{"id":55693,"date":"2025-04-27T20:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T20:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/55693\/"},"modified":"2025-04-27T20:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T20:56:13","slug":"locals-think-their-town-is-dying-visitors-say-its-better-than-chorlton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/55693\/","title":{"rendered":"Locals think their town is ‘dying’ – visitors say ‘it’s better than Chorlton’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shaw locals say they’ve seen ‘decades of decline’ – but visitors say they ‘don’t see what they have’.<\/p>\n

17:19, 27 Apr 2025Updated 20:39, 27 Apr 2025<\/p>\n

\"MarketMarket Street in Shaw(Image: MEN)<\/p>\n

The high street in Shaw, Oldham, is surprisingly busy for a Tuesday lunch time. Workers dodge into discount bakeries for a spot of lunch, mums with prams linger at charity shop windows, pensioners make sharp beelines for the town\u2019s homely caf\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

Yet ask a local, and you\u2019ll likely hear that not all is as well as it seems in Shaw. Residents say the town is \u2018dying\u2019 and its community is \u2018breaking down\u2019.<\/p>\n

Years of losing local hotspots such as the Shaw baths and former town hall have taken their toll on the township, with the pandemic and online shopping putting the proverbial nail in the coffin for the proud post-industrial neighbourhood, according to locals – or \u2018Shaw Gawbies\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year something on the high street dies,\u201d Luke Divine, 26, tells the M.E.N. \u201cAnd gets replaced with a vape shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Market Street, Shaw.(Image: MEN)<\/p>\n

He\u2019s watching over his baby daughter in her pram outside a charity shop while his partner Jordan, 26, buys a stomper suit. Jordan grew up in Shaw but recently moved down the road to Royton. She only comes back to visit family – and the second-hand shops.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to be a great community. Quiet, safe, everyone knew each other and all the kids in the neighborhood would sort of look after each other,\u201d Jordan recalled. \u201cBut now nobody really knows each other anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordan believes lots of factors have fed into the community\u2019s apparent decline – from the pandemic lockdowns making people \u2018forget how to be sociable\u2019 to rising crime intimidating Shaw\u2019s elderly population.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve also lost a lot,\u201d the Shaw mum went on. \u201cThe market used to be packed, I remember coming there as a kid and you had to suck in just to get past people. Now there\u2019s only half the stalls and it\u2019s not thriving like it should be.<\/p>\n

\"JordanJordan and Luke Divine.(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got no banks. The youth centre is gone. There\u2019s not really any activities for kids to do around here anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

She looks down at her nine-month-old, who stares back at her with big, attentive eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want her to grow up with a good surroundings,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cBut it\u2019s hard when there\u2019s nothing for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driving instructor Warren, 69, also believes the sense of community is fading – and says he \u2018can\u2019t wait to leave\u2019 with plans to retire to the seaside. He links the town\u2019s decline more directly to a change in the type of homes – citing a growing number of rentals and HMOs.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not alone. Recently, an application to turn the town\u2019s former health centre into a huge 22-bed HMO sparked outrage among locals, inspiring a town centre protest. The application was turned down by Oldham<\/a> Council – but local activists say the town is being \u2018flooded\u2019 with unlicensed HMOs.<\/p>\n

Local residents protesting a new HMO application for the former Crompton Health Centre on High St in Shaw (Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Another resident, who didn\u2019t wish to be named, believed the problem was broader than housing situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community is not the same as it used to be,\u201d the woman in her fifties said. \u201cIt was a lot friendlier. People don\u2019t care about each other as much anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe high street\u2019s only charity shops and takeaways. It used to be a good little town with lots of different shops. You could come out for the afternoon, you couldn\u2019t do that now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe council are trying to do things to improve the town. But I think it\u2019s gone too far. There\u2019s no saving it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is an alternative view.<\/p>\n

\"SistersSisters Olivia and Cheryl are both big converts to Shaw town centre. (Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n

While speaking to residents, the M.E.N. bumped into sisters Cheryl, 60 and Olivia Brock, 55, who travel from Manchester every week to visit Shaw.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love Shaw,\u201d Cheryl exclaimed, weighed down by shopping bags from nearby shops. \u201cLook at the highstreet, it\u2019s got the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. You can find anything you need right here, at independent shops. Where can you find something like that these days?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s full of friendly people and it has that lovely high street feeling. You don\u2019t get that in Manchester.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sisters travel from Failsworth<\/a> by tram to have tea and cake and do a spot of shopping. They used to go to Chorlton<\/a> – but ever since discovering Shaw in January, they\u2019ve been die-hard fans.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe sisters were laid down with shopping – which they estimated at around \u00a3120 worth of goods.(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t get a \u00a37 lunch in Chorlton,\u201d Cheryl said. \u201cAnd you get real personal service here. I can see why Shaw people keep it quiet. It\u2019s also quietly very multicultural. I\u2019ve been so impressed with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheryl is convinced Shaw people \u2018don\u2019t know what they have\u2019 after hearing some of the comments from locals. \u201cThey don\u2019t make a song and dance about it and they should. Although, maybe that\u2019s part of the charm,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While many bemoaned the loss of community spaces, Pat Beecroft, who has lived in the town for 30 years, argues there\u2019s still plenty going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually think the town has changed very slowly,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ll admit, it\u2019s not as vibrant as it once was. I think it\u2019s mostly because of a change in retail. People don\u2019t care as much about the high street anymore. It also feels less safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019ve still got a good community. We lost the swimming baths and the town hall but gained in other aspects.<\/p>\n

The Children’s Society shop, one of the charity shops on Market Street, which has been there for more than a decade. (Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a whole sign up by the town library with classes and groups,\u201d she pointed out, having come fresh from a yoga class.<\/p>\n

Another unsung institution in Shaw is Donnely\u2019s cafe. Packed full of mostly pensioners whenever the sun is shining, the cafe offers an important meeting place for the town\u2019s elderly residents. Jordanna, the warm-hearted owner who seems to take orders from her regulars almost telepathically, kept the cafe open on Good Friday just so some of her customers could see each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just worried that some of them might not see anyone all weekend otherwise,\u201d she said. \u201cI think a lot of people come here just to have a chat and speak to others, share a laugh with us, that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She admitted the local community caters for an older clientele.<\/p>\n

\"Donnelly'sDonnelly’s in Shaw, a meeting point for the elderly community.(Image: Google Maps)<\/p>\n

But work is underway to bring more community spaces back to the town, according to leader of the recently rebranded Shaw and Crompton Town Council, Marc Hince.<\/p>\n

As well as bringing back a bigger monthly market, Hince, who is also a ward councillor, says the town council is working on rescuing the Lifelong Learning Centre and converting an old agricultural building in High Crompton into a new community bistro.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen 30 years of decline,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople feel like the town centre doesn\u2019t reflect who they are. But it\u2019s not hopeless. There\u2019s still a big community spirit and lots of potential. \u201cWe need to bring back investment, community assets and regenerate the town centre – and we\u2019re already working on it. It might be taking longer than expected, but it is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaw has clearly changed over the years. But while many the M.E.N. spoke to seem pessimistic about the town\u2019s future – others argue the town is not given enough credit for what it has to offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean look at it,\u201d Shaw-loving Cheryl says. She gestures outwards at the road, which slopes downwards between red-brick terraced homes, pointing at the bright green Pennines. \u201cIt\u2019s just beautiful!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shaw locals say they’ve seen ‘decades of decline’ – but visitors say they ‘don’t see what they have’.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,29445,2465,1286,285,17297,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-55693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-high-street-closures","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-oldham","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-shaw","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114411928672912306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}