<P> In 1826 commissioners for the social and economic improvement of Oldham were established . The town was made part of a parliamentary borough, in 1832, though it was in 1849 when Oldham was incorporated as a municipal borough, giving it borough status in the United Kingdom, and in 1850 the Borough Council obtained the powers of the improvement commissioners . In 1880, parts of the Hollinwood and Crossbank areas of Chadderton and Ashton - under - Lyne townships were added to the Borough of Oldham . Oldham Above Town and Oldham Below Town were, from 1851 until c. 1881, statistical units used for the gathering and organising of civil registration information, and output of census data . </P> <P> The Local Government Act 1888 created elected county councils to administer services throughout England and Wales . Where a municipal borough had a population of more than 50,000 at the 1881 Census it was created a county borough, with the powers and duties of both a borough and county council . As Oldham had an 1881 population of 111,343 it duly became a county borough on 1 April 1889 . The borough, while independent of Lancashire County Council for local government, remained part of the county for purposes such as the administration of justice and lieutenancy . </P> <P> In 1951 parts of the Limehurst Rural District were added to the County Borough of Oldham, and in 1954 further parts of the same district added to it on its abolition . Since 1961, Oldham has been twinned with Kranj in Slovenia . Under the Local Government Act 1972, the town's autonomous county borough status was abolished, and Oldham has, since 1 April 1974, formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, within the Metropolitan county of Greater Manchester . </P> <P> The boundaries of two parliamentary constituencies divide Oldham: Oldham East and Saddleworth, and Oldham West and Royton (which includes the town centre), represented by Labour Members of Parliament Debbie Abrahams and Jim McMahon respectively . </P>

When did oldham become part of greater manchester