School
 * All Saints Micklehurst

Secondary school

 * Mossley Hollins High School

Transport
Mossley railway station is sited on the Huddersfield line. Services are operated by TransPennine Express to locations including Manchester Piccadilly, Stalybridge, Huddersfield, Leeds and Hull.

Several bus routes serve Mossley, including (as of March 2024): A tram network operated by the SHMD Joint Board ran lines through Mossley from 1904 to 1945, until their replacement by buses. The second-generation tramway Manchester Metrolink currently terminates at nearby Ashton-under-Lyne for connections to the city centre.
 * 343: operated by Stotts, travelling between Hyde and Oldham; this is the only bus route to connect nearby Carrbrook with Mossley. Sunday and Bank Holiday operations are managed by Nexus Move.
 * 350: operated by Stagecoach Manchester (Bee Network) between Oldham and Ashton.
 * 356: operated by Nexus Move, between Ashton-under-Lyne, Uppermill and Oldham.
 * 357: operated by South Pennine Community Transport between Ashton-under-Lyne and Holmfirth (Tuesdays only); this is the only bus service connecting the town with the nearby county of West Yorkshire.

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North West and ITV Granada. Television signals are received from the Winter Hill TV transmitter and one of the two local relay transmitters (Saddleworth and Brock Bottom ).

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Manchester, Capital Manchester and Lancashire, Heart North West, Smooth North West, XS Manchester, Greatest Hits Radio Manchester & The North West, and Tameside Radio, a community based station.

The local newspaper is the Tameside Reporter, published on Thursdays.

Twinning
Mossley's French twin town is Hem, situated near Lille, in the Nord département.

Sport
Local sport teams include Mossley A.F.C., Mossley Mayhem Softball Club, Mossley Athletic JFC, Mossley Juniors F.C., Mossley AFC Running Club and Micklehurst Cricket Club.

Fairtrade
Mossley's Town Council passed a resolution in November 2009 to make Mossley a Fairtrade Town. A group of local campaigners and activist have started the Fairtrade Mossley group to make 2010 the year that Mossley becomes a Fairtrade Town.

Notable people

 * Ernest Sykes, recipient of the Victoria Cross
 * Melanie Sykes, TV presenter and model
 * John Mayall, mill owner and owner of the largest cotton spinning company in the world (1803–1878)
 * Jon Courtenay, Britain's Got Talent winner in 2020
 * Lee Broadbent and Eoghan Clifford, members of the hard rock band Cabbage
 * Ray Hill, anti-fascist
 * Peter McGarr - British Award winning composer, lives in Mossley.
 * Chris Cyprus - artist