Preserving Our Past

Posted By: Greg Couzens
Date Posted: 30/07/2007

Following on from a previous post I’m delighted that Rochdale Township has recently made the Spotland Bridge area a conservation area. The conservation area helps stop developers knocking down our heritage and making a quick buck from new buildings. Like other Spotland Councillors before me (particularly Norman Smith) I’m concerned to preserve our heritage and remember Rochdale’s history.

I popped into the excellent local studies library at Touchstones for a bit of research and came across some fascinating history of my ward. An aristocratic landowner named Wulfric Spot who died in 1010 gave his name to Spotland. Since 1610 there have been fulling mills on the river at Spotland Bridge and from this grew a series of cotton and woollen mills, which span the various mill developments of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There are three surviving mills today: Spotland Bridge New Mill, Spotland New Mill and Mellor Street Mill of 1904. Other historic buildings include the old Tram Shed and Bus Depot on Mellor Street and numerous buildings around Spotland Bridge (including the beautifully restored Old Police Station). This is one example of history in Spotland and I’m sure other areas across Rochdale have equally interesting pasts, which we need to remember and preserve.

Too often across Rochdale the local character and heritage of areas has been ruined or put in jeopardy by developers. There is a place for new buildings and we certainly need more social housing but this has to be balanced with the need to preserve our own heritage and history. Having a conservation area doesn’t stop small improvements to people’s homes but it will safeguard the character of the Spotland Bridge area. The conservation area could be extended and I would be interested to hear other areas that local residents would like preserved, as, I’m sure, would my council colleagues across Rochdale.

I strongly feel that we have a responsibility to protect and restore historic areas for the benefit of future generations. We also have a debt to older generations of Rochdalians and our industrial heritage. We need to learn from our past mistakes of giving over enthusiastic builders a free hand to demolish everything in sight and rebuild with financial profit, at the cost of our historical past.