Castleton Cricket Club Ground

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.

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.

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.

Merefield Ground was a cricket ground in Rochdale, Lancashire, England. The ground was alongside Merefield Road. The first recorded match played at the ground came in 1855, when the Heally Club played a United All-England Eleven. A single first-class match was held there when the North played the South in the North v South match of 1866, The match ended in a draw, despite the South's Edgar Willsher taking 6 for 71 in the North's first-innings. By 1867, cricket had ceased to be played at the ground, with an advertisement appearing in the Rochdale Observer encouraging people to buy shares in a proposed bowling green that was to replace the ground. This proposal eventually come to fruition, with the Castleton Bowling Club still in existence on the site to this day.

Spotland ( SPOT-land) is a district of Rochdale in Greater Manchester, England. The Rochdale ward name is Spotland and Falinge. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 10,805. It lies on the River Spodden, and is the home of Spotland Stadium. Historically a part of Lancashire, Spotland was formerly its own township within the ancient parish of Rochdale. The name Spotland means "area around the Spodden", Spodden referring to the River Spodden, which itself means "spouting stream". Spotland Primary School lies within the locality on Edmund Street.

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).

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.

Rochdale is a seat represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It has elected one Member of Parliament (MP) since its 1832 creation.The constituency was represented by Tony Lloyd of the Labour Party until his death on 17 January 2024 and a by-election is due to take place. He was first elected MP for this seat in 2017; previously, he had been the MP for Stretford and then Manchester Central from 1983 until his resignation from Parliament in 2012.

Rochdale ( ROTCH-dayl) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the 2021 census the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wider borough. Rochdale is in the foothills of the South Pennines and lies in the dale (valley) of the River Roch, 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Oldham, and 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Manchester. Rochdale's recorded history begins with an entry in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Recedham Manor". The ancient parish of Rochdale was a division of the Salford Hundred and one of the larger ecclesiastical parishes in England, comprising several townships. By 1251, the town had become of such importance that it was granted a royal charter. The town became a centre of northern England's woollen trade, and by the early 18th century was described as being "remarkable for its many wealthy merchants". In the 19th century it became a mill town and centre for textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. The town is historically within Lancashire, and was a county borough within the county prior to 1974.

Rochdale was, from 1856 to 1974, a local government district coterminate with the town of Rochdale in the northwest of England.

Sudden Brook is a watercourse in Greater Manchester and a tributary of the River Roch. It originates in to the north of Royton, Oldham and flows Northwards through Kirkholt and Sandbrook Park to join the River Roch at Sudden.