page_title: Milnrow
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Milnrow / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: A photo of Newhey, in Greater Manchester, England
context_page_description: Milnrow is a suburban town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines, and forms a continuous urban area with Rochdale. It is 1.9 miles east of Rochdale town centre, 10.4 miles north-northeast of Manchester, and spans urban, suburban and rural locations—from Windy Hill in the east to the Rochdale Canal in the west. Milnrow is adjacent to junction 21 of the M62 motorway, and includes the village of Newhey, and hamlets at Tunshill and Ogden.
  Historically in Lancashire, Milnrow during the Middle Ages was one of several hamlets in the township of Butterworth and parish of Rochdale. The settlement was named by the Anglo-Saxons, but the Norman conquest of England resulted in its ownership by minor Norman families, such as the Schofields and Cleggs. In the 15th century, their descendants successfully agitated for a chapel of ease by the banks of the River Beal, triggering its development as the main settlement in Butterworth.
context_section_description: At 53°36′36″N 2°6′40″W (53.6101°, −2.1111°), and 168 miles (270 km) north-northwest of central London, the centre of Milnrow stands roughly 830 feet (253 m) above sea level, on the western slopes of the South Pennines, 10.4 miles (16.7 km) north-northeast of Manchester city centre. Blackstone Edge and Saddleworth are to the east; Rochdale and Shaw and Crompton are to the west and south respectively. Considered as the area covered by the former Milnrow Urban District, Milnrow extends over 8.1 square miles (21 km²), stretching from the Rochdale Canal in the west through to Windy Hill in the east, taking in the valley of the River Beal. The Beal, a tributary of the River Roch, runs centrally through Milnrow from the south through Newhey. The smaller Butterworth Hall Brook, which flows in to the Beal, runs east-to-west, while Stanney Brook rises at High Crompton and runs along the southern edge of Milnrow and in to the Roch at Newbold in Rochdale.
  The 2001 Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary recounts Milnrow as both a town and a southeasterly suburb of Rochdale. The Office for National Statistics designates Milnrow as part of the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, the United Kingdom's second largest conurbation. Milnrow is situated in "the transitional zone" between the moorland of the South Pennines and the more densely populated areas of Rochdale and Manchester. Most development has been built concentrically outwards from two centres by the River Beal in Milnrow and Newhey, but land use transitions as the height of the ground rises towards the Pennines – from commercial and industrial, to housing and suburban development, to enclosed farms and pastures, and finally unenclosed moorland at the highest points. Ancient woodland is sparse; 1 acre (0.0016 sq mi) of woodland and plantation was recorded across Milnrow in 1911. Housing includes 18th-century cottages and farmhouses, late-19th century terraced houses, inter-war social housing, and modern detached and semi-detached private family homes. Farmland typically consists of undulating pastures used for stock rearing and rough grazing, interspersed by isolated farmhouses and the Kitcliffe, Ogden and Tunshill hamlets. Moorland forms the highest and most easterly part of Milnrow—the highest point is Bleakedgate Moor at 1,310 feet (399 m), which forms a boundary with the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham by Denshaw. Windy Hill is another high-point amongst these moors.
  Milnrow's soil is typically light gravel and clay, with subsoil of rough gravel, and the underlying geology is mostly lower coal measures from the Carboniferous period, punctuated with a band of sandstone. Milnrow experiences a temperate maritime climate, like much of the British Isles, with relatively cool summers and mild winters. There is regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year.
  
  In 1855, the poet Edwin Waugh said of Milnrow:
  Milnrow lies on the ground not unlike a tall tree laid lengthwise, in a valley, by a riverside. At the bridge, its roots spread themselves in clots and fibrous shoots, in all directions; while the almost branchless trunk runs up, with a little bend, above half a mile towards Oldham, where it again spreads itself out in an umbrageous way.
  — Edwin Waugh, Sketches of Lancashire life and localities (1855)
  The urban part of Milnrow broadly consists of development which has absorbed former hamlets including Butterworth Hall, Firgrove, Gallows, and Moorhouse. These now form neighbourhoods of Milnrow, but others form distinct settlements. For instance, Newhey, at the south of Milnrow, emerged as a village in its own right, with its own distinct amenities such as shops, parish church and Metrolink station. Kitcliffe, Ogden and Tunshill, to the east of central Milnrow, are hamlets that occupy the upper, mid and lower Piethorne Valley respectively. The Gallows area is signified by The Gallows public house—it is a former hamlet which now forms a neighbourhood. This area occupies an ancient execution site, established by the Knights Hospitaller in 1253. All continue to form a co
caption: A view over Newhey and Milnrow, towards Smallbridge in Rochdale. Milnrow forms a transitional zone between the Greater Manchester Built-up Area and the rural South Pennines.
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