- published: 10 Jul 2011
- views: 4890
Coordinates: 53°28′58″N 2°09′30″W / 53.4828°N 2.1582°W / 53.4828; -2.1582
Droylsden is a town in Greater Manchester, England, 4.1 miles (6.6 km) to the east of Manchester city centre and 2.2 miles (3.5 km) west-southwest of Ashton-under-Lyne, with a population of 23,172. This had decreased slightly at the 2011 Census for both Wards (North and South) to 22,689.
Historically in Lancashire, in the mid-19th century Droylsden grew as a mill town on the Ashton and Peak Forest canals. Beginning in the early 1930s, Droylsden's population expanded rapidly as it became a housing overflow area for neighbouring Manchester.
Since 1785, the Fairfield area of Droylsden has been home to a Moravian Church.
Droylsden was settled around AD 900. Before Droylsden became a part of Greater Manchester, it was popularly referred to by Mancunians as "The Silly Country". One suggestion as to the source of that nickname is that once a year, some of the townsfolk used to watch an annual carnival by bringing a pig and sitting it on a wall to watch the passing entertainment with them. The Pig on the Wall public house, converted from a farm in 1978, takes its name from that story.