Rochdale

Rochdale, town and metropolitan borough in the northeastern part of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, historic county of Lancashire, northeastern England. The borough is cradled on two sides by the Pennines uplands and also includes the towns of Heywood, Middleton, and Littleborough, several villages, and areas of open countryside. Rochdale town lies at the confluence of the Rivers Spodden and Roch at the foot of a western spur of the Pennines.

The town grew as a market center in the medieval period and became important in the 18th and 19th centuries as a center of cotton textile manufacture, with special emphasis on heavy textiles for industrial uses. The Rochdale Canal was constructed to improve the local transportation.

The town was the birthplace of the cooperative movement—in which organizations are owned and operated for the benefit of those using the services—with the founding of the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society in 1844. In 1931 its first shop, in Toad Lane, became the Rochdale Pioneers Museum, which underwent major redevelopment in 2010–12. In 2011 the General Assembly of the International Co-operative Alliance designated Rochdale as the world capital of the cooperative movement.

Manufacturing, once central to the metropolitan borough’s economy, has diminished significantly in importance. Textile making has all but ceased, though there is some engineering. In the early 21st century the borough became the home of an increasing number of smaller start-up businesses and technology-based companies. Kingsway Business Park—off the M62 motorway, with excellent transport links to Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool—has developed into a large, important business setting. The borough’s location along major motorways has also made it a center of transport and distribution.

Rochdale has a magnificent historic town hall (built 1866–71), an arts and heritage center (Touchstones Rochdale, and parks and recreational facilities. The town’s professional football (soccer) and rugby league teams play at Spotland Stadium. Hollingworth Lake (117 acres [47 hectares]) is 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northeast. Area metropolitan borough, 61 square miles (158 square km). Pop. (2011) town, 107,926; metropolitan borough, 211,699; (2021) town, 111,261; metropolitan borough, 223,755.