| Please
note, all links open in a new tab or window |
| Again sorted into broad
headings: |
|
General
Boilermaking
Canals
Churches General
Church Websites
Coal Mining |
Cotton Industry
Hatting
Maps
Railways
Trade Unions
Workhouses |
| General |
|
| Pathé
News
Lottery funding has put 3,500 hours free to view
clips from 60 years of Pathé cinema newsreels.
An excellent site. The British
Universities Newsreel Database is an index of
160,000 newsreels from 1910 - 1979.
Victorian
Times
A general social history site that gives an insight
into what life was like in the 1800s.
Victorian
London
Although this site focuses on the capital, much
of the information in the Victorian Dictionary is
generic.
Victoria
County Past
This project has been chronacling the history of
England's counties since 1889.
How
Much is it Worth Today
An online currency converter that will tell you
today's purchasing power of any sum from 1600 onwards.
Working
Class Movement Library
A collection of book, periodicals, pamphlets etc
on the labour movement since the late 18th century.
Includes history pages, such as felt
hatting and the union label.
Local
Heritage Initiative
A £25 million ten year project to support
local heritage initiatives, including an online
video library.
|
Vision
of Britain
A useful site funded from Lottery money that
paints a social picture of the UK based on information
from the censuses from 1801 to 2001.
Mining
Deaths
A database of 90,000 mining deaths from 1850 to
1914.
Newspaper
Archives
The British Library is developing an online newspaper
archive which makes interesting general reading.
Please note that it only supports Explorer 5 for
Windows and Mac users and others are not welcome
at the moment!
England
at Work
This project has created a digital image resource
illustrating England's industrial heritage. Photographs
have been selected which illustrate a variety of
industrial themes: including agriculture, coal mining,
railways, textiles, tin mining, transport, windmills
and social history.
Manchester
and Lancashire Bookshop
Mail order genealogy and local history books, including
the excellent range from Neil
Richardson.
Handwriting
1500 - 1700
An online course to help decipher old English handwriting.
|
| Boilermaking |
|
A
Historical Survey
Published in 1905 and written by General Secretray,
David Charles Cummings this covers the years from
the foundation of the Society of Boilermers in 1834
to 1904. Available as text,
to read
online or as a PDF
(23Mb) and other farmats.
Voices
of Postwar England
Cammell Laird boilermaker James Carroll's account
of his first day at work.
|
Sea
Your History
The Royal Navy site has sections on boilermaking
and rivetting.
Boilermakers
Throughout History
Photographs of boilermakers from the US I think.
Making
and Remaking the Boilermaker
An account from the Newcastle Steelworks 1915 - 1985. |
| Canals |
|
Pennine
Waterways
Useful guide to the waterways in the area,
including a virtual
tour of the Ashton
Canal.
Canal
Junction
A comprehensive guide to canals in the UK
and their history, including the Ashton
Canal. |
Portland
Basin Museum
Excellent free museum on the social history of Ashton,
based in the renovated Victorian warehouse.
Jim
Shead's Waterways
An encyclopedia of the canals and rivers of England
and Wales, including historical data, provided by
Jim Shead, waterways writer and photographer.
Inland
Waterways Association
Campaigning for the conservation, use, maintenance,
restoration and development of the inland waterways
including Ashton. |
| Churches |
|
Find
a Church
Search for church contact details by town.
Glossop
Churches
Old and new photos of churches in Glossopdale
with some background information, construction dates
etc.
|
Church
Plans Online
The Incorporated Church Building Society was founded
in 1818 to provide funds for the building and enlargement
of Anglican churches throughout England and Wales.
It was the principal voluntary society for promoting
the building and restoration of churches throughout
the most active period of church building since the
Middle Ages.
The
Parish Clerk
The Parish Clerk by Peter
Hampson Ditchfield published in 1907 details the
duty of the post. |
| Church
Websites |
|
Churches
have been among the slowest institutions to have a
presence on the web, but that is changing. Here is
a list of links to some of the churches mentioned
on this site:
St
Michael and All Angels, Ashton
There has been a church on this site since before
the Norman Conquest.
Christ
Church, Ashton
Consecrated in 1848 to serve the hamlet of Charlestown.
Albion
United Reform Church, Ashton
Built in 1895 following a tradition if independent
worship since 1780.
St
Mark's Church, Dukinfield
The church of my childhood. Also includes St Luke's
where my parents were married.
Manchester
Cathedral
There is evidence of an early Saxon church on the
site from the Angel Stone, which was discovered embedded
in the wall of the original South Porch of the Cathedral
in the 19th century, and which has been dated to around
700. |
Brookfield
Unitarian Church, Gorton
Not the church's website, but a short history and
memorabilia site by Robert Siddall.
Hyde
Chapel
The first church built in Hyde, its history dating
back to 1708.
Flowery
Field Church, Hyde
Opened in 1878 thanks to the generosity of the Ashton
family.
St
Mark's Church, Bredbury
No historical detail of this church which became a
separate parish in 1846 serving Bredbury and part
of Brinnington.
Chadkirk
Chapel
A beautifully restored 14th Century Chapel set in
the heart of Chadkirk Country Estate and Local Nature
Reserve.
St
Paul's Church, Compstall
Built in 1841 funded ny local mill owner, George Andrew.
St
Michael and All Angels, Mottram
There is evidence of a church on the site since 1225
and the present church dates from the end of 15th
century. |
| Coal
Mining |
|
National
Coal Mining Museum
Located at Caphouse Colliery near Wakefield, the
museum is well worth a visit — and it's free.
Durham
Mining Museum
Lots of information covering mining in the north
east. |
Coalmining
History Resource Centre
The UK's largest and most comprehensive website
concerning the history of coalmining - including
a searchable database of over 164,000 recorded accidents
and deaths.
|
| Cotton
Industry |
|
The
Cotton Industry
Many members of my family worked in the cotton industry
of south east Lancashire. Here you will find information
about life in the mills.
