Dukinfield

 ( Towns In Greater Manchester ) 

Coal pits exploiting the underlying coal measures to the south of the Lancashire Coalfield were a major part of Dukinfield's industrial history. One pithead was located on Birch Lane, now the site of All Saints' Catholic College, with another near the northern border with Ashton-under-Lyne. Francis Dukinfield Astley first started developing collieries in the town around 1820, and his son Francis Dukinfield Palmer Astley continued to develop the two most notable mines after his father's death in 1825—Dukinfield and Astley Deep Pit—both of which suffered explosions which killed many workers:

• Dukinfield Colliery (also known as Lakes Pit or Victoria Colliery) was owned by Astley's Dukinfield Colliery Company. The colliery had two shafts, the downcast was 1,020 feet deep to the Black mine (coal seam) and was connected to the upcast ventilation shaft. On 4 June 1867, 38 men and boys died of suffocation following an explosion caused by a faulty safety lamp and poor management.
• Astley Deep Pit, was off King's Street opposite Brownlea Avenue was developed by Astley but by 1874 was owned by Benjamin Ashton. The colliery's downcast shaft was 2,058 feet deep and its workings extended over a mile to the south and about 1,300 yards to the north of the shaft. This colliery was reported to be at one time, the deepest coal mine in the world, at 2,100 feet (640 metres) and had three shafts. On 14 April 1874 an underground gas explosion killed 54 men. After the pit closed in 1901 the shafts were filled in and left to stand for many years before being built on. It is now the site of a development of houses comprising Angel Close, Oval Drive and Silver Close.

Samuel Robinson—a Unitarianism, industrialist, and scholar—founded the village library in 1833 and was dubbed the "foremost promoter of education in the district" before his death in 1884. Daniel Adamson a mechanical engineer became the first chairman of the Manchester Ship Canal Company. He owned an engineering works producing Lancashire boilers at Newton Wood beside the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. He died on 13 January 1890. The Adamson Military Band, named after Adamson is based in Dukinfield. The MS&LR's successor, the Great Central Railway, moved its carriage and wagon works to Dukinfield in 1910.

Dukinfield and its surrounding towns were major centres of civil revolt during the 19th century and briefly the area was a hotbed of Chartism, the popular movement calling for universal suffrage via a "People's Charter". Chartism leader, Reverend Joseph Rayner Stephens is buried in St John's Churchyard.

For national elections, the Dukinfield ward lies in the Ashton-under-Lyne constituency, and the Dukinfield Stalybridge ward lies in the Stalybridge and Hyde constituency.

In its north-eastern corner, the township included a large part of the town of Stalybridge, which rapidly developed during the industrial revolution. In 1828 a body of improvement commissioners was established to administer a newly defined Stalybridge district, which straddled the three townships of Dukinfield and Stayley in Cheshire and Ashton-under-Lyne in Lancashire.

In 1857, the remainder of the Dukinfield township outside the Stalybridge district was made a local board district, administered by an elected local board. Later that year, the Stalybridge commissioners' district was incorporated to become a municipal borough.

Local board districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894. The 1894 Act also directed that civil parishes could no longer straddle district or borough boundaries, and so Dukinfield parish lost its territory within the borough of Stalybridge. The boundary between Dukinfield and neighbouring Aston-under-Lyne to the north was adjusted in 1898 to follow the modern course of the River Tame; previously the boundary had followed the more meandering pre-industrial revolution course of the river, which had been altered as various mills and urban development had been laid out along the river's banks.

Dukinfield Urban District was incorporated in 1899 to become a municipal borough. The borough council was granted a coat of arms in 1900. The council subsequently built Dukinfield Town Hall on King Street to serve as its headquarters, which was completed in 1901. The borough was expanded in 1936, gaining part of the civil parish of Matley, which was abolished.

The borough of Dukinfield was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The area became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in Greater Manchester.

The town is situated at the edge of the Cheshire Plain where it meets the Pennines, and Dukinfield is the first town on the hill. The park is situated approximately a quarter of a mile from the town hall along King Street towards Hyde in the south. Because of the quite steep rise out of the plain, the park is terraced and is over 90 feet higher at the top. The hill flattens out slightly before rising steeply again towards the east, where the library is situated. The town hall is also at the base of the same hill with Astley Street rising steeply along its shorter southern side before climbing some 120 feet to the crest of the ridge. The local soil is mainly clayey with some Alluvium.Nevell (1992), pp. 8, 10.

