tarboat's photos with the keyword: rochdale

The Tramway Offices on Mellor Street, Rochdale, are dated 1904. The brickwork on the building is all stamped Huncoat Plastic Accrington. The Rochdale Corporation Act of 1900 included proposals for new tramways. Construction started on 15 June 1901, and the first line was inspected on 15 May 1902 and opened one week later. The whole system was closed on 12 November 1932.

This mill was erected in 1833 with an early 20th century extension which was electric powered from new. The original spinning mill was powered by a twin beam engine with one line shaft driving each of 2 rows of spinning throstles on the wide spinning floors. The old mill now appears to be undergoing works preparatory to conversion to apartments.

Battered terracotta on top of the disused Globe Inn, Whitworth Rd, Rochdale.

Whilst negotiating the traffic on Yorkshire Street in Rochdale the terracotta on this pub caught my eye and I just had to turn off to see this beautiful piece on The Britannia at the corner of Jermyn Street and Lomax Street. As for the maker, it must be one of the local firms or possibly from Accrington.

The house have been cleared from around, but the Britannia still stands proud. The quality of the building will have significantly exceeded that of the terraces whose inhabitants it once served. The terracotta decoration can be seen here in close up .

I was driving along the M62 past Milnrow as I have done many times before, only this time I spotted something. On approaching a bridge carrying a farm lane over the motorway I looked up and spotted a bank of coke ovens on the hillside. How on earth had I managed to miss those for so many years? Moving on a couple of weeks I was back for a closer look at this row of beehive ovens built into the hillside. The stone facing has long been removed for re-use but the back half of the kilns remains. My first thought was that they were associated with Tunshill Colliery which was a short distance downhill from here, but after a bit of research I reckon they were built to use coal drawn from the Tunshill Hey Collieries operated on the north-east side of the hill in the later nineteenth century by Benjamin Chadwick and the Executors of Alfred Wild who also seem to have been involved with the colliery and coke ovens at Schofield Hall, of which more anon. The coal was brought through the hill from Tunshill Hey workings and emerged from a tramming level close to the ovens. By producing the coke here it was closer to the markets of Oldham and Rochdale and may even have been sent down the tramroad linking Tunshill Colliery with Butterworth Hall Pit in Milnrow itself.

This one took a bit of effort to find any information at all. Out walking at the weekend, the rangers at Hollingworth Lake Country Park told me of a tin church not far away. Having found the building there was no nameboard or information of any sort and it was clear that it had been out of use for quite a while. It turns out to be St Hilda's Mission Church, Syke Road, Hollingworth Fold. The church was founded in 1931 which was surprising as the building is clearly older than that. This is because it was originally the first Catholic Church at Featherstall, Littleborough serving St Mary's RC Parish. On completion of a new brick church the old building was sold to Hollingworth through the Mother church at Milnrow, out of the Hill Charity, and was re-erected with structural modifications in 1931.

The first shot in anger from my new wide angle lens. Having been told about this corrugated iron church I had to go for a closer look. St Hilda's Mission Church, Syke Road, Hollingworth Fold was founded in 1931 which was surprising as the building is clearly older than that. This is because it was originally the first Catholic Church at Featherstall, Littleborough serving St Mary's RC Parish. On completion of a new brick church the old building was sold to Hollingworth through the Mother church at Milnrow, out of the Hill Charity, and was re-erected with structural modifications in 1931. It has been out of use for some time.

I hadn't previously heard of the Coptrod brickworks, but a search reveals that the works was on Mellor Street in Rochdale and opened some time in 1908.

Jubilee Mill at New Hey has been derelict for a long time and there isn't much left these days. My eye was caught by the light from the holes in the roof falling on the grafitti in this section.

Shawforth Brick Company Ltd, Near Rochdale. This brick was found in a wall at the Goyt Mill, Hawk Green, near Marple.