Bamford & Norden May 2017

From the
archives
From the archives -
The Norden Riviera
As the decade of the 1930’s opened, boom times must have seemed to be well and truly a thing of a past and by
1932 the number of registered unemployed in the North was as high as 70% in some areas of the North of England.Not
until the mid-1930’s did things began to improve in cotton manufacture, the building trade and allied industries and
against this backdrop a new consumerist society was starting to emerge delivering automatic washing machines,
radios, vacuum cleaners and cars for a new working class needing ‘playgrounds’ in which to spend its time, whether
these were in the form of cinemas, parks or swimming pools.
This ‘leisure industry’ was apparent in Rochdale too where there were twelve cinemas,two theatres and dance halls such as the
Carlton Ballroom. Health was also an established concern at that time and it was this mix of health and exercise that opened the
way for lidos to be built nationally, supported by government funding with more than £2.5 million made available for local authorities.
The Norden Riviera was part of this, but was a lido with an industrial past. Tenterhouse Dyeing and Bleaching Company in Norden
had been founded by Mr J T Taylor but included in his ownership was an area around Tenterhill to the north of Edenfield Road as
well as the hillside immediately above the works which, until the 1920s, had been the site of anabandoned seminary. When Higher
Tenterhouseand the nearby works were demolished in the early 1930’s, they abandoned land that had been made into a bowling
green, tennis courts and badminton courts for the workers, and it was at this point that the directors of Old Manor (Pastimes) Ltd
took a lease from Bleachers Association Ltd to convert the old bowling green into a swimming pool and the tennis courts and old
pavilion into a tea room and café. The lease agreed, work commenced in 1934 on making this vision a reality.
A meeting in November of 1935 decided that the venture was to be called
‘The Riviera’although Rochdale people called it the Riviera from that time
onward. Naming it as such was part of a trend at the time for all things
continental. The plan put forward was that it would include not only a
swimming ‘bath’ and a children’s paddling pool, but also gardens, a
dance hall and tea room, badminton (in the main hall) and tennis courts,
a nine-hole miniature golf course, indoor recreations and facilities for
horse riding.
The official opening of the Norden Riviera was on April 27th 1936 and
included a Carnival Dance and a high diving display (2/6d admission).
Dances, in the early days of the Riviera were popular and held every
Saturday throughout July and August with a 3-piece band also engaged for Tuesday
night sessions. Catering was supplied by Rochdale’s Bob Bon café until 1954 after which visitors could buy only tea and biscuits,
minerals and ice cream.In the evening you could dance or be waited on at pool-side by page boys wearing white uniforms (with gilt
buttons !).
Things never last though. By 1942, parts of the Riviera buildings and diving boards were in serious need of repair and at the end
of the war arrangements were made for re-painting throughout and re-laying the café floor whilst other parts of the estate were
60 To advertise call 07976 289967 or 0797 443 4793 or email sales@streetwisemag.co.uk