Hartshead Pike is a hill in

Tameside The Metropolitan Borough of Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is named after the River Tame, Greater Manchester, River Tame, which flows through the borough, and includes the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Aud ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, England, and its name is associated with the monument on its summit. It overlooks

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...

Mossley Mossley (/ˈmɒzli/) is a town and civil parish in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, in the upper Tame Valley and the foothills of the Pennines, southeast of Oldham and east of Manchester. The historic counties of Lancashire, Cheshire ...

Saddleworth Saddleworth is a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and hamlets as well as suburbs of Oldham on the west side of the Pennine hills. Areas include Austerlands, Del ...

, Lees and

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...

. On a clear day you can get views of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

and

Snowdonia Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951. Name and extent It was a commonly held belief that the nam ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Hartshead Pike Tower has been a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

since 1967.

History

During the

Roman occupation of Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was ...

, a warning beacon for local garrisons, possibly lit during times of unrest, may have been sited on Hartshead Pike. Local trackways were routes for the Romans to access the Roman road at

Limeside Limeside is a large housing estate in Oldham, Lancashire, England, 2 miles south of the town centre in the Hollinwood, Lancashire , Hollinwood ward, contiguous with Failsworth, Hollins, Oldham, Hollins and Garden Suburb, Oldham, Garden Suburb. Da ...

. The name refers to the hill and the tower. The tower is not on the highest part of the hill but its prominent position, above sea level, has been the site of a beacon or signalling station from early times and may have been the site of a beacon in the late 16th century.

Tower

The circular, grade-II-listed tower is constructed of hammer-dressed stone with a door on the west side and cusped

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

s. It has a steeply pitched conical roof above

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

led

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

and dormer roof lights. The tower was rebuilt in 1863 by John Eaton to commemorate the marriage of Albert Edward to Princess Alexandra, replacing a building that had been there since 1751. An inscription stone reused in the tower states "This Pike Was Rebuilt By Publick Contributions Anno Domini 1751". In the 1930s the tower was open to the public and contained a sweet shop; it closed at the outbreak of the Second World War and the tower entrance was bricked up after the war in about 1950. There is a well on the summit enclosed by a stone slab. The inscription above the tower's entrance reads "Look well at me Before you go And See You nothing at me throw".

Gallery

File:25.12.20 Hartshead 34.jpg, Hartshead Pike showing detail of stone well. File:Manchester from Hartshead Pike.jpg, View of

from Hartshead Pike, away. File:Oldham from Hartshead Pike (2) May19.jpg, View of

from Hartshead Pike, away.

References

{{Buildings and structures in Tameside Mountains and hills of Greater Manchester Mountains and hills of the Peak District Grade II listed buildings in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside

History

Tower

Gallery

See also

References