Things you didn't know about... Oldham

Oldham gave us Mark Owen
Take That singer Mark Owen was born in Oldham. His mum was a supervisor in a local bakery, and his dad a policeman; he showed his love of the stage early on, staring in a number of plays at St Augustine's School.

Charlie Chaplin trod the boards in Oldham
Oldham has one of the country's last repertory theatres, where Charlie Chaplin, Minnie Driver and Ralph Fiennes have all performed. The auditorium has 585 seats, and was founded in 1885.

You'll find old hammers in Oldham...
Or rather, Oldhamers. That's what people from Oldham are called.

Oldham helped create Winnie
No, not Pooh Bear, but Sir Winston Churchill, who made his inaugural speech on Oldham Town Hall steps after being elected an MP in 1900. It was his second attempt to become a MP, undertaken after an Oldham local helped Churchill to escape from an ambush in South Africa.

Plattie started out in Oldham
Former Arsenal striker and England captain David Platt kicked off his footballing career at Oldham FC.

Oldham gave us a Goon
Spike Milligan's comic collaborator and fellow "Goon" Eric Sykes went to school in Oldham and first appeared on stage there.

Oldham pioneered test-tube babies
Louise Brown, the first baby to be conceived by IVF and successfully carried to term, was born in Oldham General Hospital in 1978.

Oldham played host to a hangman
Britain's most prolific 20th-century hangman, Albert Pierrepoint, ran a pub in Oldham ghoulishly named "Help the Poor Struggler". With 450 hangings to his name, his charges included wartime traitor Lord Haw-Haw and Ruth Ellis, the last woman ever to be hanged in Britain.

Oldhamlet?
Composer Sir William Walton is one of Oldham's most famous sons. As well as penning ballets, operas and orchestral music, he wrote the Oscar-nominated musical score for Laurence Olivier's Hamlet.

Oldham is friendly to Gophers
TV presenter Philip Schofield was born in Oldham. The companion of squeaky hand-puppet Gordon the Gopher in 80s BBC children's programming, Schofield is now best known as co-presenter of ITV's This Morning and Dancing on Ice.