Butler Green is a residential area in the town of Chadderton in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester. The area is also commonly known as Washbrook.
Located in the south east of the town, Butler Green forms a contiguous urban area with Coalshaw Green, Whitegate, Nimble Nook, Block Lane and Hollinwood.
Hollinwood Rugby League Club are based at Butler Green on Melrose Fields, the site of the former Melrose Mill.
History
Butler Green and its continuation, Washbrook, form part of the network of ancient roads that linked the hamlets and villages of Chadderton to the manor houses at Foxdenton and Chadderton Hall. In pre-industrial times a hamlet consisting of a number of homesteads and other property lay at the junction of Butler Green and Thompson Lane known as Butler Fold.
Washbrook derives its name from a nearby stream which flows from the higher ground of nearby Werneth. The brook has long since been culverted. The stream becomes the Bower Brook at Hollinwood and is a tributary of Moston Brook
The Washbrook area became a centre of early industrial activity in the late 18th century with the construction in 1792 of the Werneth Branch Canal. The Canal terminated at a basin known as Hollinwood Top Wharf and was a privately built extension of the Hollinwood Branch Canal to facilitate the transportation of coal from the Werneth Collieries to Manchester and other industrial centres. It lay at the intersection of Washbrook and Old Lane.
The New Engine Pit at Old Lane was opened in 1803. By 1875 the local collieries were no longer producing coal and the canal fell into disuse.
In 1876 the northern section of the Werneth Branch Canal was destroyed with the construction of an embankment at Washbrook for the Oldham Loop Line railway which opened in 1880.
A "Primitive Methodist" Society had begun meeting in Butler Green in 1862 in a disused loom house in the wake of what was known as the "cotton famine revival." In 1869 they erected their first building at the corner of Butler Green and Coalshaw Green Road with its three clock faces looking out from its tower across the road junction.
In common with other areas of Chadderton, the late 19th century saw Butler Green expand into a cotton mill district with the construction of Butler Green Mill (1863), Melrose Mill (1869), Spring Mill (1870) and the Gem Mill (1901). These mills have now been demolished and replaced with housing developments. The Nile Mill, lying just north of Butler Green on Fields New Road still survives and is a grade II listed building. See List of mills in Chadderton.
A network of new roads was built during this period - Coalshaw Green Road leading to the hamlet of that name, Stanley Road connecting the area to Manchester Road, Hollinwood and Fields New Road leading to Cowhill through the former Fields Farm. Spencer Street, linking Old Lane to the Top of Hollinwood was also constructed during this period, spawning a major industrial district stretching to Manchester Road. The new roads were a major factor in the urbanisation of the east side of Chadderton, resulting in agglomeration between the former hamlets and villages and the rapidly expanding district of Freehold lying immediately to the north in the Werneth area of Oldham.
Stanley Road School is a long-standing educational establishment first built in 1903 and has been used by a variety of primary and secondary schools since including South Chadderton School and Freehold Community School. For a period up to 1988 it housed Butler Green Primary School before reverting to its original name of Stanley Road.
Butler Green was quite a substantial village until redevelopment took place in the 1970s. A cluster of shops stood at the crossroads whilst Washbrook Methodist Church, with its public clock, formed the focal point for the community. In the post-war period and on into the 1960s shops on Butler Green included Patch the chemist at no. 8, Monaghan the draper's at 10-12, Spence Bros. butcher's at 13, Whittam the baker at 20, Stafford's fish, fruit, flowers and veg at 22, not forgetting the Clock Corner Restaurant and Dyson's undertaker's.