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.
Source and course
The river rises at Freeholds Top, on Shawforth Moor, north-east of Shawforth village, Whitworth, east of Britannia, out of Bacup and south-west of Inchfield Moor. In the early 19th century, the source was listed as "near High House". It flows south through its narrow valley through Shawforth, Facit, Whitworth and Broadley, and for about a kilometre it forms the boundary between both Rochdale and Rossendale districts and Greater Manchester and Lancashire counties. It then flows through Healey Dell, Lowerfold, Shawclough, Spotland Fold and Spotland Bridge to join the Roch at Mitchell Hey, Rochdale, some four kilometres downstream from the Roch's other major tributary, the River Beal. The River Spodden falls 235 metres in its length of 12 kilometres, and is fed by nine direct tributary brooks and a further four indirect brooks.
History
Name
The River Spodden has been known by many variant names over the centuries. It was known by the name of "Sprotton" in 1577, as the "Spotton Brook" in 1611, It gave its name to the township of Spotland, one of the four original townships in the Parish of Rochdale, which was first known as "Spoddenland", and, within that township, acted as the boundary between its subsequent divisions of Spotland Further-Side (to the west) and Spotland Nearer-Side (to the east). Spotland was known by that name in 1066, recorded "as part of the possession of Gamel the Thane, immediately after the Conquest", and the river's name predates that. The river was also known in the 18th and 19th centuries as the Spod or Spot; "In ancient charters this rivulet is spelt Spod, and Spodden sometimes occurs." Dr. Whitaker, a respected local historian, writing in the early 1800s, stated that "Spod or Spud, in some dialects of the Teutonic language, signifies a spear, and the term appears to have been applied to this stream, from the unbended straightness of its course, which terminates at its junction with the Roch." The Spodden valley, and Spotland, was described in 1854 as "a district where the leaven of the old Saxon tongue, customs and character is less adulterated than in most other parts of Lancashire, as the naming of the Thrutch, below, indicates. The road alongside the river, northwards from Spotland Bridge, was, and remains, Spod Lane. The river was known locally as the Spod as late as the end of the 1970s.
Industrial history - mills
The power of the River Spodden as it rushes through the gorge at Healey Dell was probably first harnessed in Anglo-Saqxon times to power a corn mill. (The word "Healey" itself, meaning high pasture, is of Anglo-Saxon origin.) In 1636 the old corn mill became, or was replaced, by a wool fulling mill, and a replacement corn mill was built upstream at Broadley. The remains of the 17th century mill, which was built on a bridge over the river, and known as "Th' Owd Mill i' t' Thrutch, may still be seen. Thereafter the river waters were extensively used for industrial purposes; in an 1851 census of mills there were 9 solely-powered cotton mills, and 7 solely-powered woollen mills, in the Rochdale district. An 1890 sale catalogue for Broadley Mill (Cotton) detailed two water wheels, each of .), which supplied the mill with 30 horse-power. With increasing need for power, many mills used river water to utilize steam power; in the 1841 mill census, 6 cotton mills and 42 woollen mills used water in this way. At the Rochdale Waterworks Amendment Bill Enquiry, preceding the enactment of the Rochdale Waterworks Amendment Act 1847, evidence was given by mill owners adjoining the River Spodden that proposals for new reservoirs north of the river would affect the operation of their mills. In total, 30 woollen or cotton mills were sited alongside the river, together with a stone dressing mill, a plate metal works, and a brick works. Foot Mill, a mill beside the first bend of the river north of Spotland Bridge, featured in Edwin Waugh's Besom Ben story.