Diggle, Greater Manchester
Coordinates: 53°34′05″N 1°59′42″W / 53.568°N 1.995°W
Diggle is a village within the Saddleworth parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England.[1] The village is situated on the moorlands of the Pennine hills.
Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is located at one end of the restored Standedge Canal Tunnel, Britain's longest, deepest and highest canal tunnel. The Diggle Hotel can be found close to the end of the tunnel.
In the heart of the village there is the Diggle Chippy housed in a listed building, the Gate pub, a newsagent, and a post office/off-licence. The post office acts as a general store. The brass band club called the Diggle Band Club hosts band contests and concerts. There is a bowling club.
The Anglican church in the village is Kiln Green Church. The Methodist church, called Wrigley Mill, closed 2011. The local primary school caters for 200 children ages 4 to 11.
The Saddleworth Whit Friday Band Contest included Diggle since 2009 as one of the contests. The Diggle Blues Festival is an annual event that takes place in June. Started in 2010, nine bands use three venues and perform over a three-day weekend that allows people the opportunity to see every performance without charge.
Diggle is home to Diggle F.C., an FA registered amateur football club which plays its home games at Churchill Playing Fields, Uppermill. It competes in the Huddersfield and District Association Football League. There is a village band who are in the championship sector.
The current Diggle Community Chairman is Mark Brooks who has contributed much to the village with the creation of the Diggle Diggers, the first community orchard in Saddleworth and the vast improvement of the Diggle light switch on.
History
The name "Diggle" comes from the Saxon word degle meaning "valley".[2] Like many of the Saddleworth villages, it traces its history back to a collection of hamlets.
Transport
A railway line that connects Manchester to Huddersfield and Leeds runs through Diggle. There used to be a local railway station in the village, which opened in 1849, but it was one of many to go in the Beeching era, closing in 1963. The nearest stations to Diggle are in Greenfield and Marsden in Yorkshire.
The bus service that serves Diggle is the 184, which provides an hourly Monday–Saturday daytime service from the Old Station Turning in Diggle to Manchester via Dobcross, Uppermill and Oldham. There is an additional hourly Monday–Saturday daytime and two-hourly Sunday daytime service between Huddersfield and Manchester, which runs along the A62 Huddersfield Road in Diggle.
References
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- ↑ Greater Manchester Gazetteer, Greater Manchester County Record Office, Places names - D to F, archived from the original on 18 July 2011, retrieved 9 July 2007
- ↑ Bradbury, Joseph. Saddleworth Sketches, 1871.