Milnrow is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines, and forms a continuous urban area with Rochdale. It is east of Rochdale town centre, north-northeast of Manchester, and spans from Windy Hill in the east to the Rochdale Canal in the west. Milnrow is adjacent to junction 21 of the M62 motorway, and includes the village of Newhey, and hamlets at Tunshill and Ogden.
Historically in Lancashire, Milnrow during the Middle Ages was one of several hamlets in the township of Butterworth and parish of Rochdale. The settlement was named by the Anglo-Saxons, but the Norman conquest of England resulted in its ownership by minor Norman families, such as the Schofields and Cleggs. In the 15th century, their descendants successfully agitated for a chapel of ease by the banks of the River Beal, triggering its development as the main settlement in Butterworth. Milnrow was primarily used for marginal hill farming during the Middle Ages, and its population did not increase much until the dawn of the woollen trade in the 17th century.
With the development of packhorse routes to emerging woollen markets in Yorkshire, the inhabitants of Milnrow adopted the domestic system, supplementing their income by fellmongering and producing flannel in their weavers' cottages. Coal mining and metalworking also flourished in the Early Modern period, and the farmers, colliers and weavers formed a "close-knit population of independent-minded workers". The hamlets of Butterworth coalesced around the commercial and ecclesiastical centre in Milnrow as demand for the area's flannel grew. In the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution supplanted domestic woollen industries and converted the area into a mill town, with cotton spinning as the principal industry. Mass-produced textile goods from Milnrow's cotton mills were exported globally with the arrival of the railway in 1863. The Milnrow Urban District was established in 1894 and was governed by the district council until its abolition in 1974.
Deindustrialisation and suburbanisation occurred throughout the 20th century resulting in the loss of coal mining and cotton spinning. Milnrow was merged in to the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in 1974, and has since become suburban to Rochdale. However, the area has retained "a distinct and separate character", and has been described as "the centre of the south Lancashire dialect".Joyce (1993), p. 198. John Collier (who wrote under the pseudonym of Tim Bobbin) is acclaimed as an 18th-century caricaturist and satirical poet who produced Lancashire-dialect works during his time as Milnrow's schoolmaster. Rochdale-born poet Edwin Waugh was influenced by Collier's work, and wrote an extensive account of Milnrow during the mid-19th century in a tribute to him. Milnrow has continued to grow in the 21st century, spurred by its connectivity to road, rail and motorway networks. Surviving weavers' cottages are among Milnrow's listed buildings, while the Ellenroad Steam Museum operates as an industrial heritage centre.
History The earliest evidence of human activity comes from the Mesolithic peoples, who left thousands of flint tools on the moorland surrounding Milnrow. A hunter-gatherer site was excavated by the Piethorne Brook in 1982, revealing a Mesolithic camp from which deer were hunted. Neolithic activity is evidenced with a flint axe found at Newhey and a black stone axe found by Hollingworth Lake. Excavations at Piethorne Reservoir in the mid-19th century combined with surveys during the 1990s revealed a spear-head (with a blade) and ceramics respectively dated to Bronze Age Britain. A Bronze-Age tumulus, funerary urn, and stone hammer or battle axe were discovered at Low Hill in 1879. They imply the presence of Celtic Britons. During the British Iron Age, this part of Britain was occupied by the Brigantes, but, despite ancient kilns used for dry ironstone smelting found at Tunshill, it is unlikely that the tribe was attracted to the natural resources and landscape of the Milnrow area on a lasting basis. Remains of a silver statue of the Roman goddess Victoria and Roman coins were discovered at Tunshill Farm in 1793, and it is surmised that Romans traversed this area in communication with the Castleshaw Roman Fort. Construction in the Victorian era is likely to have destroyed any other artifacts from the Stone Age, Bronze Age or Roman Britain.
The land was delineated during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. It is theorised that this portion of the Manor of Rochdale was a seasonal enclosure for livestock farming and butter production, giving rise to the name Butterworth. The Old English name is interpreted as meaning an "enclosed pastureland that provides good butter", using the suffix -worth typically applied to upland pastures in the South Pennines. Butterworth was applied to a broad area, within which was Milnrow, which also has English toponymy implying Anglo-Saxon habitation. The meaning of the name Milnrow may mean a "mill with a row of houses", combining the Old English elements myne and raw, or myln and rāw, or it may be a corruption of an old pronunciation of "Millner Howe", a water-driven corn mill at a place called Mill Hill on the River Beal that was mentioned in deeds dating from 1568.Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council (N.D.), p. 32. Another explanation is that it is derived from a family with the name Milne, who owned a row of houses; a map from 1292 shows "Milnehouses" at Milnrow, other spellings have included "Mylnerowe" (1545) and "Milneraw" (1577).Ekwall (1972), p. 56. Physical evidence of Anglo-Saxons or Norsemen comes from monastic inscribed stones—one of which has Latin text—discovered in 1986 at Lowhouse Farm. The stones were dated to the Viking Age in the 9th century.
