Lees is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, amongst the Pennines east of the River Medlock, 1.8 miles east of Oldham, and 8.2 miles northeast of Manchester. In the 14th century, when John de Leghes was a retainer of the local Lord of the Manor, Lees was a conglomeration of hamlets, ecclesiastically linked with the township of Ashton-under-Lyne.