The River Roch is a

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

, a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the

River Irwell The River Irwell ( ) is a tributary of the River Mersey in north-west England. It rises at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup and flows southwards for to meet the Mersey near Irlam Locks. The Irwell marks the bound ...

Course

Rising on Chelburn Moor (south of

Todmorden Todmorden ( ; ) is a market town and civil parish in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is north-east of Manchester, south-east of Burnley and west of Halifax, West Yorkshire, Halifax. In 2011, it had a popul ...

in the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of highland, uplands mainly located in Northern England. Commonly described as the "Vertebral column, backbone of England" because of its length and position, the ra ...

), the river flows south through Littleborough towards

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

where it is joined by the River Beal at Belfield, and the River Spodden from Whitworth. Turning west it runs past Heywood and Bury before meeting the

at Springwater Park, located just to the east of Radcliffe.

Etymology

The town of

is recorded as ''Recedham'' in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

and ''Rachetham'' in 1193, with variations of ''Rechedham'' continuing into the thirteenth century.Mills, A.D.: ''A Dictionary of English Place Names'', 2nd Edition, page 289, s.n. Rochdale. Oxford University Press, 1998 It is thought that these names represent a pre-existing Brittonic name for the river Roch, borrowed into

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

for the name of the settlement. The early forms of ''Rachet-ham'' and ''Reched-ham'' suggest a compound of two elements, ''ro-ced'' or ''ro-cet''. The first element is either from the common intensive prefix ''rö-'' ( Modern Welsh ''rhy-'', Cornish re-) meaning "great" and found in other river names such as the Ribble and the Rother or ''rag-'', ( Modern Welsh ''ar-'') meaning "opposite" or "adjacent to". The second element would then almost certainly be ''cę:d'' or ''cet'', ( Modern Welsh ''coed'') meaning "wood". This would give the name a meaning of "River of the great wood" or "River opposite the wood". Another etymology focused on the early forms similarities to ''

Rheged Rheged () was one of the kingdoms of the ('Old North'), the Brittonic-speaking region of what is now Northern England and southern Scotland, during the post-Roman era and Early Middle Ages. It is recorded in several poetic and bardic sources, ...

'', the Cumbric-speaking kingdom in North West England during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. Although this etymology is used to support the theory that the Roch may have been the centre of a separate kingdom known in

Medieval Welsh literature Medieval Welsh literature is the literature written in the Welsh language during the Middle Ages. This includes material starting from the 5th century AD, when Welsh was in the process of becoming distinct from Common Brittonic, and continuing t ...

as "South Rheged" or "Argoed" (opposite the wood), it remains unproven as the kingdom of Rheged's boundaries have not been identified. A further suggestion is that the name "rheged" simply means "area" in the Cumbric language (related to ''Regio'' in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and ''Region'' in

Modern English Modern English, sometimes called New English (NE) or present-day English (PDE) as opposed to Middle and Old English, is the form of the English language that has been spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England England is a Count ...

) and that the kingdom of Rheged and the river merely shared a common Celtic name. Although Rochdale is pronounced (with a shorter ''o'' sound), the name of the river is still pronounced (with a long vowel sound).

Later history

The river has been

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe (fluid conveyance), pipe, reinforced concrete or other materia ...

ed in

town centre since the early 20th century. This was built by the joining together of seven bridges to form one large bridge, making it one of the widest bridges in the world. Maintenance work was carried out on the bridge in the 1990s and the river was uncovered temporarily. In 2015 work began on opening the bridge again in a multimillion-pound project. On Boxing Day 2015, following heavy rain, the Roch burst its banks causing flooding in the town centre.

Tributaries

Moving upstream from the Irwell

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

, the tributaries include the following: * Parr Brook * Hollins Brook * Whittle Brook *Gigg Brook *Barn Brook **Green Brook **Gipsy Brook * Tack Lee Brook * Wrigley Brook * Naden Brook *Plumpton Wood Brook * Millers Brook *Primrose Hill Brook * Sudden Brook * River Spodden * Moss Brook * Hey Brook * Stanney Brook * River Beal * Ash Brook *Clegg Hall Brook *Wuerdle Brook *Stubley Brook * Featherstall Brook * Ealees Brook * Town House Brook * Greenvale Brook *Chelburn Brook

Gallery

File:Source of the Roch 1.JPG, The source on Chelburn Moor File:Roch Aqueduct.jpg, Aqueduct across the Caldervale Railway File:Looking downsteam from Smallbridge.jpg, Looking downstream from Smallbridge File:Beal and Roch Confluence.JPG, Confluence of River Beal File:River Roch after heavy rain 2.jpg, Flowing under one of the world's widest bridges File:Spodden Roch Confluence 3.jpg, Confluence of River Spodden File:River Roch Bottom o th brow.JPG, Upstream from Bottom o' th' Brow, Heywood File:Roch_Irwell_confluence_Keith_Williamson.jpg, Confluence with River Irwell

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roch Rivers of Greater Manchester Rivers of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale Rivers of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury 1Roch Roch catchment Daylighted streams