Hunters’ settlements sank beneath waters of history
These extracts from John Cole’s book, Rochdale Re-Visited (1988) tells the story of Watergrove and is published here with his permission
ON the bleak moorland above Wardle, submerged beneath the district’s largest reservoir, are the remains of several tiny hamlets.
Collectively they are now generally remembered as Watergrove after the most populous of them - but in fact Watergrove Village was of much more recent origin than the other drowned communities.
Nowadays, walking around the Watergrove area, buffeted by the wind, soaked by the rain and, above all, cold, it is difficult to imagine why anyone should choose to live in such Godforsaken surroundings, but live there they did, and for many centuries past.
Indeed, recent investigations indicate that the hills around Watergrove may turn out to be one of the most important prehistoric sites in Greater Manchester.
The hunter-gatherers who originally populated the area gradually adopted a more permanent settlement pattern, exploiting the valley’s plentiful natural resources.
Over the centuries, gritstone was quarried, coal was mined and sheep were grazed on the valley slopes.
The plentiful water sup- ply supported an early textile trade and communities based on mining, quarrying, agriculture and textiles, developed and grew.
Several ancient tracks criss-cross the area. One, from Bacup to Sowerby, was described in the 13th century as having existed ‘tyme out of mind of man’.
Others linked local hamlets such as Marl’d Earth, Little Town, Alder Bank and Roads.
Of these, Marl’d Earth, in the possession of Francis Holt of Grislehurst in 1583 was probably the oldest. Later, there developed both a Higher and Lower Marl’d Earth.
Through Lower Marl’d Earth passed Ramsden Road, an increasingly important routeway linking Wardle via the Long Causeway with Todmorden and Halifax.
The upkeep of this road was the responsibility of local ratepayers and the names and addresses of these individuals have been preserved in a Rate Book for 1828.
Although all the communities existing at that time are named in the pages of this volume, Watergrove is not amongst them. Neither is the village mentioned in the 1841 census.
However, 10 years later, the first documentation of the name appears when a Mary Clayton, a cottonmanufacturer employing 40 hands, is listed as living at Watergrove.
Mary Clayton did not own Watergrove Mill itself. Indeed, the cotton mill in the village was not built until the late 1850s.
As to the derivation of the name Watergrove, it does not appear to predate the arrival of the Claytons from their native Blackburn.
However, it soon became applied not only to the area surrounding the mill, but also to the cluster of cottages at Lower Marl’d Earth.
Watergrove Chapel was opened in October 1852. It was built by James Cryer of Littleborough at a cost of £900.
It had a small gallery at the time although another was added later, along with two vestries.
In 1857, the Watergrove Wesleyan Association changed its name to the Watergrove United Methodist Free Church, following an amalgamation between the Wesleyan reformers and the protestant methodists.
Three years later, Watergrove Terrace, Lower Marl’d Earth, was erected, and the Orchard public house opened its doors shortly afterwards.
In 1881, a new cotton mill was built at Watergrove by John Stott and Co and the village was complete.
In October 1902, the Watergrove methodists held a golden jubilee for their chapel.
They marked the occasion with a procession from the chapel down to Lawflat and back on the Saturday afternoon.
Littleborough Brass Band accompanied the procession and there was tea in the chapel afterwards (6d for adults and 4d for children).
Watergrove and the other hamlets continued to flourish until the decision, in the depression years of the early 1930s, to use unemployed labour for the creation of a new reservoir for the Rochdale area.
One of the casualties were Watergrove United Methodists who were forced to leave their chapel and join the Wardle methodist congregation.
Their baptism register held 616 records, starting with Betty, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Cryer of Roads, on May 1, 1854 and ending with Brenda, daughter of Mr and Mrs James Kershaw on June 11, 1933.
Watergrove Chapel closed after a final service on Sunday, July 23, 1933.
There was a very large congregation – reportedly as many people outside as inside the chapel. It was surely a very sad occasion.
Many of the farms in the Watergrove area were also lost when the reservoir was built in the 1930s, either drowned or destroyed because their lands were to be part of the reservoir’s ‘gathering grounds’.
Several of the datestones from the farms and cottages were rescued and incorporated into the Wave Wall at Watergrove where they remain to this day.
The stone from Lower Marl’d Earth (1779), Roads Farm (1760), Lower House Farm (1716) and many others are a poignant reminder of the drowned communities beneath the windswept waters of Watergrove.
The reservoir opened in April 1938.