Shaw and Crompton is a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England,[1] and lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines.

At its spinning zenith, as a result of an interwar economic boom and the over-valuation of shares associated with the textile industry, Shaw and Crompton had more millionaires per capita than any other town in the world.

[5] A local historian stated that "this name aptly describes the appearance of the place, with its uneven surface, its numerous mounds and hills, as though it had been crumpled up to form these ridges".

[5] During Anglo-Saxon England, it is assumed from toponymic evidence that the township of Crompton formed around a predominantly Anglian community with a few Norse settlers, and within the extensive Hundred of Salfordshire.

[6] It was unmentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086; the first recorded use of the name Crompton for the township was discovered in legal documents relating to Cockersand Abbey near Lancaster, dating from the early 13th century.

[17] During the High Middle Ages, Crompton was a collection of scattered woods, farmsteads, moorland, swamp and a single corn mill, occupied by a small and close community of families.

[2][3] The area was thinly populated and consisted of several dispersed hamlets, including Whitfield, High Crompton, Cowlishaw, Birshaw and Bovebeale (above Beal).

[19] This slowly facilitated comparative freedoms and independence for the early people of Crompton,[19] which encouraged the influx of families from the neighbouring parish of Rochdale, including the Buckleys, Cleggs, Greaves and Milnes.

[20] A second Crompton Hall, set in its own prominent forested grounds, was erected by the family—by then an influential and affluent investor in the local cotton industry—but following the death of the last remaining family members, the site was sold and, in 1950, the house was demolished to make way for an exclusive development of bungalows.

Wills and inventories from the 15th and 16th centuries suggest most families were involved with small scale pasture, but supplemented their incomes by weaving woollens in the domestic system and selling cloth, linen and fustians to travelling chapmen for the markets in Manchester and Rochdale.

[26] In the second half of the 18th century, the technology of cotton-spinning machinery improved, and the need for larger buildings to house bigger, better and more efficient equipment became apparent.

The construction of more mills followed—ten by 1789—facilitating a process of urbanisation and socioeconomic transformation in the region; the population moved away from farming, adopting employment in the factory system.

[27] The introduction of the factory system led to an increase of the township's population; from 872 in 1714 to 3,500 in 1801, mostly as a result of an influx of people from Yorkshire and Lancashire looking for employment in the cotton mills.

[28] Luddites rioted in the township in 1826, smashing 24 power looms at Clegg's mill at High Crompton in protest against their worsening standard of living.

[34] In the post-war economic boom of 1919–20, investors did not have the time to build new mills and so were prepared to pay vastly inflated sums for shares in existing companies.

Many mills were refloated at valuations of up to £500,000 (£29,020,000 as of 2025[35]), or five times what they had cost to build before the war,[2] resulting in the town being nicknamed "The Golden City" as the scramble for shares intensified.

[40] In spite of efforts to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of its production, the final cotton was spun in Shaw and Crompton in 1989, in Lilac and Park mills.

[47] The town entered the national media in 2010, 2011 and 2012; for the kidnapping of Sahil Saeed, the mugging and death of Nellie Geraghty (which featured on Crimewatch),[48] and the explosion of a house in Buckley Street respectively.

[50][51] From the 18th century onwards, Shaw and Crompton's economy was closely tied with that of Britain's textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, particularly the cotton spinning sector.

[54] The "Pennine" bakery produced around 500,000 loaves a week and distributed them to major multiples and independent retailers throughout Greater Manchester, Cheshire, and Derbyshire.

[76] Since 1997, Shaw and Crompton has lain within the parliamentary constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth, and is represented in the House of Commons by Debbie Abrahams, a member of the Labour Party.

[citation needed] Described in Samuel Lewis's A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848) as located in "a bleak situation",[11] Shaw and Crompton is in the valley of the River Beal, which runs northward through the town towards the village of Newhey.

[25] Of the residents in the combined electoral wards of Shaw[84] and Crompton[85] (which are coterminous with the town) 41.7% were married, 9.2% were cohabiting couples, and 9.7% were lone parent families.

The place of birth of the town's residents was 96.8% United Kingdom (including 95.13% from England), 0.6% Republic of Ireland, 0.5% from other European Union countries, and 2.1% from elsewhere in the world.

[86] Shaw and Crompton has been a base for distribution companies as a result of the town's good transport links, its supply of large, disused mill properties, and its situation between Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Lancashire, and West Yorkshire.

[95] Commissioned by the Crompton War Memorial Committee, the statue was conceptualised in 1919 by Richard Reginald Goulden, and unveiled on 29 April 1923 by General Sir Ian Hamilton.

The inscription on the plaque below the beacon reads: Spanning approximately 160 acres (0.6 km2), and reaching an elevation of 1,282 feet (391 m), Crompton Moor is one of the largest open spaces run by Oldham Countryside Service.

[116] It is thought to have been constructed following an increase in wealth produced by the localisation of the woollen trade during a very bleak period,[116] although, in 1552 it was noted that it had no endowment, and its ornaments were in poor condition.

Dunwood Park lies alongside the Oldham and Rochdale Metrolink Line and has a children's play area, bowling green, and over a mile of wooded pathways along the base of a forested hillside.

[138] The town is the home of Oldham-born actress Shobna Gulati,[53] former Oldham Athletic player and manager Andy Ritchie,[53] and is the hometown of Kevin O'Toole, a founding member of dance act N-Trance.