Ashton-under-Lyne

Ashton-under-Lyne, a town of South-east Lancashire, 6½ miles E. of Manchester. It was enfranchised in 1832, and returns one member to parliament. A great seat of the cotton manufacture, it suffered severely during the cotton famine (1861-65). The population is also employed in bleaching, dyeing, and calico-printing, in collieries, and in the manufacture of machines, bricks, &c. Among the buildings are the town-hall (1841), the infirmary (1860), and the old parish church, with tombs of the Assheton family, from whom the town got its name. Pop. (1851) 29,791; (1891) 47,291.