Spotland

The River Spodden is a watercourse in North West England, one of two major tributaries of the River Roch. It rises in the Lancashire South Pennine hills north of Whitworth and flows south through what is now known as the Whitworth Valley to Rochdale, Greater Manchester, where the river merges with the River Roch. Nestled within the picturesque wooded valley is Healey Dell Nature Reserve.

Spotland Stadium, known as the Crown Oil Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose sports stadium in the Spotland area of Rochdale, Greater Manchester which is home to Rochdale A.F.C. and Rochdale Hornets R.F.L.C. The venue has a capacity of 10,249.

Falinge Park High School is an 11–16 mixed comprehensive school in Shawclough area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in Greater Manchester, United Kingdom. The school has been recognised as an Investor in People and has gained the International School Award, as well as Artsmark Gold, Sportsmark Gold and the Healthy Schools status. In 2010 Ofsted inspection it was found to be "a good school where pupils rise to the high expectations of the headteacher and staff".

Rochdale power station supplied electricity to the town of Rochdale, Lancashire from 1901 to the 1958. The coal-fired power station was owned and operated by Rochdale Corporation prior to the nationalisation of the British electricity industry in 1948. It was redeveloped as demand for electricity grew and old plant was replaced, and had an ultimate generating capacity of 10.7 MW in the 1920s. The station closed on 1 April 1958.

Saint Edmund's Church (or the Church of Saint Edmund) is a redundant church building located on Clement Royds Street in the Falinge area of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. Commissioned by Rochdale's local industrialist and Freemason Albert Royds, the construction of the building was completed to a high and rich specification in 1873, with an "enormous" cost of around £25,000 (£2.36 million in 2024). It is the only known church building in England so overtly dedicated to Masonic symbolism and is therefore unique within English architecture.Art critic Nikolaus Pevsner described the building as "Rochdale's temple to Freemasonry, a total concept as exotic as Roslin Chapel in Scotland". Because of the building's craftsmanship, design and prevalent Masonic theme, St Edmund's Church was recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building in 1985. The church closed for worship in 2007, and in 2009, The Victorian Society identified the building as "unusual and extraordinary" but also critically endangered. St Edmund's heritage status was upgraded to a Grade I listing in 2010 in recognition of its unique Masonic architecture and exceptional architectural interest. It has since been acquired by the Churches Conservation Trust.

Castleton Cricket Club Ground was a cricket ground in Rochdale, Lancashire, England. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1872, when Castleton played a team called An Eleven.In 1876, the ground held its only first-class match when Lancashire played Kent.The final recorded match on the ground came in 1891 when Castleton played Burnley. The ground was later required for building and built over. The ground was located to the south Sparth Bottoms Road, an area which is today covered by industrial units following the closure of the ground in 1965.

Rochdale Sixth Form College is a Sixth Form College opened in September 2010. The Sixth Form College campus is situated next to Hopwood Hall College in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, forming an educational quarter in the town. Rochdale is the first sixth form college to be opened in the UK since 2004, and the 93rd sixth form college in the country. The college is a member of the Sixth Form College Association (SFCA), founder of the Student Union of Celebration and Co-operation (SUCC), and the Association of Colleges (AoC).

Falinge Park is a Grade II listed public park located in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Opened to the public in 1906, it lies in the historic grounds of the 18th century Falinge Hall.

Rochdale Castle was a motte-and-bailey castle in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England (grid reference SD89121286). It was built in the period shortly after the Norman conquest of England.In the 12th century many charters refer to 'the vill of the castle of Rachedal'. A charter dated c.1238 gave details of the castle standing on rising ground commanding the valley of the Roche and still known as Castle Hill. The castle was abandoned in the early 13th century. It was documented in 1322.In 1626 a Gabriel Tayor had a house, known as Castle Hill, on the site, described as being on the 'reputed site of a castle standing there, but now clean defaced'. Buildings have been erected over the castle bailey and in the 19th century a house was built on the motte.The motte is 100 feet (30 m) at the base; the bailey is rectangular and lies to the south and measures 120 feet (37 m) by 100 feet (30 m). The defences consisted of an earth rampart and ditch.

