Mossley Stadium

Mossley (/ˈmɒzli/) is a town and civil parish in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, in the upper Tame Valley and the foothills of the Pennines, 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of Oldham and 8.9 miles (14.3 km) east of Manchester.

The historic counties of Lancashire, Cheshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire meet in Mossley and local government wards and church parishes correspond to their boundaries. Mossley had a population of 10,921 at the 2011 Census. It is the only parished area of Tameside, having had a parish council since 1999.

History

Toponymy

Believed to originate in around 1319, the name Mossley means "a woodland clearing by a swamp or bog".

Events

Mossley—alongside neighbouring Stalybridge and Uppermill in Saddleworth—helped launch the annual Whit Friday Band Contest, an internationally known brass band event. This came about when the three towns held unconnected brass band events on 6 June 1884.

Public venue

George Lawton, the son of magistrate and alderman John Lawton, inherited a family fortune and when he died in August 1949, he left the bulk of his wealth to the people of Mossley. Part of his £77,760 wealth (equivalent to £2,800,000 in 2019) was left to build a public meeting place, the George Lawton Hall.

Notable people

• Ernest Sykes, recipient of the Victoria Cross
• Melanie Sykes, TV presenter and model
• John Mayall, Mill Owner and owner of the largest cotton spinning company in the world (1803–1878)
• Jon Courtenay, Britain's Got Talent winner in 2020
• George Hassall, also known as Green Fingered George, is an RHS ambassador - creating educational content on gardening and the natural world. He also appears regularly on the show "Blue Peter".