Milnrow - Landmarks

Landmarks

The Grade II listed Church of St James, Milnrow's Anglican parish church, was built in 1869 and is dedicated to James the Apostle. It is part of the Church of England and lies within the Diocese of Manchester. The origins of the church can be traced to a chantry built by the Byrons in the year 1400. When that baronial family moved from Milnrow to another of their homes following the Wars of the Roses, the local population was left without a place of worship and a chapel was constructed by the River Beal to serve this community. This structure existed until the 1790s, when a "poorly designed" chapel was erected and consecrated; however, due to structural weaknesses, that church was demolished in 1814. Following an interim period when a "plain building" was used for worship, the present church building was built and consecrated by the Bishop of Manchester on 21 August 1869.

Described as "by far the most distinctive and splendid building in the district", the neo-Gothic Newhey, St Thomas parish church was built in 1876 and served a new Anglican parish of Newhey created in the same year. Dedicated to Thomas the Apostle, it is part of the Church of England, and its patron is the Bishop of Manchester. The church was extensively damaged in an arson attack on 21 December 2007.

Milnrow War Memorial is located in Memorial Park at Newhey, and is a Grade II listed structure. The war memorial was originally sited in central Milnrow, set back from the road near Milnrow Bridge, and was unveiled on 3 August 1924 by Major General A. Solly-Flood, a former commander of 42nd (East Lancashire) Division. The memorial is constructed of sandstone surmounted by a bronze statue of a World War I infantry soldier with rifle and fixed bayonet symbolic of the young manhood of the district in the early days of World War I. In selecting the design the Milnrow War Memorial Committee was influenced by the statue unveiled at Waterhead in Oldham; the work of George Thomas. Thomas sculpted Milnrow's memorial in 1923. The plinth holds bronze and slate panels recording the names of those who died in the two World Wars.

Clegg Hall is a 17th-century hall and Grade II* listed building situated in green space between Milnrow, Rochdale and Littleborough. It was constructed in about 1610 for Theophilus Aston and may have been built on the site of a mediaeval house and inn.

In Newhey is the Ellenroad Steam Museum, the retained engine house, boiler house, chimney and steam engine of Ellenroad Mill, a former 1892-built cotton mill designed by Sir Philip Stott, 1st Baronet. Now operated as an industrial heritage centre, the mill itself is no longer standing, but the steam engine (the world's largest working steam mill engine) is maintained and steamed once a month by the Ellenroad Trust. The museum has the only fully working cotton mill engine with its original steam-raising plant in the world. Ellenroad Mill produced fine cotton yarn using mule spinning.

Hollingworth Lake lies beyond Milnrow, by Littleborough and is part of a local country park. It was built in 1801 as a feeder reservoir for the Rochdale Canal, but it soon became a tourist destination for local people during their leisure time. The lake covers an area of 130 acres (0.53 km2) and the path around it originally measured 2.5 miles (4.0 km).