Shawclough is a mainly residential area north of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. Its boundaries are roughly Whitworth Road, Shawclough Road, and Healey Corner. Housing is mixed but predominantly owned semi-detached and detached 3-4 bedroom houses. House building over the past 30 years has significantly reduced green spaces, though Healey Dell and Falinge Park are notable areas within Shawclough. Industry in the area is low level, though, at one time, manufacturing did take place at the Turner Brothers Asbestos Company in the near vicinity. Shawclough is part of the Healey parish district of Rochdale.

Touchstones Rochdale is an art gallery, museum, local studies centre, visitor information centre and café forming part of the Central Library, Museum and Art Gallery in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. It is a Grade II listed building.The first part of the stone building was opened as a library in 1884 with the museum and gallery being added in 1903 and extended in 1913. It became an art and heritage centre in 2003. It houses collections relating to local history and related topics, with changing exhibitions over time.

The Spodden Valley asbestos controversy arose in May 2004 when approximately 72 acres (290,000 m2) of land in Spodden Valley in Rochdale, England, formerly used by Turner Brothers Asbestos Company (later known as Turner & Newall), and the site of the world's largest asbestos textile factory, was sold to MMC Estates, a property developer. The developer subsequently submitted a planning application to Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council in December 2004 to build an "urban village" consisting of 650 homes, a children's daycare centre and a business park on the site. The planning application summary claimed: "of particular note is the absence of any asbestos contamination". However, asbestos containing materials were abundantly visible on the ground, and local residents claimed that there were numerous asbestos dumping sites across the area, and that the woodland there had been heavily contaminated with asbestos dust. Site clearance work had begun as early as May 2004, prior to the submission of the application, including tree felling and soil disturbance, and some waste had been removed on flatbed trailers and open trucks. In September 2005 MMC admitted that the woods were significantly contaminated with asbestos.A campaign group, Save Spodden Valley, was formed to oppose the development, claiming disturbance of the site in a contaminated state posed too great a risk to public health. Greater Manchester Association of Trade Unions Councils said: "The planners must do their public duty and deem the site permanently unsafe for urban development and formulate a plan to seal all possible sources of asbestos dust as an urgent priority."The initial planning application was placed on hold in 2005, and Richard Butler, Principal Planning Officer for Rochdale Borough Council said in October 2008: "The application has not yet been determined and is suspended whilst the applicants and their consultants, together with our own contamination experts, assess a number of issues, the most important being the asbestos risk and the remediation required as part of the redevelopment." In December 2009, despite no decontamination work having been carried out, the council earmarked the site for 568 houses, based on a housing density of 30 dwellings per hectare, in a draft allocation of future brownfield land targets. In January 2010, however, the council deleted references to the redevelopment of the site. Rochdale parliamentary candidate Simon Danczuk warned that the council believe a housing development on the site is an inevitability and iterated that they are "sleepwalking into a catastrophic mistake." MMC have stated that "there is no viable alternative to development led remediation of the site." A National Health and Safety Commissioner who was formerly a Health and Safety Manager at the factory has said that the felling of trees and disturbing of soil on the site is "sheer madness... With the potential amount of asbestos on that site, no development should be built on this land." Hilda Palmer of the Greater Manchester Hazards Centre has said: "Asbestos is a carcinogen and it causes lung diseases. When asbestos gets into the air and can be inhaled by people it can cause those diseases 10, 20, 50 years down the line. So if there is any development on that site there is a potential for serious lung diseases, cancers and death from that development." Spokesman Jason Addy of Save Spodden Valley, stated: "The key issue is contamination. Asbestos from this site has killed far too many people already."The planning application was finally officially rejected by Rochdale Council in January 2011. MMC Estates put the land back up for sale in August 2011. As of December 2018, the land was owned by Renshaw Properties, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.