Borough of Rochdale: Birthplace of Co-operation, Backbone of Lancashire
Rochdale's claim on history rests on a modest building on Toad Lane. In 1844, twenty-eight weavers and other tradespeople — the Rochdale Pioneers — opened a shop there on principles of fair dealing, democratic control, and profit-sharing that became the foundation of the global co-operative movement. The original shop is now a museum. The principle endures: the Co-operative Group, which grew from this beginning, remains one of the UK's largest businesses.
The town grew fat on woollen and then cotton textiles. The Town Hall, a Gothic Revival building completed in 1871, is wildly ambitious for a town of Rochdale's size — its hammer-beam roof and painted ceilings rival those of much grander institutions. A multi-million pound restoration completed in 2013 returned it to public use after years of decline. Below it, the River Roch runs through a town centre that mixes Victorian commercial buildings with post-war concrete and 2010s regeneration attempts of varying success.
The borough extends east to Littleborough, where the Pennine Way crosses above the town on its route from Derbyshire to Scotland, and north to Milnrow and Wardle. Hollingworth Lake, a reservoir built to feed the Rochdale Canal, has served as a local recreation spot since the Victorian era — it was known as the "weighvers' seaport" when mill workers took day trips there. The population is around 225,000, and the Metrolink tram reached the town centre in 2012, cutting the commute to central Manchester to under forty minutes.
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Rochdale's claim on history rests on a modest building on Toad Lane. In 1844, twenty-eight weavers and other tradespeople — the Rochdale Pioneers — opened a shop there on principles of fair dealing, democratic control, and profit-sharing that became the foundation of the global co-operative movement. The original shop is now a museum. The principle endures: the Co-operative Group, which grew from this beginning, remains one of the UK's largest businesses.
The town grew fat on woollen and then cotton textiles. The Town Hall, a Gothic Revival building completed in 1871, is wildly ambitious for a town of Rochdale's size — its hammer-beam roof and painted ceilings rival those of much grander institutions. A multi-million pound restoration completed in 2013 returned it to public use after years of decline. Below it, the River Roch runs through a town centre that mixes Victorian commercial buildings with post-war concrete and 2010s regeneration attempts of varying success.
The borough extends east to Littleborough, where the Pennine Way crosses above the town on its route from Derbyshire to Scotland, and north to Milnrow and Wardle. Hollingworth Lake, a reservoir built to feed the Rochdale Canal, has served as a local recreation spot since the Victorian era — it was known as the "weighvers' seaport" when mill workers took day trips there. The population is around 225,000, and the Metrolink tram reached the town centre in 2012, cutting the commute to central Manchester to under forty minutes.
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