Private Investigator
Delph Greave

Amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, /ˈoʊldəm/ Oldham, England, is in Greater Manchester, 5.3 miles (8.5 km) southeast of Rochdale and 6.9 miles (11.1 km) northeast of Manchester. The beginning of a process of urbanisation and socioeconomic transformation, milling and cotton spinning to Oldham were introduced when Lees Hall, its first mill, was built by William Clegg in about 1778. When supplies of raw cotton from the United States were cut off, Oldham was hit by the 1861-1865 Cotton Famine of Lancashire.

Pledging in advance (more than the next sum by double) £100 towards any expenses which by the Royal Charter may have been incurred, for promoting Oldham to a Borough from a township, the largest subscribers were John and James Platt. Lying within the historic boundaries of Lancashire since the early 12th century, as being one of five parts of the thegnage estate of Kaskenmoor, which was held on behalf of King John by Roger de Montbegon and William de Nevill, Oldham was recorded in 1212. Except for a section along its eastern and southern boundaries, the Oldham territory is contiguous on all sides with other towns and for purposes of the Office for National Statistics, forms the United Kingdom's third largest conurbation, the fourth largest settlement of the Greater Manchester Urban Area.

It was for a long time a hamlet in the parish of Oldham that formed a part of the registration sub-district of Oldham Above Town, and recorded as Watergate and Waterhead Milne. The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham's centre of governance is the Civic Centre tower. From around 100 feet (30.5 m) at Manchester centre to around 600 feet (182.9 m) at Oldham Mumps, trains to Oldham from Manchester Victoria station through much of its (9.7 km) 6-mile route had to steeply climb.

Through Littlemoss and Daisy Nook Country Park to the Hollinwood area of Oldham, with a branch from Daisy Nook to Fairbottom Branch Canal, the Ashton Canal's Hollinwood Branch was a canal in Droylsden that from Fairfield ran. Oldham Coalfield stretched from Royton in the north to Bardsley in the south and to the west included the Chadderton and Middleton towns in addition to Oldham. As well as events related to Suffragette, Luddite, and other movements of Labour from the classes that are working, Oldham's social history, like that of other former towns that were unenfranchised, by civil disturbances that are politicised is marked.

With Margery Lees as president, Oldham Women's Suffrage Society was established in 1910 and joined Manchester and District Federation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. Within the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldham, in the hundred of Salford, Oldham formed a township. From 1851 until c. 1881, Oldham Above Town and Oldham Below Town were statistical units used for the gathering and organising of registration information, and output of census data.

Years before borough status was received by Oldham, a neo-classical Georgian hall of the town that is Grade II listed built in 1841 is Oldham's Old Town Hall. Used by Oldham Athletic A.F.C., Oldham's stadium that is main is Boundary Park. As Oldham Football Club, Oldham Athletic Association Football Club in 1895 as Pine Villa Football Club, Oldham R.L.F.C. Rugby League Club was established in 1876. Dating back to 1834, one of Oldham's oldest schools is Blue Coat School.