Seasonal farming practiced in Butterworth during the Early Middle Ages gave way to permanent settlements after the Norman conquest of England in 1066; the Norman families of "de Butterworths", "de Turnaghs", "de Schofields", "de Birchinleghs", "de Wylds" and "Cleggs" were the new keepers of Butterworth,Hignett (1991), p. 2. in the hamlets of Belfield, Bleaked-gate-cum-Roughbank, Butterworth Hall, Clegg, Haughs, Lowhouse, Milnrow, Newhey, Ogden, Tunshill, and Wildhouse. Records relating to these hamlets in the High Middle Ages are vague or incomplete, but show land was owned variously by the families, the Elland family, the Holland family, the Byron family, or the Knights Hospitaller. The Byron family were endowed land in Milnrow during Norman times, and their descendants include the Barons Byron in the peerage of England. In 1253, King Henry III granted rights to the Knights Hospitaller to conduct the trials of suspected thieves, regulate the production and sale of food using the Assize of Bread and Ale, and erect a gallows for public executions. Butterworth had no church, it was part of the parish of Rochdale with ties to St Chad's Church in Rochdale. The scattered community in and around Butterworth was primarily agricultural,Hignett (1991), p. 3. and centered on hill farming. An oratory was licensed by the Bishop of Lichfield in 1400 for use as a chantry by the Byron family, and a chapel of ease for the wider community followed in 1496.Hignett (1991), p. 32. A document dated 20 March 1496 from the reign of Henry VII, proclaims that open land by the River Beal at Milnrow would be the site of the new chapel, distinguishing it as a chapelry, and prompting its development as the principal settlement. Milnrow Chapel struggled to be viable, and depended on donations. Interference from donors led to accusations of corruption and its confiscation by the Crown at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Shallow coal mining was recorded at Milnrow in 1610, while legal documents dated 1624 state that there were six cottages at Milnrow; with a further nine at Butterworth Hall, and three at Ogden.. Millstone Grit was the main building material of the time, used for dry stone farmhouses and field boundaries. Milnrow stayed this way throughout the Late Middle Ages— its chapel appearing intermittently in records— until woollen weaving was introduced.McNeil, R. & Nevell, M. (2000), p. 35. Beginning as a subsidiary occupation, the carding, spinning, and handloom weaving of woollen cloth in the domestic system became the staple industry of Milnrow in the 17th century. This was supported by the development of medieval trans-Pennine packhorse tracks, such as Rapes Highway routed from Milnrow to Marsden, allowing access to woollen markets in Yorkshire and enabling commercial prosperity and expansion.. Fulling and textile bleaching was introduced, and Milnrow became "especially known for fellmongering", and "distinguished for its manufacture of flannels". Demand for Milnrow flannel began to outstrip its supply of wool, resulting in imports from Ireland and the English Midlands. An estimated 40,000–50,000 sheep hides were ordered every week,Hignett (1991), p. 10. and Milnrow's William Clegg Company established what was said to be the largest fellmongering yard in England. Trade tokens were struck in Milnrow by local metalworkers to supplement a shortage of coins. Sandstone was quarried in the late-17th century, providing Milnrow with the material to extend the fully reinstated Milnrow Chapel in 1715, as well as new three-storey "fine stone domestic workshops" or weavers' cottages during the 18th century.Frangopulo (1977), p. 29. These had dwelling quarters on the lower floors and loom-shops on the top floor. Milnrow became a village of working class traders who used Rochdale as a central marketing and finishing hub; the curate of Milnrow remarked that the gentry and yeomen classes had all left the area by 1800. Road links to other markets were enhanced during the late-18th century, culminating in an Act of Parliament passed in 1805 to create a turnpike from Newhey to Huddersfield.
During surveys and excavations by Oxford Archaeology in the Kingsway Business Park, ten yeoman houses were identified dating to the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth centuries. These included Moss Side Farm, Lower and Higher Moss Side Farms, Cherry Tree Farm, Lower Lane Farm, Pyche, Lane End and Castle Farm