The Rifle Street drill hall is a former military installation in

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 ...

History

The building was designed as the headquarters of the 6th Volunteer Battalion, The

Manchester Regiment The Manchester Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1958. The regiment was created during the 1881 Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 63rd (West Suffolk) Regiment of Foot and the 96th ...

and completed in 1897. This unit evolved to become the 10th Battalion, The Manchester Regiment in 1908. The battalion was mobilised at the drill hall in August 1914 before being deployed to

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

and, ultimately, to the Western Front. The battalion converted to form the 41st (Oldham) Battalion,

Royal Tank Regiment The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the First World War. Today, it is the armoured regiment of the British Army's 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. Formerly known as th ...

just before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and evolved to become the 40th/41st Royal Tank Regiment in 1956. After the cut-backs in 1967, the presence at the drill hall was reduced to a single squadron, A Squadron, The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry (Royal Tank Regiment). After the squadron moved out of the drill hall in the mid-1990s, it continued to be used for industrial purposes until it was badly damaged in a serious fire in April 2011.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Oldham Drill halls in England Manchester Regiment