Rochdale (ancient parish)

Rochdale
Church of St Chad, Rochdale
Area
• 1831	58,620 acres (237.2 km2)
• 1861	40,340 acres (163.3 km2)
• Coordinates	53°36′53″N 2°09′28″W / 53.6147°N 2.1577°W / 53.6147; -2.1577
Population
• 1801	26,577
• 1861	91,754
History
• Created	Early Middle Ages
Status	Ecclesiastical parish
• HQ	Rochdale
Subdivisions
• Type	Townships
• Units	1. Todmorden and Walsden 2. Spotland 3. Wuerdle and Wardle 4. Blatchinworth and Calderbrook 5. Wardleworth 6. Castleton 7. Butterworth 8. Saddleworth

Rochdale was an ecclesiastical parish of early-medieval origin in northern England, administered from the Church of St Chad, Rochdale. At its zenith, it occupied 58,620 acres (237 km²) of land amongst the South Pennines, and straddled the historic county boundary between Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. To the north and north-west was the parish of Whalley; to the southwest was the parish of Bury; to the south was Middleton and Prestwich-cum-Oldham.

Anciently a dependency of Whalley Abbey, the parish of Rochdale is believed to be of Anglo-Saxon origin, as evidenced by historical documentation, toponymy and its dedication to Chad of Mercia.^[1]

Urbanisation, population shifts, and local government reforms all contributed towards the gradual alteration and ultimate dissolution of the historic parish boundaries; the social welfare functions of the parish were broadly superseded by the English Poor Laws and new units of local governance, such as the County Borough of Rochdale and the Milnrow Urban District. Today, the territory of the former parish lies within Lancashire, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire.^[2]