Park Bridge is an area of

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...

, in the

Metropolitan Borough of Tameside The Metropolitan Borough of Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is named after the River Tame, which flows through the borough, and includes the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Denton, Droylsden, Du ...

, in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

, England. It is situated in the Medlock Valley, by Ashton-under-Lyne's border with

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham ...

. Park Bridge anciently lay within medieval manor of Ashton, however there is no record of Park Bridge until the 17th century. The name is probably a reference to the medieval

Lyme Park Lyme Park is a large estate south of Disley, Cheshire, England, managed by the National Trust and consisting of a mansion house surrounded by formal gardens and a deer park in the Peak District National Park. The house is the largest in Ches ...

, in the north west of the manor of Ashton. For nearly two hundred years from the 18th to the 20th centuries it was the site of the Park Bridge Ironworks.

History

Samuel Lees junior founded Park Bridge ironworks in 1786 on 14

perches Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...

of land rented from the

Earl of Stamford Earl of Stamford was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1628 for Henry Grey, 2nd Baron Grey of Groby. This Grey family descended through Lord John Grey, of Pirgo, Essex, younger son of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, ...

. Originally the ironworks produced raw iron; the ironworks was one of the largest in 19th century Tameside, and one of the earliest ironworks in the northwest. Samuel Lees' wife, Hannah Lees (née Buckley), inherited ownership of the ironworks on her husband's death in 1804. Under Hannah Lees, the ironworks was expanded including the construction of a weir and a water power building on the

River Medlock The River Medlock is a river in Greater Manchester, England, which rises near Oldham and flows south and west for to join the River Irwell in Manchester city centre. Sources Rising in the hills that surround Strinesdale just to the east of Ol ...

. The success of the ironworks precipitated the construction of worker housing in the 1820s. Further worker housing was added in the 1840s and 1850s. The ironworks remained the largest such works in Tameside, including a nearby colliery and associated with the

Oldham, Ashton and Guide Bridge Railway The Oldham, Ashton and Guide Bridge Junction Railway (OA&GB) was a British railway company, which opened in 1861, connecting Oldham, Ashton and Guide Bridge. The company survived until it was nationalised in 1948. Early days In 1847 the Manch ...

. The business was inherited by another four generations of the Lees family, until the closure of the site. The ironworks started to decline at the end of the 19th century with the cessation of coal mining in the Medlock Valley in 1887. Competition from the steel industry over a long period and the closure of the railway in 1959 further dented the profits. The ironworks finally closed in 1963, still under the control of the Lees family. The abandoned ironworks fell into decay and was demolished or reduced to ruins in the 1970s. Because the buildings were not recorded before their demolition, the site of the ironworks is of interest to archaeologists – particularly the University of Manchester Archaeological Unit – as part of the development of the later iron industry in the north west. In 1975 the Medlock and Tame Valley Conservation Association opened the Park Bridge Museum to encourage interest in the historical significance of Park Bridge. In 1986, the museum became a visitor centre, and in 1995 was renamed the Park Bridge Heritage Centre. The ironworks provided

rivet A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite to the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the rivet is placed in a punched ...

s worldwide. The

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "' ...

and

The Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

both used its rivets in their construction. File:Park Bridge 01.JPG File:Park Bridge 02.JPG File:Park Bridge 03.JPG File:Park Bridge 04.JPG

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.tameside.gov.uk/parkbridge, Park Bridge Heritage Centre Buildings and structures in Tameside Local museums in Greater Manchester Ashton-under-Lyne

History

See also

References

External links