Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/343

Rh ROCH. 331 ROCHDALE. railway. Ashbourn is its post town. The village is situated near the confluence of the rivers Dove and Churnet. A canal passes from Uttoxeter to the Pot- teries, by which coal and lime are brought for the supply of the neighbourhood. The river Dove is crossed here by a bridge of 60 feet span, constructed by Fradgley in 1839. The soil is good, consisting for the most part of rich meadow and pasture land. The village, which is well built, has recently been lit with gas. A portion of the inhabitants are engaged in a large cotton mill, built by the late Sir Richard Arkwright. The par. comprises Rocester Green and four other hmlts. An abbey for Black Canons was founded here by Richard Bacoun in 1146 ; but no traces of it now remain. Its revenue at the Dissolution was valued at 111 Us. Id. The impropriation belongs to the Dean and Canons of Windsor. The living is a perpet. cur.* in the dioc. of Lichfield, val. 150. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, is an ancient edifice with a tower, and has been enlarged. It contains tombs of the Staffords, and two pillar crosses. There is also a district church at Denston, the living of which is a perpet. cur., val. 150. The parochial charities produce about 12 per annum, exclusive of other small donations bequeathed by the Bainbrigge and other families. Thero are British schools for both sexes. Tho Wesleyans and Baptists have each a place of worship. Dove Leys, Barrow Hill, and Woodscat are the principal residences. Wakes are held on the Sunday following llth October. ROCH, a par. in the hund. of Roose, co. Pembroke, 5 miles N.V. of Haverfordwest, its post town, and 10 from St. David's. Tho village is situated near St. Bride's Bay, and has, on the edge of a rocky ridge ex- tending E. and W., a three-storied Norman tower of the Roches. It was erected in the 1 3th century by Adam de Rupe, and was garrisoned for Charles I. The living is a vie. in the dioc. of St. David's, val. 137. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. ROCH, a small river of the co. of Lancaster, rises in the moors near Upper Knowsley, and running through Rochdale, joins the Irwell near Bury. ROCHDALE, a par., market town, and parliamentary borough in the hund. of Salford, southern div. of co. Lancaster, 11 miles N. of Manchester, and 218 by rail from London. Tho town is situated on the river Roach or Roche, a tributary of the Irwell, whence it derives its name. Its population in 1801 was 8,542; in 1851 it was 29,195; and in 1861 it had increased to 38,184, occupying 7,705 houses. The population of the parish, which extends into the West Riding of Yorkshire, and covers an area of 58,620 acres, was 119,531 in 1861. Tho town occupies the site of a castlo built by the Saxons at Castleton, and probably destroyed in conflicts between the Saxons and the Danes in the llth century. Many of the streets are narrow and irregular, but great improve- ments have been lately made, several of the more im- portant thoroughfares having been widened and rebuilt. The houses are generally built of brick, and in the older quarters the roofs are for the most part of stone, instead of slate. The streets are paved and lighted with f&s, and there is an abundant supply of excellent water from four reservoirs in the neighbourhood. The river is crossed by five bridges, one of which, of light iron- work, is used by foot passengers only. The principal public buildings are the townhall, used also as a news- room, a public hall for concerts, grammar, British, Na- tional, and other schools. The parish church, raised in ur of St. Chad, is situated on an elevated site, and is approached from the lower parts of the town by a flight of 122 steps. It was built in the 12th century, ]i:irtly in the Norman and partly in the perpendicular style. It underwent considerable repairs in 1856, has a square embattled tower, besides several windows of ry, and some ancient monuments. The living is a vie." in the dioc. of Manchester, val. about 2,000, in the patron, of the bishop. Besides the parish church, there are St. Alban's, of recent erection, M. Mary's, and St. James's, and in the rural parts of the parish 17 other churches, the livings of which VOL. III. are all perpet. curs., varying in val. from 67 to 300. There are also two Baptist and two Independent chapels, and places of worship for Presbyterians, Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, Primitive, Association, and Wesleyau Methodists, Friends, Unitarians, and Roman Catholics. There is a Sunday-school attached to each church or chapel, which large numbers of children at- tend. Moss school is a well-endowed establishment, where 40 boys and 20 girls receive gratuitous instruc- tion, and there is a free grammar school, founded in 1564 for about 45 boys, who pay a fee of 6 a year from the smallness of the endowment, and also an endowed girls' school. Until the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832 Rochdale was unrepresented in parliament. It was then constituted a borough, the boundary to bo a circle, with the townhall as a centre, and a radius of three-quarters of a mile, and returns one member. Tho constituency in 1865 was 1,416. The town is also a polling-place for the S. division of Lancashire. The municipal affairs are attended to by Improvement Com- missioners, appointed in 1856 under a private bill. Tho town is divided into three wards, Castleton, Spotland, and Wardleworth ; and the corporation consists of a mayor, ten aldermen, and thirty councillors, two alder- men and six councillors being apportioned to Spotland ward, and four aldermen and twelve councillors to each of the others. A county court is held in the town every fortnight, and manor courts, under an old charter to tho Byron family, are held four times a year. The petty her, for horses and cattle. There are also monthly Mon- day cattle fairs, and at particular parts of the year they are held every fortnight. Tho town is under the juris- diction of the county magistrates. Rochdale was early celebrated as a manufacturing town. Some Flemings introduced the woollen trade in the reign of Edward III., and in the reign of Elizabeth it was in a flourishing condition. The entire district has shared in the rapid improvement which has marked the last century, and the manufactures are now important. In 1861 nearly 60 per cent, of the population over 20 years of ago were engaged in industrial occupations, principally confined to mills, mines, and manufactures generally. Tho woollen and cotton trades are extensively followed in the town and the district immediately adjoining it, the latter in particular employing large numbers. There are about 160 factories, distributed in every available and accessible part of tho town and neighbouring heights, where upwards of 11,000 persons arc engaged in cotton mills and print works, where strong calicoes, fustians, and other coarse fabrics are made, and about 6,000 in flannel, baize, and other woollen factories. Tho power loom is now principally used, but there arc still largo numbers of handloom weavers. A considerable business is done also in the manufacture of maohinery, at which about 1,150 are employed, and hat making is extensively followed- Three banks have offices in tho town, and three co-operative societies have been esta- blished among tho working classes, whose dealings amount to 380,000 yearly. The parish abounds in ex- cellent coal, stone, and slate, and largo quantities are extracted, the coal being principally consumed in tho mills and foundries. Flags are quarried at Spotland, and iron ore has been found in the township of Butter- worth. Great facilities exist for active business in tho communications by water and rail. Tho Rochdale canal, which is 33 miles in length, and was completed at a cost of 600,000, unites to the eastward with the Calder and Ribble navigation at Halifax, and on tho W. with tho Duko of Bridgwater's canal, near Manchester, thus establishing a connection with the E. and W. seas, and with the chief seats of commerce in Yorkshire and Lan- cashire. One of the reservoirs supplying the canal with water is 130 acres in extent. A still more impor- tant means of communication is the Manchester and Leeds railway, which runs through this district, and gives considerable facilities to the trade of the town. At