The underlying geology is the middle , which run north–south under Tameside. Dukinfield is situated on the site of a vast ancient lake or swamp that covered the area. This ancient lake is the reason coal is found in the area. The layers of shale and coal are laid on top of each other in bands, only 20 or 30 feet thick. The coal deposits fall away at a 20-degree or so angle, and runs eight or nine miles from the base of the hill out under the plain. The coal deposits are known as the Dukinfield Marine Band and form a V shape running out from here towards Stockport in the south and Ashton Moss in the north-east. Dukinfield had several mines of which Astley Deep Pit had the best coal. There are many seams or mines of coal found here. Dukinfield coal was known to be the best for heating and steam generation. Only a mile to the south along Hyde Road is another large mine, the Dewsnap Colliery, which was of a lower quality and so was not in as much demand. The Dukinfield Marine Band outcrops at Dukinfield, and continues up the hill towards the top of the ridge, some 140 feet above the level of the plain where it flattens out and a third mine was situated.

At the 2001 UK census, 79.0% of Dukinfield's residents reported themselves as Christian, 0.9% Hindu, 0.8% Muslim, and 0.1% Buddhist. The census recorded 12.2% as having no religion, 0.1% had an alternative religion and 6.8% did not state their religion.

Dukinfield grew from a small village just south of Ashton-under-Lyne with open land to the south and east, the gap between it and the surrounding towns of Hyde and Matley being a semicircle around 1.5 miles wide, to fill the gap entirely by the late 1940s. In its early days from 1801, and previously, the population was small but boomed during the days of the cotton industry and later the coal industry with its major rail junction adding to its prosperity and growth.

The industries which sustained it died out by the turn of the 1900s, leaving only the Daniel Adamson works but it managed to maintain its population and has only declined by 2000 since 1921. One reason is that it has a central location on the main road from Stockport to Ashton-under-Lyne and is within easy commuting distance of Manchester.

According to the 2001 UK census, the industry of employment of residents of Dukinfield aged 16–74 was 24.4% manufacturing, 19.3% retail and wholesale, 10.0% health and social work, 9.5% property and business services, 7.2% construction, 6.5% transport and communications, 5.7% education, 4.7% public administration, 4.4% finance, 3.4% hotels and restaurants, 1.0% energy and water supply, 0.3% agriculture, 0.1% mining, and 3.6% other. Compared with national figures, the town had a relatively high proportion of people working in manufacturing, and low levels of people working in agriculture, public administration, and education. The census recorded the economic activity of residents aged 16–74, 2.1% students were with jobs, 2.8% students without jobs, 4.9% looking after home or family, 7.9% permanently sick or disabled, and 2.7% economically inactive for other reasons.

Old Hall Chapel is an old historic church, claiming to be the first independent church in the 17th century. It was built during the late 15th century but is unfortunately partially derelict due to fire in the 1970s which destroyed much of the superstructure of the roof.

Bus services in the area are provided by Stagecoach Manchester, First Group and a variety of smaller operators.

Dukinfield Central railway station, which was closed in 1959, provided local and national rail services. The nearest railway stations are now Stalybridge, Hyde North and Ashton-under-Lyne.

The second-generation tramway Manchester Metrolink terminates currently at nearby Ashton-under-Lyne for connections via Droylsden to the city centre and beyond. A tram network operated by the SHMD Joint Board ran lines through Dukinfield from 1904 to 1945, until their replacement by buses.

Manchester Airport is located around 8 miles from the town and can be easily accessed by road and public transport.

Dukinfield Junction is a canal junction which is the meeting point of the Peak Forest, Ashton Canal and Huddersfield Narrow Canals.

There are secondary schools but no dedicated facility in Dukinfield for further education, the nearest establishment being Tameside College in Ashton-under-Lyne or Hyde.

All Saints Catholic College provides education for 16- to 18-year-olds. Since 1998, the sixth form facility has been provided for in a purpose-built extension to the main school.

