Around Knowl Hill (Rochdale)

Knowl Hill near Rochdale is a visible landmark that can be seen for several miles around and, for the people of that town, it has been for a long time now the place to go walking on Sundays and during the summer holidays. The sugar-loaf (conical-shaped) hill has a flat summit that is topped by an Ordnance Survey concrete triangulation pillar, and is 419m (1374) feet above sea-level. It is about 1 mile to the east of Edenfield Road (A680) along a couple of good moorland footpaths; and it overlooks the Ashworth Moor reservoir and the haunted Owd Betts public house, while just downslope to the southeast it overlooks the village of Red Lumb, the hamlet of Wolstenholme, Greenbooth Reservoir, and the village of Norden. To the northwest, the hill stands as a sentinel over the area known as Cheesden with its windswept moors and, further along, it is more distant from Facit and Turn Village, while to the west of Knowl Hill there is Wind Hill and the Ashworth Valley beyond.

Around 12,000 years ago, or more, there would have been a huge glacier covering the moors to the north of Rochdale and, Knowl Hill itself was probably covered by this, and then shaped when the glacier retreated. Then around 10,000 years ago what is now the town of Rochdale, in the valley below, was covered by a huge glacial lake; and some 4,000 years ago when the climate was much warmer ancient people were settling on the higher parts of the area, like Knowl Hill and the surrounding moors. We know for instance that there are two prehistoric burial mounds at Wind Hill over to the west of Knowl Hill; there have also been many finds of 'ancient antiquity' on and around Knowl Hill and also on the moorland around Rochdale and Bury. One find, in particular, a Bronze Age axe or palstave was excavated when the Ashworth Moor Reservoir was being dug in 1905 (photo below).

There is a curious ditch-like feature running in a north-westerly direction from the bottom of the hill, but its purpose is unknown. In the 19th century cotton and calico mills began to encroach in the Ashworth Valley and the Norden area, but these were relatively short-lived as by the early 20th century they were on their way out, never to return.

Websites referenced:
https://lancsarchaeology.wordpress.com/category/ditch/
https://thejournalofantiquities.com/2017/03/29/wind-hill-cairn-cheesden-near-rochdale-greater-manchester/
http://www.heywoodhistory.com/2018/01/ghosts.html
http://www.heywoodhistory.com/2016/07/ice-age-carving-cheesden-valley.html
http://trigpointing.uk/trig/4301