Milnrow & Newhey August 2019

From The Archives
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 land below Rochdale Parish
Church were for many years’ glebe lands
for the use of the parish priest and
‘acceptable gentlemen’ who might wish to
take the air. In the 19th century the area
consisted of three gravel paths bordered
by shrubs and flower beds. However,
pressure mounted in the 18th century,
especially from Liberals on the council, to
purchase the land for a public park. The
church stood firm at £600 an acre and the
Tory party disagreed with the whole idea,
believing that working people had no time
for recreation. However, after the passing of
the Vicarage Bill which gave more power to
local authorities, a sale was agreed in 1868.
THREE ROCHDALE PARKS
The park was landscaped by Stansfield’s of
Todmorden to include a lake and
separate playgrounds for girls and for boys
and on 1st August 1874 Broadfield Park
was opened to the public.
The oldest park in Rochdale, boundary
walls were built in the early 20th century
and the park extensively refurbished over
the years to include a Victorian-style
bandstand, bowling greens (1908) and
further play areas for children. Broadfield
also contains important town monuments,
the statue of John Bright MP and a
monument erected in 1900 to the
memory of Rochdale’s dialect poets. Some
of the stranger aspects of Broadfield Park’s
history include the presence at one time of
a large cannon, supposedly dating from the
Crimean War which was known as Big
Bertha. Before it was taken away to be
used as metal for the war effort in the early
1940’s it stood near to what became the
nurse’s home, now a hotel. Elsewhere in
the park is the large boulder (I was always,
wrongly, told that it was a meteorite) found
at Crown Top in Castleton and presented
to the corporation and at one time near
St Albans Street there was allegedly a
tombstone to a dog which had been owned
by Miss Harriot Drake daughter of a former
vicar at the Parish Church.
FALINGE PARK
An estate of 18 acres between Falinge
Road and Sheriff Street had been owned
by the Royds family since 1799 with Mount
Falinge mansion at its centre built in early
19th century by James Royd who lived in
it until subsequent generations of Royds
took it over.
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