Spinning
the Web
Funded by New Opportunities money and produced by
Manchester City Council, this site tells the story
of cotton and its importance to north west England.
Cotton
on Film
The BBC's contribution to the recording of the cotton
industry, inlcuding fascinating clips, such as the
closing of Reddish Mill in 1958, not far from where
I live, and Fred Dibnah demolishing one of the chimneys.
Cotton
Town
The rise and decline of the cotton industry in Blackburn
and Darwen.
King
Cotton
Cotton and the American Civil War. |
Cotton
Industry in Ashton
A history of why cotton was so important to the
town. You can also buy Ian Haynes book, Cotton
in Ashton, through the Tameside local government
site.
Quarry
Bank Mill
Very much worth a visit for anyone interested in learning
how the cotton industry developed and to see how mill
worked. It is very much water, rather than steam-powered,
but a hands on experience.
Cotton
Times
A useful cotton industry resource, including helpful
pages explaining Lancashire
dialect.
The
Open Door Website
A brief history of the cotton industry with links
to key inventors, such as Kay,
Hargreaves
and Arkwright,
plus a useful timeline.
GMCRO
Education Pack
Greater Manchester County Records education pack about
the cotton industry, a PDF of 1.3Mb. |
| Hatting |
|
The
Hatworks
Based in Stockport, this is the UK's first and only
museum dedicated to hatting, a major industry in the
area in the 19th and 20th century. |
Tameside
History
A section of the local government website on the history
of Denton.
Hatting
and Trade Unionism
Reference to hatting in Denton and the use of the
'union label.' |
| Maps |
|
Old
Ordnance Survey Maps
Ordnance Survey makes old maps available online with
a database that can be searched by address or postcode.
Electronic copies of the maps can also be bought online.
Modern
Orndance Survey maps are also available on their
main site. Alternatively, they can be found at Multimap,
along with aerial photographs, with a facility to
overlay the two. There are also links to many old
maps from around Lancashire and Cheshire on Rootsweb.
Bodleian
Library Map Room
An interesting site to visit. There is a non-frames
version, although this does not appear to have
been updated since 1998.
Godfrey
Edition Maps
These reprints of old Ordnance Survey maps can be
very useful. They are quite detailed and can even
help you identify an individual house.
Genmaps
Old and interesting maps of England, Wales and Scotland.
|
Cheshire
Tithe Maps Online
Excellent website if your ancestors owned
or rented land or buildings in Cheshire with this
searchable database of tithe maps, old OS maps and
contemporary maps and aerial photos.
Multimap
Modern maps with links to aerial photos.
Ashton-under-Lyne.com
Contemporary and historic information on the town,
including old maps.
John
Speed Maps
More old maps.
Scots
Maps
Maps of Scotland from 1560 to 1920, and Ordnance Survey
town plans 1847 to 1895.
Baedeker's
Guide Books
Maps and town plans from around Great Britain from
about 1910, inlcuding Manchester. |
| Photos |
|
Picture
Cheshire
A collection of digital images created from original
material -photographs, slides, negatives etc - held
at the Cheshire Record Office and in Cheshire libraries.
Picture
the Past
This project is jointly managed by the local authorities
of Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham, and Nottinghamshire
with financial assistance from the Heritage Lottery
Fund
Peakland
Heritage Gallery
A collection of images from the Peak District.
Tameside
Image Archive
Currently over 20,000 images are available online,
you can purchase copies with a credit or debit card.
|
Lancashire
Lantern
Life in Lancashire in all its many aspects –
people, buildings, streets, transport, architecture,
customs, traditions, celebrations and much more.
North
West Film Archive
The Archive cares for over 32,500 items from the pioneer
days of film in the mid 1890s to video production
of the present day.
Historic
Photos of Stockport
Stockport Central Library has an extensive collection
of historic photographs which are available to view
at the Heritage Library. You can see a sample of these
historic photographs of the 1900s and 1960s. |
| Railways |
|
Dukinfield
Wagon Works
This site is dedicated to the Great Central carriage
and wagon works at Dukinfield. Opened in 1910 on a
30 acre site situated close to the main line from
Manchester to London. The site opened with lots of
new machinery plus some old ones from Gorton Works.
When opened it was one of the most modern in Europe. |
Glossary
of railway terms
From Absolute-block working to nothing under Z!
The
Railways Archive
A free online archive of documents charting the development
of Britain's railways. |
| Trade
Unions |
|
TUC
History Online
Joint project with London Metropolitan University
to make trade union history more accessible.
Trade
Union Ancestors
A resource for family historians.
|
Trade
Union Timeline
A potted history from Google.
Chartist
Ancestors
What did your family do in the revolution? Chartist
Ancestors lists many of those who risked their freedom,
and sometimes their lives, because of their participation
in the Chartist cause. |
| Workhouses |
|
www.workhouses.org.uk
Dedicated to the workhouse — its buildings,
its inmates, its staff and administrators, and even
its poets. Includes the full text of the 1601 and
1834 Acts.
Rossbret
Webring
An expanding repository of information that
includes workhouses,
asylums and other institutions. Includes a photo
and floorplan of Ashton
Workhouse.
Workhouse
Children
Many mill owners would solve their workforce problems
by buying children from the workhouses. |
Ashton-under-Lyne.com
Contemporary and historic information on the town,
including old maps showing the workhouse.
The
Union Workhouse
A Study Guide for Teachers and Local Historians by
Andy Reid. Costs £10.95, although I haven't
read it, so can't recommend. This is an Amazon link
and you may have your preferred supplier. |
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