Around Watergrove Reservoir near Wardle, Rochdale, Greater Manchester

On the windswept Pennine moors to the north of Wardle, near Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, is Watergrove Reservoir. The reservoir was constructed back in the 1930s in order to supply water to nearby Rochdale, which was short of water in times of drought, but the old village of Watergrove very sadly had to be abandoned and sub-merged beneath the waters of this new reservoir. Watergrove village itself came into being in the first half of the 19th century with at least three mills providing work for the good folk of Wartergrove and probably some from Wardle; there was also a Methodist church, and a public house! and, eventually by about 1870 300 people were living in the village. However, children from the village had to go to Wardle as there was no school.

Going further back into the history of Watergrove there were several farms dotted around, mainly dating from the 1700s, but one from as far back as 1640. But the cotton mills that were built in and around Watergrove after 1840 were what undoubtedly caused the village to flourish during the 19th century. The millworkers lived in rows of cottages in the village; they attended the church on Sundays, and maybe went to the pub when they had the time and the money. Life was quite good but also hard for the cotton workers here for they worked long hours, but, the good folk of Watergrove village were a 'very big part' of the Industrial Revolution in the Rochdale area in the Victorian Age. But, by the early part of the 20th century the mills began to decline and by about 1930 had finally closed; the village of Watergrove then also fell into a slow depression, with some of its inhabitants moving away to the nearby towns, while hundreds of local men were employed in the construction of what would be the final nail in the coffin, the reservoir itself.

In 1938 the once vibrant community of Watergrove had gone forever, sunk beneath the waters of the reservoir, the foundations of its long-forgotten farms and other buildings only reappearing when the reservoir's waters are at a very low-level in long spells of dry weather. On the south-eastern bank of the reservoir there is 'The History Wall' or Wave Wall with many interesting carved stones and date-stones from the old village built into it. Today Watergrove Reservoir is a place to go to for walking - there are indeed many paths and trails in the area and, there are footpaths running around the edges of the reservoir. The Rochdale Way runs just to the west. There is car-parking at the south-side of the reservoir (SD 91169 17649). The History Wall is 100 metres east of the carpark.

Watergrove Reservoir is the largest in the Rochdale area and is situated some 240 metres (787 feet) above sea-level. From west to east it is 846 metres (2,775 feet) in width and from south to north 1,245 metres (4,084 feet) in length.

Sources & Related Websites:-

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2289430

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2290199

https://lancashirepast.com/2019/09/01/watergrove-reservoir-and-drowned-village-wardle/

http://www.abandonedcommunities.co.uk/rochdale3.html

https://www.visitrochdale.com/things-to-do/watergrove-reservoir-p12901

https://getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/local/watergrove-reservoir-rochdale

Copyright © RayS57, 2021

Rochdale Castle.

There used to be a castle in Rochdale!, well there was way back in the 11th century, but by the early 13th century it had been abandoned. It's possible there was an earlier, Saxon settlement, on what is now Castle Hill. The motte and bailey castle had stood on a raised, steep-sided area of land at the south side of the River Roch, to the west of Rochdale town centre at SD 89164 12851. The area around Castle Hill is also known as Castleton - which means 'Castle by a farmstead or settlement' - and is a post-Conquest place-name.

A motte-and-bailey castle is a fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a mound called a motte, which may have had a walled courtyard on one side, or a bailey; this in turn was surrounded by a defensive ditch and a wooden palisade. This raised, tree-covered area of land, above Manchester Road, is called Castle Hill, and on its summit where the Medieval fortification used to be there is a large 19th century house with a Georgian facade; an earlier building from the early 1600s had also stood on this site. Henry Fishwick's plan (above) from 1823 clearly shows the steep-sided defensive ramparts and layout of Castle Hill.

Before and after the Norman Conquest of 1066 the Saxon thegn, Gamel, Lord of the manor of Recedham, may have occupied the castle above the river Roch; he also built the church of St Chad. Gamel was the father of Orm. At the time of the Domesday Book (1086) Gamel owned land in the north-west of England including Rachedal. He was one of the 21 men in the Saxon Salford Hundred area, of which Rochdale was a part. The Domesday Book goes on to tell us that Gamel retained two carucates of land in Rachedal in 1086. Gamel also owned the manors of Heywood and Radcliffe.

There is nothing left of Rochdale's Medieval Castle today. However, at Castle Hill some of the earthworks of the steep-sided defensive banks or ramparts can still be seen, especially at the north side, north-west side, north-east, south-west and western sides, some of which are still quite extent; the bank at the south-eastern side now much denuded and lost to the road layout (Manchester Road), as well as a row of houses which were demolished, and the driveway upto the house. There are no traces of the motte-and-bailey castle on the top of Castle Hill - the site being occupied by the house and other buildings - as well as more recent features such as the new housing estate called Castle Hill Crescent. There used to be a church at the far south-western side of the hill but this has gone.

Long after the death of Gamel in the early 13th century, just before the year 1212, King Henry II granted the manor of Rachedam (Rochdale) to Roger de Lacy whose family retained it as part of the Honour of Clitheroe until it passed to the Dukes of Lancaster by marriage and then by 1399 to the Crown, according to the Wikipedia website. Whether Rochdale Castle was ever re-occupied at a later time is not known.

Sources & Related Websites:-

https://lancashirepast.com/2020/02/22/rochdales-lost-castle/

http://gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/3023.html

https://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=45159#:~:text=The%20motte%20and%20bailey,%20built%20in%20the%20early,from%20North-South%20by%20100%20feet%20East%20to%20West.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochdale_Castle

https://rays57-aroundbamford.blogspot.com/2018/01/around-st-chads-church-rochdale.html

Copyright © RayS57, 2021