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Manchester on 95.1 FM, Capital Manchester and Lancashire on 102.0 FM, Heart North West on 105.4 FM, Smooth North West on 100.4 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Manchester & The North West on 96.2 FM, and Tameside Radio, a community based station which broadcast from the town on 103.6 FM.

The local newspaper is the Tameside Reporter, published on Thursdays.

A number of Protestant and Catholic churches are based in the municipality, with the nearest mosque being in Ashton-under-Lyne, a short distance to the north of the town.

Dukinfield Rugby Union Football Club currently plays in the South Lancashire & Cheshire 2 League of the Northern Division. The club plays its home games at Blocksages Playing Fields and is one of the oldest rugby teams from the historic county of Cheshire, having been founded in 1880. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Mike Ford was head coach gaining 2 league promotions in 3 seasons. He left Dukinfield RUFC for a brief spell at Oldham RUFC but then left to take over as Defensive coordinator of Ireland (January 2002 – September 2005). In September 2004, he started working as Defence and Skills coach at Saracens in the Guinness Premiership before taking over as head coach. He had a spell as the defence coach of the England national rugby union team and is now head coach at the Belgian national side.

Dukinfield Town AFC, founded in 1948, plays in the Bridgewater Office Supplies Manchester League and has a ground at Blocksage's Playing Fields, Birch Lane, next to Dukinfield Rugby Club. Dukinfield Town were winners of the Manchester Senior Cup in 1971, the final was played at Maine Road. Manchester Senior Cup archive.

It is the home of Dukinfield Central Bowling Club who play in the Tameside Mens Crown Green Bowling League and have won the premier division title in 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Dukinfield has a public library which is situated in Concord Way, as part of a small shopping precinct. Morrisons have a supermarket in the town. The old library was situated on Town Lane on land donated by the Astley family who donated money towards the building. There is a park, around a quarter-mile from the town hall, providing gardens, a play area and leisure facilities.

A public swimming pool is now closed and has been turned into a fitness centre with an indoor running track. It is available as part of the borough facilities offered by Tameside Sport, as well as two full-size sports pitches, these are currently used by the town's rugby and football teams. Rayner Stephens High School provides artificial multi-sports pitches, which can be reserved for use by the general public, outside school hours.

• Lt.Col Robert Duckenfield (1619–1689), a Roundhead commander during the English Civil War.
• Samuel Robinson (1794–1884), a Unitarianism, an industrialist and scholar of the Persian language who founded the Dukinfield Village Library in 1833.
• Mary Moffat (1795–1871), a missionary who became a role model for women involved in missionary work.
• William John Battersby (1839–1915), a British hat manufacturer, of Battersby Hats.
• Sir Roderick Jones (1877–1962), journalist and news agency manager, head of Reuters.
• Kathy Staff (1928–2008), actress, portrayed Nora Batty in Last of the Summer Wine
• Ronnie Hazlehurst (1928–2007), composer, conductor and arranger of TV and radio music, the BBC Light Entertainment Musical Director
• Dennis Walsh (1933–2005), astronomer, both a radio astronomer and an optical astronomer.
• John Normington (1937–2007), actor, worked on TV, and a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company
• Shirley Stelfox (1941–2015), actress, portrayed Edna Birch, in the soap opera Emmerdale
• Peter Daszak (born ca.1965), a zoologist, consultant and expert on disease ecology, in particular on zoonosis

• Albert Lawton (1879–1955), cricketer who played 182 first-class cricket games
• Buddy Oldfield (1911-1996), cricketer with Lancs and Northants, played 322 First-class cricket games.
• George Forbes (1914–1964), footballer who played 177 games for Barrow
• Cyril Cartwright (1924–2015), cyclist who held national records on the track and on the road
• Tony Brooks (1932-2022), 1950s Formula One driver with six Grand Prix victories.

• Listed buildings in Dukinfield

Citations

Bibliography

• Owen Ashmore (1982). 9780719008207, Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719008207
• J. McN. Dodgson (1970). 9780521077033, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521077033
• Mike Nevell (1992). 9781871324075, Tameside Metropolitan Borough and Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit. ISBN 9781871324075
• Mike Nevell (1993). 9781871324082, Tameside Metropolitan Borough and University of Manchester Archaeological Unit. ISBN 9781871324082
• Mike Pavasovic (1984). 9780907511601, Neil Richardson. ISBN 9780907511601