A painting of a historic Oldham view has been unveiled at Royton Library thanks to a group of historians buying it for the town.

The Royton Seven, as the group is known, joined together to make the funds to buy the painting when it went up for auction.

Frances Stott, Michael Higgins, Geoffrey Oliver, Robert Poole, Cllr Marie Bashforth, Cllr Steven Bashforth and one who wishes to remain anonymous secured the painting and donated it to Oldham Art gallery for restoration with the understanding it would then be displayed at Royton Library, where it was unveiled yesterday (October 4).

The nickname 'The Royton Seven' heralds from the Victorian saying: "those seven Royton felly’s who came awhoam [came home] i’ eight carts."

The painting that has been unveiledThe painting that has been unveiled (Image: Gallery Oldham)

The painting itself, made by John Holland, is made with oil and entitled 'Gerrard Wood, Stakehill, Reservoirs and Middleton in the Distance From the Foot of Tandle Hill'.

While at the time of its painting, Tandle Hill was officially within the Middleton ward, the iconic area later became part of the Royton township.

All that is known about the history of the painting is that the parents of the previous owner purchased the painting from J Davey & Sons, Manchester as the painting depicts the church they were married in.

The Royton Seven group said: "Having commissioned the auction house to bid on our behalf, it became a nerve- wracking experience once we realised there was another bidder.

"It would be wonderful if we eventually discovered Holland had painted a view looking south from Tandle Hill towards Royton and Oldham."

Painted in 1870, another view from Tandle Hill by the same artist ‘High Crompton from Seven Acre Field, Tandle Hill’ hangs in Crompton Library.