Sholver is an area of

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

, in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England. An elevated, residential area, it lies near the middle of the Oldham part of the valley of the River Beal, northeast of Oldham's commercial centre, nearly at the northeasternmost extremity of the town, by open countryside close to the source of the

River Medlock The River Medlock in Greater Manchester, England rises in east 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 eastern side of Oldham M ...

and by the border with

Saddleworth Saddleworth is a civil parishes in England, civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and Hamlet (place), hamlets as well as suburbs of Oldham on the Saddleworth Moor, west ...

. Historically a part of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, Sholver and its surroundings have provided archaeological evidence of

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

activity in the area. The name Sholver is of

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

derivation, and the locality, anciently, was a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

, independent of Oldham. Top Sholver is the site of a large

council estate Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. D ...

built in the 1960s. Bottom Sholver consists of higher-value suburban semi-detached housing, built in the 1990s, although it still contains a very small number of council houses. Locations within the area like Sholver Millennium Green Beasom Hill Country Park Strinesdale, Fullwood Nature Reserve and Community Garden are all particularly nice areas to visit.

History

The earliest known evidence of a human presence in what is now Sholver and adjacent Moorside is attested by the discovery of

flint arrow-heads and workings found at Besom Hill, implying habitation 7–10,000 years ago. Like

, the name Sholver is thought to be of

origin; a derivative of "erg (a Norse word for hill-pasture) of a farmer called Skjolgr (a Norse forename)". Indeed,

Norsemen The Norsemen (or Northmen) were a cultural group in the Early Middle Ages, originating among speakers of Old Norse in Scandinavia. During the late eighth century, Scandinavians embarked on a Viking expansion, large-scale expansion in all direc ...

occupied Sholver in the 10th century, where they erected shielings - temporary huts in a remote pasture akin to the style of living done in their native

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

. It is recorded as Sholgher in 1291, Choller in 1311. For centuries, in keeping with the known history of Oldham, Sholver was a remote and obscure

set amongst the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of highland, uplands mainly located in Northern England. Commonly described as the "Vertebral column, backbone of England" because of its length and position, the ra ...

. The plan of the hamlet of Sholver changed little since the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...

. At the end of the 17th century the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

timber and plaster dwellings were replaced by solid farms in the local grey sandstone, without substantial changes in the sites of the buildings. The cottages and farms were still grouped around a wide central oval green. The freehold of Sholver's farms had been bought from the Prestwich family in the 17th century at the time when the residencies were largely rebuilt in stone. James Butterworth, a poet and local historian, described Sholver as "a small village of great antiquity where the houses are chiefly built of stone, and have a rustic appearance," and describes a very pleasant retreat "in the neighbourhood of the cottages called the Dingle". Among early historical references to this area we find, in 1212, Ralph Tagun held Sholver as 4

oxgang An oxgang or bovate (; ; ; ) is an old land measurement formerly used in Scotland and England as early as the 16th century sometimes referred to as an oxgait. It averaged around 20 English acres, but was based on land fertility and cultivation, a ...

s of land; it was part of the Nevill estate then in hand of King John. In 1346 it was held in moieties by Richard de Pilkington and Cecily de Hulme. From the Hulmes it descended to the Prestwich family, who held it till the middle of the 17th century. It was sold to various persons about 1657. In April 1540, during the reign of

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. Charles was born ...

, Robert Lytham carried out some measuring of Sholver moor. As

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven ...

ing was introduced in the 18th century, the

cottage industry The putting-out system is a means of subcontracting work, like a tailor. Historically, it was also known as the workshop system and the domestic system. In putting-out, work is contracted by a central agent to subcontractors who complete the p ...

of Sholver declined, and instead became an important source of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

which was growing in demand. James Butterworth claimed that "the Manchester market seems to prefer the coal dug in this parish before that of any other." As early as 1791 Edmund Kershaw of Sholver was a known collier, though some of the early

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

s in the area-bell or beehive pits-date back as early as 1542. The most profound development of modern Sholver began in May 1966. The Oldham County Borough Council began construction on its huge Sholver housing estates on what had been farm pastureland. On elevated land, some above sea level, the council aimed to provide nearly 1,700 dwellings. This increase in population has changed Sholver in its character from a cluster of houses sheltering under the brow of a hill to a large

. Sholver continues to have high numbers of social rented properties. In 1998 plans to create, Sholver Millennium Green started to take place. Designation was driven by community projects which had to satisfy a number of objectives, one of which was the inclusion of significant ‘natural’ areas where people can enjoy nature and wildlife at first hand. Like all past national commemorative programmes (e.g. the Waterloo Churches, and the planting of trees to celebrate the Jubilees of Queen Victoria), the Millennium Greens are about defining the present in order to create the heritage of the future. Sholver Millennium Green was created as part of a national programme of celebrations at the turn of the Millennium.

Governance

Lying within the historic county boundaries of

since the early 12th century, Sholver was recorded in 1212 as being one of five parts of the

thegn In later Anglo-Saxon England, a thegn or thane (Latin minister) was an aristocrat who ranked at the third level in lay society, below the king and ealdormen. He had to be a substantial landowner. Thanage refers to the tenure by which lands were ...

age estate of Kaskenmoor, which was held on behalf of King John by Roger de Montbegon and William de Nevill. The other parts of this estate were Crompton, Glodwick,

, and Werneth. Sholver would later form part of the

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

of Oldham within the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham, in the hundred of Salford. The Sholver estate archaically covered a wide area and included areas such as

Watersheddings Watersheddings was the site of a former rugby league stadium in the Watersheddings area of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. Historically it was in Lancashire, lying on the A672 ( Ripponden Road) approximately 2 miles north east of Old ...

, Barrowshaw and Counthill lying south of the modern Sholver housing development.

Sholver Millennium Green

Sholver Millennium Green is one of 245 Millennium Greens, around England created at the Turn of the Millennium- is owned and run by a local charity as a public greenspace. This is one of the largest Millennium Greens, at 25 acres and is an attractive countryside escape for the people of the nearby council estates etc.

Geography

From Sholver Towards Buckstones Shaw Oldham

At (53.566097, -2.074748), Sholver stands on a steep hillside, about above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

, northeast of Oldham's commercial centre, nearly at the northeasternmost extremity of the town.

and the South Pennines are close to the east. The River Beal lies in the valley below to the west, and beyond this,

Royton Royton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 21,284 in 2011. Close to the source of the River Irk, near undulating land at the foothills of the South Pennines, it is northwest of Ol ...

and

Shaw and Crompton Shaw and Crompton is a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, and lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines. It is located north of Oldham, south-east of Rochdale and north- ...

. Moorside is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

an area contiguous with Sholver's east. Sholver lies on the eastern edge of the Greater Manchester Urban Area. Archaic localities in and around Sholver include Sholvermoor and Sholver Slack.

References

{{Geographic Location , title = Neighbouring localities. , Northwest =

, North =

, Northeast = Grains Bar , West =Beal Valley , Centre =Sholver , East = Moorside , Southwest = Derker , South =

, Southeast = Strinesdale Areas of Oldham