Editing Mottram in Longdendale (section)

==History==
In 1795, [[John Aikin]] described Mottram as follows:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aikin |first1=John |title=A Description of the Country from thirty to forty miles round Manchester |date=1795 |publisher=John Stockdale |location=London |page=458 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_Description_of_the_Country_from_Thirty/26yoDlB5jZAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA450&printsec=frontcover |access-date=18 February 2025}}</ref><ref name="TFHhistory">{{cite web|url=http://tamesidefamilyhistory.co.uk/mottram.htm|title=Tameside-Mottram history|last=Oliver|first=G.J|year=2008|publisher=Tameside Family Histories|accessdate=28 October 2011}}</ref>
{{Blockquote
|text=Mottram is situated twelve miles from Manchester and seven from Stockport, on a high eminence one mile to the west of the Mersey, from which river the ground begins to rise; half the way being so steep as to make it difficult of access. It forms a long street well paved both in the town and to some distance on the roads. It contains 127 houses, which are for the most part built of a thick flag stone, and covered with a thick, heavy slate, of nearly the same quality, no other covering being able to endure the strong blasts of wind which occasionally occur. Of late, many of the houses in the skirts of the town are built with brick. About fifty years ago, the houses were few in number, and principally situated on top of the hill, adjoining the churchyard, where is an ancient cross, and at a small distance the parsonage house, now gone much to decay and occupied by working people. It is only of late years that the town has had any considerable increase, which has been chiefly at the bottom of the hill, but some latterly on the top...
|author=John Aikin
|source=''A Description of the Country from thirty to forty miles round Manchester'' (1795)}}

In the 18th century the [[River Etherow]] was known as the [[River Mersey|Mersey]]. The [[River Tame, Greater Manchester|River Tame]] has been a border from the earliest times between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of [[Northumbria]] and [[Mercia]].<ref name="TFH"/> The ancient parish was the most northerly in Cheshire.<ref name="TFH">{{cite web  |url=http://tamesidefamilyhistory.co.uk/boundaries.htm |title=Tameside-Historic Boundaries |last=Oliver|first=G.J|year=2008|publisher=Tameside Family Histories|accessdate=28 October 2011}}</ref>

Mottram came to prominence as a transport hub. It lies on two [[pack horse]] routes used to carry [[salt]] from Cheshire to South Yorkshire over the [[Pennines]] and carry [[Lime (material)|lime]] for soil improvement from [[Chapel-en-le-Frith]].<ref name="TamesideMBC">{{cite web|url=http://www.tameside.gov.uk/longdendale/history|title=Township Information - Mottram-in-Longdendale|date=25 May 2011|publisher=TamesideMBC|accessdate=28 October 2011}}</ref> It was on the [[stagecoach]] route between [[Manchester]] and [[Sheffield]]. Before the [[Industrial Revolution]], Mottram and [[Ashton-under-Lyne]] had been the most significant towns in the area. The manor and manorial court house were in Mottram, but other towns eclipsed Mottram in size and importance. Mottram was active in the early stages of [[industrialisation]], and there were significant [[cotton mill|cotton spinning mills]] in Wedneshough Green and the Treacle Street areas of Mottram Moor, and printing and dyeing works on the Etherow at [[Broadbottom]] which until recently was part of the parish.<ref name="TamesideMBC"/>

[[File:Hattersley & Mottram in Longdendale from Werneth Low (2) Feb 2008.jpg|thumb|[[Hattersley]] and Mottram in Longdendale from [[Werneth Low]]]]
The smaller early mills in Mottram became uneconomic and harder to run. Stalling industrialisation led to social conflict and hunger during 1812 [[Luddite]] riots that led to the smashing of labour-reducing machines. The Luddites secretly drilled on Wedneshough Green. In 1842 local [[Chartism|Chartists]] met on the green, and planned the closure of [[Stalybridge]] factories in the [[1842 General Strike|Plug Riots]]. By 1860 the population had peaked.<ref name="TamesideMBC"/>

The [[Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway]] was built in the early 1840s, passing along Longdendale. [[Broadbottom railway station]] opened in 1842; it was in the [[Township (England)|township]] of Mottram, but at the foot of the hill, a mile south of the village centre. The station was called 'Mottram' between 1845 and 1884, then 'Mottram and Broadbottom' between 1884 and 1954, after which it reverted to just 'Broadbottom'.<ref>{{cite web |title=Index of Railway Stations |url=https://www.cheshirearchives.org.uk/pdf/Railway-Station-Index.pdf |website=Cheshire Archives |access-date=18 February 2025 |page=5}}</ref>

A Polish pilot, Josef Gawkowski, was killed on 19 July 1942 when his aircraft crashed near Mottram on a training flight from [[RAF Newton]] in [[Nottinghamshire]]. A memorial plaque commemorating him is in Mottram Cemetery.