The boomtown of Chadderton reached its industrial zenith in the 1910s, with over 50 cotton mills within the town limits. A social consequence of this industrial growth was a densely populated metropolitan landscape, home to an extensive and enlarged working class community living in an urban sprawl of low quality terraced houses. However, Chadderton developed an abundance of civic institutions including public street lighting, Carnegie library, public swimming baths and council with its own town hall. The development of the town meant that the district council made initial steps to petition the Crown for honorific borough status for Chadderton in the 1930s. However, the Great Depression, and the First and Second World Wars each contributed to periods of economic decline. As imports of cheaper foreign yarns and textile goods increased during the mid-20th century, Chadderton's textile sector declined to a halt; cotton spinning reduced dramatically in the 1960s and 1970s and by 1997 only two mills were operational. In spite of efforts to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of its production, the last cotton was spun in the town in 1998. Many of the redundant mills have now been demolished. Non-textile based industries continued on throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century, particularly in the form of aircraft and chemical manufacture at plants in south Chadderton and Foxdenton respectively.