Milnrow & Newhey April 2020

From The Archives
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 although given
the pollution in the air and the poor water
supply at the time, they were risking it!
In fact, there were calls from the mid-19th
century to stop river pollution with human
waste but to little avail even though the
development of a good sewerage scheme
was known to have positive health benefits.
Whilst the Rivers Pollution Acts of 1875
and 1876 outlawed the flow of solid matter
into rivers and required that manufacturing
towns look to sewage disposal schemes to
maintain their cleanliness, the Rochdale
Observer in 1878 was still claiming that
no such affordable scheme had been
implemented and the river was as dirty
as ever.
The Roch, as with so many rivers, was
named after its wildlife. Along with other
rivers such as the Ock (a salmon), the
Laughern (a fox) and the Yarty (a bear!)
which were all formed from Celtic or
British words, the Roch’s name was
testament to the river’s ability to support
fish and supposedly nearby fauna along its
banks. However, by the late 19th century
the Manchester Times commented that
although the river had been named after the
silvery fish, ’it is needless to say that even a
tadpole would hardly think life worth living
amid its poisonous abominations.’
THE RIVER ROCH
The Roch’s first appearance as a spring is
minor and modest, rising as a trickle by
Solomon Cutting on Chelburn Moor south
of Todmorden on the North West side of
Blackstone Edge and near to the source of
the River Calder. From there it meanders
down through Littleborough taking in
small tributaries such as Clegg Hall Brook,
Wuerdle Brook and Greenvale Brook and,
growing in volume, is joined by the Beal at
Belfield (where it got its name) after taking
in Moss and Hey Brooks as well as Stanney
Brook which flows down from Milnrow
via Belfield. Snaking onwards, it passes
under Molesworth Street near the baths and
into the town centre by the new library at
Riverside.
Now 8 miles from its spring, it becomes
Rochdale’s river and has been the location
for many colourful events in the town’s
history. Most people have memories of the
floods of 2015 but in 1856 the Observer
reported the river to have risen three feet,
flooding cellars in The Walk. Accidents
near the river were frequent but none so
dramatic as one in 1820 during a bullbaiting
at the annual town fair. It seems
that a bull, tied to a stake in the river, was
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