Failsworth қаласы: Тарихы мен географиясы

Town in Greater Manchester, England

Failsworth is a town in Greater Manchester, England, 4 mile (6 km) north east of Manchester and 3 mile (5 km) south west of Oldham. The orbital M60 motorway skirts it to the east. The population at the 2011 census was 20,680. Historically in Lancashire, Failsworth until the 19th century was a farming township linked ecclesiastically with Manchester. Inhabitants supplemented their farming income with domestic hand loom weaving. The humid climate and abundant labour and coal led to weaving of textiles as a Lancashire Mill Town with redbrick cotton mills. A current landmark is the Failsworth Pole. Daisy Nook is a country park on the southern edge.

Failsworth derives from the Old English fegels and worth, probably meaning an "enclosure with a special kind of fence".

Early settlement rested on a road that runs today between Manchester and Yorkshire. This Roman secondary road formed part of a network from Manchester up north, probably to Tadcaster near York. The section that ran through Failsworth is still known as Roman Road. It was built above marshland and laid on brushwood with a hard surface. Roman Road has also been known as "Street", a Saxon term meaning "metalled road", indicating that it was also used that later period. By 1663, 50 households were registered. Another painting by Lowry from 1953, "Fun Fair at Daisy Nook", sold for £3.4 million in 2011.

At (53.5102°, −2.1575°) Failsworth lies 163 mile (262 km) north north west of London, as the southern tip of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, sharing borders with Manchester (north to south west) and Tameside (south to east). It is traversed by the A62 road between Manchester and Oldham, by the former rail line of the Oldham Loop and by the Rochdale Canal, across its north west corner. The M60 motorway passes through. For the Office for National Statistics, Failsworth counts as part of the Greater Manchester Urban Area. The land in Failsworth slopes gently from east to west away from the Pennines and from brooks that bound it on the north west (Moston Brook) and south east (Lord's Brook). Failsworth has a country park, Daisy Nook, on undulating wooded land on its eastern border largely belonging to the National Trust. It is suited to walking, horse riding, fishing and other pursuits.

Failsworth grew as a mill town around the hat making industry, which continues in the town. This began as a cottage industry before the firm of Failsworth Hats was set up in 1903 to manufacture silk hats. For a time the company had a factory near the former Failsworth Council offices and it remains in the area to this day. Other activities include electrical goods manufacture (such as Russell Hobbs) by Spectrum Brands, formerly Pifco Ltd), and plastic production and distribution by Hubron Ltd. In July 2007, the Tesco supermarket chain opened a 24 hour Extra branch superstore on the banks of the wharf. The move was opposed by shop owners, who claimed they would have lost customers and may been forced to close. Tesco's arrival had been expected to be a catalyst bringing other stores, bars and restaurants to Failsworth. The only other large store is a branch of Morrisons housed in a building constructed on the demolished site of Marlborough No. 2 Mill.

A Failsworth Pole in Oldham Road was first raised in 1793 as a "political pole", although a local historian suggests there were others before and that maypoles probably stood there for centuries. It now stands on a site from which an earlier one blew down in 1950. After a major restoration of the Pole, clock tower and gardens in 2006, a bronze statue of Benjamin Brierley was placed in the gardens. At the road junction of the A62 with Ashton Road West stands a cenotaph built in 1923 for over 200 Failsworth men who were killed in the First World War. Attendances at the cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday remain high at about 2,000. The annual parade is led by 202 Field Squadron, RE (TA), which is based in Failsworth. In June 2007 the war memorial was rededicated after a £136,000 makeover and opened by Colonel Sir John B. Timmins.

Failsworth's main thoroughfare is Oldham Road (A62) between Manchester and Oldham. The M60 is an orbital motorway circling Greater Manchester, with access via Junction 22. Its completion around 1995–2000 saw the installation of a graded junction and other notable changes to the A62. It led to several rows of buildings around the junction being demolished. There are frequent buses through Failsworth between Manchester city centre and Oldham on First Greater Manchester's 83 overground service. There is also a frequent service to Manchester city centre and to Huddersfield/Saddleworth via Oldham, with services 180 and 184. Other bus destinations from Failsworth are Ashton under Lyne, Chadderton, Huddersfield, Rochdale, Royton, Saddleworth, Shaw & Crompton and Trafford Centre. Failsworth tram stop in Hardman Lane is on the Oldham & Rochdale line of the Manchester Metrolink. At peak times, trams run every 6 minutes south towards via central Manchester and north to Shaw & Crompton or Rochdale via Oldham. At off peak times, trams run every 12 minutes to East Didsbury and Rochdale. Previously this was an unmanned rail station on the Oldham Loop line serviced by Northern Rail services to Manchester Victoria or Rochdale via Oldham. It closed in October 2009 under Phase 3a of Metrolink extension and re opened as a tram stop in 2012.