Openshaw

OPENSHAW, a township and a chapelry in Manchester parish, Lancashire. The township lies on the Manchester and Stockport canal, and on the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire railway, 2½ miles E by S of Manchester; contains a large village of its own name; and has a station on the railway, and a post-office under Ashton-under-Lyne. Acres, 571. Real property, £2,866. Pop. in 1851, 3,759; in 1861, 8,623. Houses, 1,688. The increase of pop. arose from the establishment of ironworks and chemical works. The manor belongs to G. Legh, Esq. There are a large cotton mill, weaving-sheds, extensive dye-works, a very extensive manufactory of railway carriages, and a depot for repairs of locomotive engines. The chapelry was constituted in 1840; was, till 1861 or later, conterminate with the township; and was subsequently curtailed, so as to have a pop. of only 2,777. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Manchester. Value, £300. Patrons, Trustees. The church was built in 1839, at a cost of £4,500; is in the early English style; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with tower and spire; and contains 800 sittings. A Wesleyan chapel was built in 1864, at a cost of £2,600; is in the Anglo-Italian style; and contains 600 sittings. There are also chapels for New Connexion Methodists. United Free Methodists, and Roman Catholics; and schools, called the Cobden Memorial schools, were built in connexion with the United Free Methodist chapel in 1866, at a cost of about £800. There is likewise a mixednational school, with £25 a year from endowment.

John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72)