Lees, Greater Manchester
Human settlement in England / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Lees is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England,[1] amongst the Pennines east of the River Medlock, 1.8 miles (2.9 km) east of Oldham, and 8.2 miles (13.2 km) northeast of Manchester.
Lees | |
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Lees village centre | |
Location within Greater Manchester | |
Population | 4,500 (2011 Census) |
OS grid reference | SD955045 |
Metropolitan borough | |
Metropolitan county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | OLDHAM |
Postcode district | OL4 |
Dialling code | 0161 |
Police | Greater Manchester |
Fire | Greater Manchester |
Ambulance | North West |
UK Parliament | |
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In the 14th century, when John de Leghes was a retainer of the local Lord of the Manor, Lees was a conglomeration of hamlets, ecclesiastically linked with the township of Ashton-under-Lyne. Farming was the main industry of this rural area, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom weaving in the domestic system. At the beginning of the 19th century, Lees had obtained a reputation for its mineral springs; ambitions to develop a spa town were thwarted by an unplanned process of urbanisation caused by the rise of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution.[2][3]
Lees expanded into a mill town in the late-19th century, on the back of neighbouring Oldham's boom in cotton spinning. Lees Urban District had eleven cotton mills at its manufacturing zenith.