 In 1851, over 30% of Oldham's population was employed within the textile sector, compared to 5% across Great Britain.It overtook the major urban centres of Manchester and Bolton as the result of a mill building boom in the 1860s and 1870s, a period during which Oldham became the most productive cotton-spinning town in the world.By 1911 there were 16.4 million spindles in Oldham, compared with a total of 58 million in the United Kingdom and 143.5 million in the world; in 1928, with the construction of Elk mill – the UK's largest textile factory – Oldham reached its manufacturing zenith.