Portal:Geography/Featured article/July, 2009

Shaw and Crompton is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the Pennines, 2.3 mi north of Oldham, 3.6 mi southeast of Rochdale, and 8.7 mi to the northeast of the city of Manchester. It is regularly referred to as Shaw.

Historically a part of Lancashire, Crompton (as it was originally known) and its surroundings have provided evidence of ancient British and Anglian activity in the area. During the Middle Ages, Crompton formed a small township of scattered woods, farmsteads, moorland, and swamp with a small and close community of families. 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 broadly independent and self-supporting 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. By the late-19th century Crompton had emerged as a densely populated mill town. Today, Shaw and Crompton, which covers 4.5 sqmi, is a predominantly residential area of mixed affluence with a population of 21,721. Its double name has been said to make it "distinctive, if not unique". The legacy of its industrial past can be seen in its six surviving cotton mills.