Posts by samuelheywoodeverett

In 1761 William Robert Hay was born into a wealthy family in Cintra Portugal, his father being Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of Portugal 1759 and his mother the daughter of the Earl of Oxford. Hay was educated at Westminster School after which he attended Christ Church Oxford between 1780 and 1783. Called to the…

The river which flows through our town centre was once one of the prettiest in the region. With a ford at the Butts, it was described in the 17th century by Michael Drayton as a ‘dainty rill’ populated by minnow, loach and eels. The water was clear enough in 1868 for people to bathe in…

San Francisco might have been the centre of the hippy scene and London swinging in the 1960’s, but Rochdale had its own creative and ground-breaking culture which captured the vivacity of the time. Between 1968 and 1973 a group of artists – the Rochdale Sculptors – decided to reject the formality of the art gallery…

When men (and women) transgressed military law in the years around World War 2 through refusal of orders, going absent without leave or maintaining conscientious objection they were sent to one of two institutions, military prisons or detention barracks. One such detention compound was situated between Rochdale and Castleton at Stakehill and had the unenviable…

At the beginning of the 20th century, many workingmen and women in Rochdale, as in so many industrial towns across the United Kingdom, were eager to build on the knowledge they had of the world. They wanted to learn, not just about science or literature but about their own industrial experience and their social and…

As with many towns in the United Kingdom, Rochdale has a number of parks in which people can spend time with little cost. Stanney Brook, Denehurst and Hare Hill at Littleborough are amongst them but here I focus on three large parks in the borough, Broadfield, Falinge and Springfield. Broadfield Park The 30 acres of…

Tim Bobbin, real name John Collier, was born in Urmston Lancashire in either 1708 or 1709 and baptised in 1710. John’s was a humble family, his father being a poor curate and schoolmaster working in Stretford and earning £30 per year until he became blind at the age of 46. The family was a large…

Under a General Statute of 1555 people who lived in a particular manor in England were obliged to look after the pathways and roads within their boundaries and could incur a fine if they didn’t. This meant mending the roads themselves. Rochdale, as any other town, had to conform to this and records exist of…

When people say that something is a load of tripe, they are not being complimentary, yet tripe, the foodstuff, had many admirers, some travelling miles to eat a plate of it. So what is tripe ? Basically tripe consists of the stomach lining of a ruminant, for example a cow or an ox. The meat…

The Cattle Market used to be a cobbled open space where the current Police Station now stands. It was the venue for a series of performances in the early 1890’s which must have both puzzled and amazed the good folk of Rochdale. Imagine this. Through the streets of the town comes a large painted waggon…