Articles

Those who can remember the variety in the streets of towns in the North West will look back fondly to a time when Rochdale’s Yorkshire Street and Drake Street offered something distinctive and different to the streets of Bury or Oldham.  I could have picked Diggle and Taylor or Stock Liquidators, Lovick’s or Jimmy Duck’s,…

Previous centuries have seen horse racing in Rochdale. The first was on Hunger Hill, later on Rooley Moor and then on Whittaker Moss south of Edenfield Road which must have been quite an organised occasion as a rudimentary grandstand on the site collapsed leading to the death of one Mary Sharples. After this, races were…

Apart from his grave in Milnrow St James’ Church graveyard and a local road that bears his name, little remains of one of the most important men from the Rochdale area in the 19th century. Francis Raines was born into a professional family in Whitby on 22nd February 1805.  He was the third son of…

Apart from his grave in Milnrow St James’ Church graveyard and a local road that bears his name, little remains of one of the most important men from the Rochdale area in the 19th century. Francis Raines was born into a professional family in Whitby on 22nd February 1805.  He was the third son of…

If you are driving towards Milnrow from the Smithy Bridge side, take a right off Wildhouse Lane onto Branch Road. Go as far as you can go and there by the canal, is Clegg Hall. The large Grade 2 listed building stands on the site of a much older building thought to have been occupied…

From the beginning of the 19th century Rochdale was known as a place in which nonconformist churches thrived. By 1848 there were 23 places of worship in the town with the Church of England representing only a third of them offering services. Not only working people, but mill-owners belonged to nonconformist churches, meaning that they…