MOSSLEY, a manufacturing town of Lancashire, England, is situated on the London and North-Western Railway and on the Huddersfield canal, near the west bank of the Tame, which here separates Lancashire from Cheshire, 3 miles north-east of Ashton-under-Lyne, and 10 east-north-east of Manchester. The houses are for the most part built of stone. To supersede the old church of St George, erected in 1757, a new building was begun in 1881. A mechanics’ institute was erected in 1858. In the vicinity of the town is an eminence called Hartshead Pike, on which is a lofty circular tower surmounted by a spire rebuilt of stone in 1758. Mossley has risen into importance since the introduction of the cotton manufacture about fifty years ago. A fair is held annually. The town was placed under the Local Government Act in 1864, the district to which its provisions extend including also part of Saddleworth in Yorkshire. The total population was in 1871 10,578, and 13,372 in 1881.