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Local Information for Rochdale

Rochdale is a town in Greater Manchester in north-west England with a population of 94,000. It is the largest town in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale (which has a population of about 206,000 according to the 2001 census), and gets its name from its position on the River Roch at the edge of the Pennines. Rochdale is twinned with the towns of Bielefeld in Germany, Tourcoing in France and Sahiwal in Pakistan.

The borough's location as a crossroads for trade between east and west England saw the building of George Stephenson's Summit Rail Tunnel and the Rochdale Canal from Manchester to Yorkshire (re-opened in 2003 following years of neglect after an east-west motorway cut through it) supporting local textile industries of cotton, wool and silk.

The Manchester and Leeds railway opened a station serving the town, but the line passed about a mile south of the town centre. The station remains open though much reduced in size from its heyday. The town is to be served by...More