In statistics, Saddleworth and Oldham are worlds apart. But are they really so very different?
06:53, 20 Jul 2025Updated 07:52, 20 Jul 2025
(Image: Manchester Evening News)
There are just five miles between the two areas of Alexandra and Uppermill, both in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. Yet they couldn’t be more different.
One is a twee village steeped in history, festooned stubbornly with Yorkshire roses and surrounded by softly undulating fields and forests. The other is a densely populated urban area with few shops and rows of tightly-packed terraced homes sprawling for miles beyond Alexandra Park.
It’s not just a ‘town and country’ divide. The living standards of both areas are vastly different.
A child born in Saddleworth is likely to live almost 12 years longer, is more likely to leave school with qualifications, more likely to find employment and will ultimately go on to earn on average double the amount of a child born in central Oldham.
‘They’re like two worlds,’ says Rebecca Lee(Image: Manchester Evening News)
“They’re like two worlds,” Rebecca Lee, an Oldham local who spends time in both places tells the M.E.N. “Everybody notices the wealth inequality. They’re very different places under the same Oldham umbrella.”
Oldham isn’t the only Greater Manchester district where there is a divide in living standards. But the borough is frequently named as one of the most ‘deprived’ parts of the region – scoring high on child poverty benchmarks, personal debt and percentage of incomes spent on basic necessities.
The wards around the borough’s town centre are hit hardest. The median income in St Mary’s, Alexandra and Coldhurst sits between £20k and 23k, with unemployment at around 12 per cent. Meanwhile median incomes in Saddleworth’s two wards are between £46k and £47k – more than double – with just two per cent unemployment.
Rows of tightly-packed terraced homes in Coldhurst. (Image: Manchester Evening News)
Homes in central areas hover around £120k (though have been rapidly rising in recent years), but a house in Saddleworth costs upwards of £344k. Yet 80 pc of people in Saddleworth own their own homes, compared to under a third in central wards.
And the most shocking figures show that in central wards like Coldhurst, one in every three children lives below the poverty line.
Yet, in sunny Saddleworth, where the high streets are full of artisan cafes, boutiques and craft shops, those statistics seem like they belong to another world.
“It doesn’t feel like we’re part of the same borough,” Eileen, 60, told the M.E.N. on her way to Uppermill high street. She’s lived in Denshaw for 28 years, after moving over from Manchester. “You definitely know it’s a much better standard of living here. You’ve got the countryside, cafes, restaurants, bars, very good schools. You know everybody.
‘It doesn’t feel like we’re part of the same borough’, says Eileen – but the signs beg to differ.(Image: Manchester Evening News)
“I feel very comfortable, very safe here walking around on my own – which I definitely wouldn’t in some parts of Oldham – because there’s less people in Saddleworth and you know more of them.”
Like many people we spoke to in Saddleworth, Eileen rarely goes to Oldham town centre – she thinks the last time she ventured into town was pre-Covid – and opts to go to Manchester instead.
But Pam and Dave, both in their seventies, are the exception to the rule. They moved from Huddersfield to Grasscroft eight years ago to help out with their grandkids.
“We downsized to move here and have no regrets,” Dave said. “We love it. My only comment would be: it’s very white and middle class. We’re used to living a little more in mixed communities, which you get in Oldham but not in the villages.”
Pam agreed: “Sometimes I feel we’re in a bubble.”
‘Sometimes it feels like we’re in a bubble’, says Pam from Grasscroft.(Image: Manchester Evening News)
“I don’t like how many of the people my age say that Oldham has been ‘ruined’ because of immigrants. We don’t share that view,” she added. “The richness of the community lacks multiculturalism.”
The demographics are very different in Saddleworth, which is 95pc ‘white British’, compared to 39pc in Alexandra, 20pc in Coldhurst and 23pc in St Mary’s. But Pam and Dave firmly believe reducing the divide to ethnicities is narrow-minded.
There’s a more complex picture – where history plays an enduring role. In post-industrial Oldham, central areas that had historically attracted migrant workers because of job opportunities fell into decline and consequently became cheaper to move to.
Whereas accumulated wealth in Saddleworth, its long-term status as a tourist destination, and later its more direct link to Manchester through the trainline buffered most of the area against the decades of economic stagnation experienced just five miles down the road.
