Dukinfield
Dukinfield is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, on the south bank of the River Tame opposite Ashton-under-Lyne, east of Manchester. At the 2021 census, the built up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics had a population of 21,155.
It lies within the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, and became part of Greater Manchester in 1974. The town developed as a result of the Industrial Revolution when it became the site of coal mining and cotton manufacturing.
History
Early history
The earliest evidence of human activity around Dukinfield comes from a collection of four flints from the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age. The artifacts were discovered on the site of Dukinfield Hall and have been taken as evidence of a prehistoric settlement on the site. There is no further evidence of activity in the area until the Roman period. A 3rd century bronze Roman coin, from the reign of Emperor Tetricus I was discovered in the town.Dukinfield means "Raven of the Field" and derives from the Old English duce and feld.
Early records show the township was included in the fee of Dunham Massey. It was held by Matthew de Bramhall in about 1190, and after that by a family who took the name "De Dokenfeld". The family lived at the moated Dukinfield Old Hall, which originated from after the Norman conquest and was rebuilt in Tudor times, remaining the home of the Dukinfields till the 18th century, after which it became derelict. During the English Civil War, Colonel Robert Duckenfield of Dukinfield Hall was a noted commander in the New Model Army. The Dukinfield of Dukinfield, Cheshire baronetcy was created in 1665 for Robert Dukinfield, son of Colonel Robert Dukinfield.
The Dukinfields held the manor for five centuries until the widow of Sir William Dukinfield Daniel married John Astley in 1767, and he inherited the estate when she died. John Astley was an artist and architect, and he designed and built Dukinfield Lodge on a hill overlooking the River Tame as a new seat for the family, replacing the old wooden hall. His son Francis Dukinfield Astley succeeded him as lord of the manor in 1787, and then his son, Francis Dukinfield Palmer Astley, followed in 1825.
Industrial Revolution
– particularly the cotton trade – helped shape the town, but its rapid development destroyed its former pasture and meadow land. Two cotton mills were built before 1794 and by 1825 there were seven. The industry continued to expand and by the end of the 19th century 14 spinning mills of varying sizes were in operation. The largest mills were built in brick during the 1890s with four or five storeys, large windows, ornamental towers, engine houses and tall brick built chimneys. They included Tower, Tame Valley, River, Park Road and Queen Mills. Most of the cotton mills have now been demolished, but some have been preserved and converted into flats.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 was owned by Astley's Dukinfield Colliery Company. The colliery had two shafts, the downcast was 1,020 feet deep to the Black mine 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 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.
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". Chartist leader, Reverend Joseph Rayner Stephens is buried in St John's Churchyard.
Governance
There is one main tier of local government covering Dukinfield, at metropolitan borough level: Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. The council is a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which is led by the directly elected Mayor of Greater Manchester. Two of the electoral wards for the council have Dukinfield in their names: Dukinfield and Dukinfield Stalybridge.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.
Administrative history
Dukinfield was historically a township in the ancient parish of Stockport, which formed part of the Macclesfield Hundred of Cheshire. From the 17th century onwards, parishes were gradually given various civil functions under the poor laws, in addition to their original ecclesiastical functions. In some cases, including Stockport, the civil functions were exercised by each township separately rather than the parish as a whole. In 1866, the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws, and so Dukinfield became a civil parish.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.
Geography and geology
At , and north-northwest of London, Dukinfield's borders are defined to the north and west by the River Tame.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 alluvial deposits.
The underlying geology is the middle coal measures, 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.