manchester

local press

Heywood has its past as a traditional mill town, cotton being one of its major industries. Some mills still survive and have been commandeered for modern business. Bordered by Bury and Rochdale, Heywood boasts some spectacular countryside, most notably in Ashworth Valley and the Roch Valley, and is the site for one of the North West's main Scouting bases.

The town has benefited in recent years from its good links to the motorway network and there are several distribution parks on its fringes which provide major local employment. The town centre itself is a pleasing mix of local businesses which sit ahhpily alongside major retail outlets such as Morrisons and Dunnes.

The town's housing stock is a varied mix of terraced houses, a large swathe of social housing, and many farms dotting the borders.

The town is currently undergoing major investment thanks to a successful New Deal For Communnities bid which will see £10 million pumped ito the economy over the next decade, creating jobs, training, health promotion and youth facilities.

Communication links

Heywood lies next to the M60/M62 motorways and has benefited economically from such a close link. Within easy reach of both Manchester and Bury, the town's railway line is currently being brough back into use for tourist trains to bring visitors to the town as part of the East lancs Railway network. There is a possibility that commuter trains may run in the future.

The paper

The Heywood Advertiser was established in 1855 and is the town's only newspaper, with a publication day of Thursday. The paper won a Newspaper Design award in 1965. The paper boasts business, entertainment and children's sections, and has a lively competitions page each week. All local sport is covered in the paper, from netball to crown green bowls, and has a comprehensive coverage of local groups through its Community Contacts page.

History

Heywood's links go back to the Stone Age, though it was not until the Middle Ages that a settled community appeared.

By the 1830s Heywood was described as "a large and modern village" with a population of about 14,8000. The town 's future, like so many other Lancashire towns, was bound up with the Industrial Revolution and at one stage there were more than 40 cotton and wool mills in the town.

Local notables throughout history linked to Heywod include:

• Peter Heywood who was - wrongfully - implicated in the infamous Mutiny on the Bounty.
• Roger Fenton, the world's first official war photographer, who made his name in the Crimean War and whose prints now sell for tens of thousands at auction.
• Will Hay, the comic genius renowned for his films in the black and white era.
• Fred and Mary Duerr who founded the Duerr's jam making empire.
• Harold Pyott, billed as the world's smallest man in the 1920s. He stood at just 23 inches tall.
• TV actress Julie Goodyear, made famousd by her role as Bet Lynch in Coronation Street.

*Readership Jicreg Aug 2004
Circulation/Distribution ABC/VFD Jan - June 2004