The wealth divide is partly due to historic developments. (Image: Manchester Evening News)
And today’s material conditions are self-perpetuating, Gareth Cornell, 38, implies. The Saddleworth dad who works in health was waiting for his daughter on a small hillock in the King George V playing fields.
His outpost overlooked a branch of Uppermill’s TikTok viral Grandpa Greene’s cafe, and a babbling brook, where primary schoolers waded giggling through the water and teenagers made a game of trying to push each other off the stepping stones.
“Things are very different when you get into central Oldham compared to the villages,” Gareth acknowledged. “But then not so very different when you’re used to going to different parts of Manchester.”
Grandpa Greene’s cafe in the King George V playing fields.(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Gareth’s job, which he didn’t wish to publicly disclose, means he spends a lot of time analysing health outcomes in areas with different socio-economic situations. Saddleworth and Oldham have come up in his works: there’s a 12 year gap in life expectancy between them.
“It’s things like access to education, green spaces and sports facilities. And house building around here is aimed at affluent people, rather than for social benefit. We’ve also got a direct line to Manchester with the train station in Greenfield, which makes it easier to commute to higher paid jobs,” he explained. It all stacks up.
Yet speaking to residents in Alexandra and St Mary’s – it’s clear that statistics alone don’t always tell the whole story.
Mohammed, who lives in Alexandra, says there’s a great community in the area.(Image: Manchester Evening News)
“Actually, I love living here,” Mohammed, 64, said, getting ready to use a communal outdoor gym on the border of Alexandra Park. “There’s a good community. I came here 15 years ago from Pakistan to join my son. I like the English people. I like this park.”
A local mum waiting outside Zaf’s News Agents with a pram also highlighted there was a strong sense of community. She shared that she knew of people who ‘struggled’.
“With rent, food shops, things like that,” said the 32-year-old, who didn’t wish to be named. “I’ve not experienced it myself, I’m lucky I’ve got a lot of family members who help out. I think everything is expensive at the moment.”
As we talked, several young men popped into the shop to buy soft drinks on their way to work, bantering with the shopkeeper and offering wry smiles of recognition as they passed by.
A recent Coldhurst community day, organised by a local community group, where 30 local women fed hundreds of locals for just £1 each and youth workers provided entertainment. (Image: Jake Lindley / Manchester Evening News)
There are run down houses, boarded up shop-fronts, and endemic fly-tipping that local volunteer groups are fighting hard to put an end to. But the few people who agreed to speak to the M.E.N. painted a picture of a resilient, close-knit local community where people look out for one another.
And some even suggest the sense of a ‘divide’ is blown out of proportion by public perception.
“I know Saddleworth is a posh area. But that’s more just based off people’s perspective,” Shannon, 24, who lives and works near Oldham town centre said. “Anything when it comes to money, it might be that Saddleworth is financially not that different from this area, but it’s just perceived differently.”
‘It might be that Saddleworth is financially not that different from this area, but it’s just perceived differently,’ says Shannon. (Image: Manchester Evening News)
Rebecca Lee, lunching outside the Sainsbury’s on King’s Street, added: “I think [the wealth divide] isn’t as clear-cut as people say. I’ve got friends up there, I wouldn’t say they were well-off.”
The main difference is the high street, Rebecca added, describing Saddleworth as ‘beautiful, historic, nice’, while the only word she could conjure up for Oldham town centre was ‘scruffy’.
But Mark, 46, disagreed: “When I hear Saddleworth, I think: posh, upper-class.
“There’s definitely a big wealth divide. If you tried to buy a house in my estate and then tried to buy one in Saddleworth, there’s a massive difference.”
Mark in a striking pink top and matching trainers says there’s ‘definitely a big wealth divide’. (Image: Manchester Evening News)
The dad from Chadderton, who hails from Lime Side, described seeing homelessness spike in his role as a volunteer at a soup kitchen, and said the town is ‘in a bad way’.
But he also sees something aspirational in the Saddleworth villages, where those issues seem like they belong to another borough, not the next town over.
“If you work hard, then you deserve it,” he said. “I don’t hate on people for having more than me. I’m in a one bedroom flat with my two dogs and my daughter.
“I’d love to be able to live up there.”