In 1770, Middleton was a village of twenty houses, but in the 18th and 19th centuries it grew into a thriving and populous seat of textile manufacture and it was granted borough status in 1886.

[3] In 616, Æthelfrith of Bernicia, an Anglo-Saxon King, crossed the Pennines with an army and passed through Manchester to defeat the Brythons in the Battle of Chester.

[4] A wave of Anglian colonists followed this military conquest and their settlements are identified by the "ton" Old English suffix to local place names.

[4] Royton, Crompton, Moston, Clayton, Ashton, Chadderton and Middleton are a number of settlements northeast of Manchester suggested to have been founded as part of this colonisation.

[5] The name Middleton first appears in 1194, and derives from the Old English middel-tūn, meaning middle farm or settlement,[5][6] probably a reference to its central position between Rochdale and Manchester.

[citation needed] The development of Middleton as a centre of commerce occurred during the 17th and 18th centuries as a result of the effect of the Industrial Revolution.

Additional to this, Lord Suffield obtained a Royal Charter from King George III in 1791 to hold a weekly market and three annual summer fairs in Middleton.

Lying within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire from the early 12th century, Middleton was once an ecclesiastical parish of the hundred of Salford, and in Oldham poor law union.

At 53°33′17″N 2°11′19″W / 53.55472°N 2.18861°W / 53.55472; -2.18861 (53.5547, −2.1887), Middleton stands on undulated land immediately north of Manchester; the towns of Chadderton and Royton are close to the east.

Middleton experiences a temperate maritime climate, like much of the British Isles, with relatively cool summers and mild winters.

Much of Middleton's built environment is characterised by its 19th-century red-brick terraced houses, the infrastructure that was built to support these and the town's former cotton mills, although from the middle of the 20th century the town saw the growth of its outlying residential areas of Langley, Hollin and Boarshaw which is predominately ex-local authority housing.

[16] Middleton has recently benefited from redevelopments which have seen the construction of a new sports, leisure and civic centre, 'Middleton Arena'.

[17] In the early 1970s, The Arndale Property Trust cleared land adjacent to Middleton Gardens to build an 'American-style' modern shopping precinct.

[20] Middleton Archaeological Society (MAS) have been investigating Clarke Brow, a public field next to St Leonard's Square, and carried out its first dig there in August and September 2013.

An account of the Society's research can be found on their website[21] Tonge Hall is a grade II* listed Tudor structure badly damaged by an arson attack in 2007.

The MAS website has more information including photographs of the dig at [24] As of 2019, the building still stands derelict, surrounded by supporting scaffolding.

The Middleton Arena is a joint venture by Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council and supermarket chain Tesco.

[25][26] The majority of services in Middleton are operated by Stagecoach Manchester and serve destinations including Bury, Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside.

Middleton railway station, near the town centre, was the terminus of a short branch line, which closed to passengers in 1964.

Further education is provided by the Sixth Form at Cardinal Langley, as well as the Middleton campus of Hopwood Hall College.

What is presently said campus was, from 1946 to 1989, a De La Salle Catholic College of Higher Education affiliated to the Victoria University of Manchester.

Founded as a teacher training college, the chapel, designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd, was the architectural prototype for the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.

He led the Middleton contingent to the meeting at St Peter's Fields in August 1819, pressing for parliamentary reform, which ended in the Peterloo Massacre.

[31] Joel Halliwell (1881 – 1958) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross in World War I. Lee Rigby, British soldier and victim of the 2013 Woolwich attack, was from Middleton.

[32] Steve Coogan,[33] John Richmond, Clint Boon of Inspiral Carpets, Maartin Allcock of Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull, Brendan and Martin Coogan all attended the local Cardinal Langley Grammar School, later known as Cardinal Langley Roman Catholic High School.

[34] Gold selling music producer Louis Gibzen attended Middleton Technology School; Radio 1Xtra's DJ Semtex is also from the town.

(and former England national football team) Paul Scholes (Salford-born) and locally born Mark Allott, the Oldham Athletic midfielder, both educated at St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School, and later Cardinal Langley Roman Catholic High School.

Frank (Typhoon) Tyson, test cricketer from the late 1950s, attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar school.

Fashion designer John Richmond and Olympic silver medalist Keri-Anne Payne also attended Cardinal Langley Roman Catholic High School.