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Rochdale, Yorkshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1818.

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ROCHDALE:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1818.

"ROCHDALE, a parish in the county of Lancashire, and additionally placed in the Genuki Yorkshire pages so as to hold the places within its boundaries which are actually in the old West Riding of Yorkshire."


"SADDLEWORTH, this place, though in the county of York, is said to be in the parish of Rochdale; the cause of which appears by an old book belonging to Whalley Abbey, to have been an application from Hugo de Stapleton, lord of the manor of Rochdale for leave to erect a chapel for the use of his tenants ; the permission was granted but on condition that the chapel should be annexed to the abbey of Whalley. On the dissolution of monasteries this was annexed to Rochdale ; and the minister of its church or chapel is now put in by the vicar of that place ; the tithes of which have been lately purchased by the land owners. Saddleworth is a large valley, about seven miles long and five across the broadest part, situated in an angle of Yorkshire, between Lancashire and north eastern projection of Cheshire. It is by nature a wild and bleak region, but industry has accumulated in it a vast number of inhabitants, (and now in a high state of cultivation, and conveniently intersected by good turnpike roads) who gain comfortable subsistence by the manufacturing of woollen cloth, for which the place is peculiarly famous ; many of the superior broads manufactured here being equal, if not superior, to those of the West of England. The cotton business has also been introduced, and is now carried on to a considerable extent. The Huddersfield canal, which passes through Saddleworth, and penetrates by a tunnel, upwards of three miles in length, the mountains of Pule Moss and Brunn Top, has given material advantages to the inhabitants of this district."

[Transcribed from Pigot's National Commericial Directory for 1818-1819-1820]
by Gillian Taylor Shaw ©2011