Tameside - History

History

The history of the area stretches back up to 10,000 years; there are 22 Mesolithic sites in Tameside, the oldest dating to around 8,000 BC; 21 of the 22 sites are in the hilly uplands in the north east of the borough. Evidence of Neolithic and Bronze Age activity is more limited in the borough, although the Bronze Age Stalybridge Cairn is the most complete prehistoric funerary monument in the borough. The people in the area changed from hunter-gatherers to farmers around 2500 BC–1500 BC due to climate change. Werneth Low is the most likely Iron Age farmstead site in the borough, probably dating to the late 1st millennium BC. Before the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD, the area was probably part of the territory of the Brigantes, the Celtic tribe controlling most of what is now north west England.

The area came under control of the Roman Empire in the second half of the 1st century. Roads through the area were established from Ardotalia fort in Derbyshire to Mamucium (Manchester) west of Tameside and Castleshaw Roman fort in the north. Romano-British finds in the borough include a bog body in Ashton Moss, occupation sites at Werneth Low, Harridge Pike, Roe Cross, and Mottram. A 4th century coin hoard was found in Denton and is one of only four hoards from the 4th century in the Mersey basin. A Byzantine coin from the 6th or 7th centuries, also found in Denton, indicates continued or renewed occupation once the Romans left Britain in the early 5th century.

Nico Ditch, an earthwork stretching from Stretford to Ashton-under-Lyne, is evidence of Anglo-Saxon activity in Tameside. It was probably dug between the 7th and 9th centuries and may have been used as a boundary between the kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. Further evidence of Anglo-Saxon era activity in Tameside comes from the derivation of settlement names from Old English such as -tun, meaning farmstead, and leah meaning clearing.

According to the Domesday Survey of 1086, Tameside was divided into four manors, those of Tintwistle, Hollingworth, Werneth, and Mottram. The land east or the River Tame was in the Hundred of Hamestan in Cheshire and held by the Earl of Chester while to the west of the river was in the Hundred of Salford under Roger de Poitevin. These manors were divided to create further manors, so that by the 13th century. Most of them were owned by local families and remained in the hands of the same families until the 16th century. Manorialism continued as the main for of administration and governance until the mid-19th century.

The Industrial Revolution had a significant impact on Tameside; the area, whose main towns had previously been Ashton-under-Lyne and Mottram-in-Longdendale, was transformed from a collection of the rural, farming communities into mill towns. The towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Dukinfield, Hyde, Mossley and Stalybridge have been described as "amongst the most famous mills towns in the North West". With only a brief interruption for the Lancashire Cotton Famine of 1861 to 1865, factories producing and processing textiles were the main industry in Tameside from the late-18th century until the mid-20th century.

In 1964, Dukinfield Borough Council convened a meeting of neighbouring local authorities with the aim of formulating a policy of cross-authority social improvement for the districts in the Tame Valley. Following deindustrialisation, the area had suffered "gross-neglect" and had large areas of housing unsuitable for human habitation. This joint enterprise comprised the nine districts that would become Tameside ten years later, plus the County Borough of Stockport. This collective agreed on creating "a linear park in the valley for the use of the townspeople and as a major recreational resource within the Manchester metropolis".

Tameside was created on 1 April 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972 as one of the ten metropolitan districts of Greater Manchester. It took over the local government functions of nine districts which were formerly in the administrative counties of Lancashire and of Cheshire. In 1986 Tameside effectively became a unitary authority with the abolition of the Greater Manchester County Council.

A name for the metropolitan borough proved problematic. The Redcliffe-Maud Report had used the name Ashton-Hyde, but double-barrelled names were prohibited for the new districts. Had Ashton-under-Lyne been a county borough, or had had a less common name, "it might have been chosen as the new name" for the new district. The eight other towns objected, adamant that "a new name should be found". Thirty suggestions were put forward, including Brigantia, Clarendon, Hartshead, Kayborough, Tame, Ninetowns, and West Pennine, with Hartshead (with reference to Hartshead Pike) being the most popular throughout most of the consultation period. However, the name Tameside (with reference to the River Tame, but a concocted name with no historical basis) won 15 votes to Hartshead's 10 in a final stage of voting.

The borough underwent a boundary review in 2002. The review altered the areas covered by some wards to ensure councillors represented roughly equal numbers. Between 12 October 2006–8 January 2007, a dispersal order was enforced in the Dukinfield and Newton Hyde areas of the borough. The move was designed to reduce anti-social behaviour. A representative of Stalybridge police post said "Due to the serious nature of recent incidents in Dukinfield and Newton Hyde involving a number of confrontations between large groups of youths, the decision has been made to introduce a Dispersal Order".