Town in Greater Manchester, England

Oldham

The world's first test-tube baby was born here in 1978, in a hill-top mill town that once spun more cotton than almost anywhere on Earth.

Key information

County: Greater Manchester
Nation: England
Known for: Cotton spinning, the first IVF birth, Boundary Park, Churchill's first seat
What locals are called: Oldhamers
Famous people: Louise Brown, Winston Churchill, Eric Sykes, Barbara Knox
Football clubs: Oldham Athletic (the Latics)

About Oldham

The town where the first IVF baby was born

On 25 July 1978, Louise Brown was born at Oldham and District General Hospital, the first baby in the world conceived through IVF. The news went round the globe within hours. The work was done by Patrick Steptoe, a gynaecologist at the Oldham hospital, and the physiologist Robert Edwards. Between them they had spent years persuading a sceptical world that it could be done. Millions of people have been born through IVF since. The first of them was an Oldhamer.

Cotton, chimneys and the "Limiteds"

Oldham grew from a modest Pennine market settlement into the world's busiest cotton-spinning town. Coal under the hills, damp air that suited the thread and fast streams all helped, and the mills piled up across the valley. The town also made the machines. Platt Brothers, whose Hartford Works stood in Werneth, became the largest textile machinery maker on the planet and sent spinning equipment to mills across the world. Oldham had its own financial trick too. From the 1860s, local people clubbed together to buy shares in limited-liability mill companies, known as the "Oldham Limiteds". Shopkeepers, clerks and overlookers could own a slice of a mill. The model spread across Lancashire. Most of the great mills have since gone or been converted, but the big brick shapes of the survivors still dominate the skyline.

Why Churchill's career began in Oldham

Oldham has long been a town of fierce politics. William Cobbett, the radical campaigner and writer, was elected one of its first MPs after the Great Reform Act in 1832. In 1900 a young Winston Churchill won one of the town's two seats, his first as an MP. The mill-town voters who sent him to Westminster launched one of the longest careers in British politics. The cotton boom also made Oldham a place of strong trade unions, co-operative societies and campaigning, which shaped its political reputation.

Latics, Roughyeds and the coldest ground in town

Oldham Athletic began life as Pine Villa and took the name Oldham Athletic in 1899, hence the nickname the Latics. They play at Boundary Park, a high, exposed ground on the edge of the Pennines where the wind can feel like an away fan with a grudge. The club had its golden spell around 1990. Oldham reached the League Cup final and an FA Cup semi-final in 1990, then won promotion to the top flight. They were founder members of the Premier League in 1992 and reached another FA Cup semi-final in 1994, losing to Manchester United after a famous late Mark Hughes volley in the first game. Boundary Park was also one of the first English league grounds to lay an artificial pitch in the 1980s. Oldham RLFC, the Roughyeds, are among rugby league's oldest names, with Challenge Cup wins in 1899, 1925 and 1927.

Curry, pies and Tommyfield Market

Oldham's food is mill-town cooking at heart: meat and potato pie, hot-pot-style stews and a plate of tripe and onions for the traditionalists, all rooted in the market stalls and chip shops that fed the mill workers. From the mid-twentieth century, people from Pakistan and Bangladesh came to work in the mills and stayed. They reshaped the town's eating, and curry houses and sweet centres are now part of what the town is known for. Tommyfield Market, a fixture of the town centre, has long been the place where the town does its shopping and gossiping.

Famous faces and places to see

Oldham's famous sons and daughters range widely. Comedian and writer Eric Sykes, long-time partner of Hattie Jacques, was born here in 1923. Barbara Knox, who plays Rita on Coronation Street, is an Oldham native. In the town centre, Gallery Oldham displays the town's art and museum collections, and next door the Oldham Library and Lifelong Learning Centre houses the central library. The stately Victorian town hall recalls the cotton money that built the place. On a clear day, the hills around the town give views across the Greater Manchester plain.