I’m not.
Only, I should add, as I believe you can
only be truly proud of something which you yourself are responsible for. It makes no more sense to be bigheaded of
where you are born than boast of having two nostrils or brag that your country bagged
loads of medals. You didn’t achieve it,
so how can you be proud of it?
But, by the same logic, I’m certainly not
ashamed of it either.
So what does Wikipedia say about my
hometown? Early reports are not
encouraging: “A scattering of small and
insignificant settlements spread across the moorland and dirt tracks which
linked Manchester to York”, with “little early history to speak of”. Cheeky tykes!
Nineteenth century visitors weren’t too
gushing either: John Marius Wilson in 1872
called it “dingy”, and in 1842 Angus Reach of Inverness described it in the Morning Chronicle as “a mean-looking
straggling town [with] a shabby underdone look... filthy and smouldering” (and,
with apologies to Invernesians, his ain ‘city’ is no Venice).
To this day I hear the town of my birth
derided – why, just the other week on Desert
Island Discs, popular tv science heartthrob and one-time popstar Brian
Cox summed up on his childhood with the
comment, ‘there aren’t many celebrities from Oldham’.
Really?
So where did our greatest ever leader,
Winston Churchill, spend his formative years?
Elected in 1900, he learned his most important political lessons as MP
for Oldham.
And our greatest composer? Sir William Walton, place of birth: Oldham (we can’t seriously claim Frideric
Handel of Halle-Wittenberg).
Great sportsmen come and go, but not so
long ago David Platt was captain of England whilst the mighty Mike Atherton his
cricketing counterpart - Oldhamers both.
And of course Oldham Athletic are the best football team on earth! (Ok that’s moot – but they do have the
highest ground in England, which is pretty much the same thing right?).
And when it comes to business, only a century
ago Oldham was the most productive cotton spinning mill town in the world. The town spun more cotton than France and Germany
combined (and if you don’t believe me you can check for yourself – just read Oldham
Council’s 2008 ‘Contaminated Land Strategy’!).
What about science? Well, there’s Louise Brown of course. What do you mean you’ve never heard of
her? Only the world’s first test tube
baby. Where did this historic event take place?
Oldham General Hospital, of course!
Impressive eh? So why do I only ever read bad things about the
town? (Ironic given that the UK's
largest newspaper publisher, Trinity Mirror, pumps a large chunk of its papers from
its huge printworks in, you guessed it, Hollinwood Avenue (Oldham).
I don’t deny there’s a downside – the first
by-election of this Parliament was due to disgraced Oldham MP Phil Woolas being
thrown out of office after illegal
race smears, the first ruling of its kind in 99 years. And we could have done without him getting
"white folk angry", after the shameful race riots which started in
the town in 2001. And when it's not communities being blown apart it's gas explosions...
Maybe I’ll just say I’m from Saddleworth instead, as that’s where I
grew up. You know, Saddleworth – renowned
for its beautiful Pennine setting, Whit Friday band contest of Brassed Off fame, just over the hills
from Last of the Summer Wine
country. Oh no, because of course when I
say Saddleworth everyone thinks of the bloody moors murders…
I don’t think I can win this one, so I
withdraw to my local Yates’ wine lodge with a pint of Lees and cheeky plate of
chips.
And then I brighten. Yates’, Britain’s oldest pub chain, opened in
1884. The first chip shop: John Lees’, founded in 1858 at Tommyfield
Market. And where do you think these
seismic events happened? Oldham, of
course.
So maybe it’s because I’m an Oldhamer, but
I think the town of my birth has much to be proud of, and I for one love Oldham
town.
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