Milnrow & Newhey Feb 2022

From The Archives
Almost every boundary set around a
part of England may be identified as
a parish and most parishes have their
own consecrated parish church open for
Christian worship and the pastoral care
of the people within that boundary.
The parish church in Rochdale is
administered as the Church of St Chad,
Chad being a 7th century churchman
possibly coming from a family of
Northumbrian nobility who had been a
student at Lindisfarne and became Abbot
of Lastingham and for a period, Bishop of
York. Chad died in the year 672 and the
town of Chadderton is most likely named
after him.
As mother church in the parish of Rochdale,
the earliest building of St Chad’s is a matter
of debate. Certainly there was a church on
the site overlooking the town of Recedham
or Rachedale in either the late Saxon period
or just after the Norman conquest, the mid
11th to early 12th centuries, although the
date is open to question. What is recorded
however is that in 1194 land was given by
Adam de Spotland for religious purposes
in order (as Wild in the 1970’s suggests) ‘to
save his soul and that of his family.’ The
current handsome gothic structure standing
up on its lofty ridge is not exactly the one
from the middle ages although the tower is
reputedly the oldest part of the building.
The siting of the church has been the
subject of the ‘fairy builders’ myth whereby
on a number of occasions the stones and
materials that had been assembled by
the River Roch near Newgate where the
church was supposed to be built, were
ROCHDALE PARISH CHURCH
mysteriously and at night re-gathered at the
top of the hill where the church now stands.
Eventually accepting this supernatural
indication of its proper site required 124
church steps to be laid leading to the
religious place. Less romantically, the real
reason for the site would have been its
prominent place near a raised earthwork
which formed a nearby hill sometimes
called a ‘castle’ which overlooked the
valley and the Roch. Notwithstanding any
supernatural beginnings which would have
almost certainly have been discredited by
him, the first vicar of the church of St Chad
was Geoffrey de Lacey, Dean of Whalley in
1194. On Geoffrey’s death Roger de Lacey
gave the church to the Cistercian brothers
of Stanlow who later moved to Whalley
Abbey. Thereafter the vicars were Sir
William de Dumplinton in 1238, John de
Blackburne in 1250 and Roger de Marland
in 1277.
Structurally the building has been changed
over the centuries although Wild in his
short book on the subject suggests that
the remains of a Saxon wall were found
in the north west corner of the churchyard
as evidence of an early church. However,
re-building was carried out between 1470
and 1480 and, as a gift from Robert Belfield,
extensions added around 1530. It would
seem that the building became dilapidated
in the 18th century to such an extent that
Lord Byron paid for general renovation of
its walls and the roof. In the 19th century
a clock set in the tower was removed and
more recently Canon Nightingale ordered
work costing £40,000 carried out in 1952.
48
To advertise call 07976 289967 or 07974 434793 or email sales@streetwisemag.co.uk