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Monkey Town: The History of Heywood

Heywood People in 1825

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The following page is taken from the 'Village Directory of Bury Parish' section of Edward Baines' 1825 publication History, Directory, and Gazetteer, of the County Palatine of Lancaster.

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© and website design: Christopher Dawson MPHA (Qld)

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'The Old Mills of Heywood' Project

Explore the history of Heywood's old workplaces.

Popular Pages

The Devil and the Monkey Puzzle Tree

The Monkey Puzzle tree ( Araucaria araucana ) is not a common sight in Monkey Town. The rather exotic spiked trunk and winding branches always caught the attention of local children, and two in particular that stuck in the memory were the trees in a front garden on Heywood Hall Road (which was on the route to Queen’s Park for many people). One well-remembered aspect of these trees was the superstition surrounding them. Some parents actually told their children to be quiet as they passed the tree, various reasons being that they would have bad luck or lose something, or in some cases even grow a monkey’s tail! This led those children who actually wanted a monkey’s tail to shout out as they passed by the trees. Superstitions about the Monkey Puzzle tree can be found throughout Britain. One widely-shared bit of folklore is that the Devil himself sits in this tree and people have to be quiet when walking past or else they will attract the Devil’s attention and get bad luck. In some

General Timeline of Heywood History

This timeline of the history of Heywood is a work in progress. It is intended to be as accurate as possible, and suggested corrections or additions are welcome. Pre - A.D. 1270 7th century: Middleton is thought to have been settled by this time. 1086: Rochdale recorded in the Domesday Book as Recedham. 1164: Heywood family recorded in local area. 1183: Records for Ashworth start around this time. 1197: Reference to Birtle in records. 12th century: Hopwood family recorded at site of current Hopwood Hall. 1210: Reference to hamlets of Lumhalghs (Lomax) and Hep (Heap) in records. 1260: Land at Pilsworth granted to William de Radcliffe. 1270-1600 1260s-70s: Adam de Bury grants land to Peter de Heywood during this time. 1278: William del Bridge granted land near Bury. 1292: Reference to Hoppewode in records 13th century: Bamford family living in Bamford area. 13th century: Peter de Heywood builds Heywood Hall. 13th century: Woollen mill recorded

Hey, Hey, We're Monkey Town

'It is with some diffidence that I venture to make an inquiry in relation to an offensive name which is sometimes derisively applied to Heywood. Is the origin of the name ‘Monkey Town,’ as given to Heywood, known? Is it known when the town was first slandered in this way?’ Old Heywood postcard. So wrote ‘H.B.’ to the Heywood Advertiser in 1908. It is not clear just how offended HB really was, because Heywoodites have long been happy to call themselves ‘monkeys’. But where did this name come from, and when? A well-known bit of self-effacing folklore still doing the rounds is that Heywood men used to have tails, and so the stools and benches in the town's pubs had holes in them for the tails to fit through. The reality, of course, is that the holes were there for carrying the stools. A clue as to where the name came from is in the timing. The first recorded mention of ‘Monkey Town’ came in the 1850s, when Rochdale author Edwin Waugh wrote in his Sketches of

The Old Mills of Heywood: C-E

You can also find information about the following mills on this interactive map. See all the A-Z listing of old mills and workplaces of Heywood here Cartridge Ropery Rope Brunswick Street 1843: Established by William Healey. 1874: Became Healey Bros. when his sons William, Robert and Jehu took over the business. They manufactured many types of rope including mill drive ropes, and a rope walk stretched from Cartridge Ropery through the grounds of Brooklands, owned by the Healeys, until 1940. 1888 directory: Healey Brothers (manufacturers of all kinds of rope, twine, cotton & tubular banding; also main driving ropes for mills), Cartridge Steam Ropery & Broadfield Mill. 1960: Healy Bros. taken over by British Ropes. 1971: Became British Twine and Rope. 2018: Building still present and in use. Cartridge Ropery, OS map, 1907. Castleton Moor Mill Cotton Castleton 1890: Not present on OS map. 1908: Present on OS map. 1956: Marked on OS map

Heywood Ghost Stories

‘Ghost history’ can be very fickle. Unlike ‘real history’ - which needs to be based on actual historical events to be considered factual - ghost stories need nothing more than to be told before they become part of local lore. These stories can spread quickly and widely, and often get distorted in the retelling. There are many claims of recent personal experiences with the paranormal at a range of homes around Heywood, but this article is more concerned with the older stories that have been passed down generations of Heywoodites and become part of local folklore. For centuries, the foremost spirit type in south-eastern Lancashire lore was the ‘boggart’, which survived into modern culture as the ‘bogey man’, a malevolent ghost/monster which hides under beds and lurks in shadows. This entity can be traced back centuries in northern England, and the term itself evolved from the 11th-century English word ‘bugge’, meaning a ‘frightening spectre’, which Shakespeare used in A Winter’s T

The Old Mills of Heywood: I-N

Marland and Mars Mill, Castleton, 1990. (Chris Allen) You can also find information about the following mills on this interactive map. See all the A-Z listing of old mills and workplaces of Heywood here Isherwood Mill - see Scholfield Street Mill James Atkinson Ropery Ropery Captain Fold 1848: Rope Walk marked here on OS map. 1880 directory: Atkinson James & John, Captain fold, rope and twine manufacturer. 1888 directory: James Atkinson, rope & twine manufacturer, Captain fold; res. 118 Rochdale rd. 1890: OS map shows two rope walks, one either side of Barley Hall Road area. 1910: OS map shows only one rope walk, to the east of Barley Hall Road. 1927: Rope walks not present on OS map. Atkinson Ropery, OS map, 1893. Jericho Workhouse Bury and Rochdale Old Road, Jericho A workhouse was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment. 1857: A new workhouse was opened here by the Bury Poor Law

Submit a Story

If you have researched any aspect of Heywood history and would like to submit an article to Monkey Town, please contact me.

Thanks to the following people for their contributions:

Michael Baron:

'The Age of the Electric Tram in Heywood'

Neil J Richardson:

'The Story of Michael Rukin and Charles Martin Newhouse'

Alan McCarthy:

'Heywood Spitfires'

This website created by Christopher Dawson.
Member of the Professional Historians Association (Qld).
BA Anthropology (University of Queensland); Grad. Dip. Applied and Local History (University of Queensland).
Back o'th' Moss/Mossfield Primary/Siddal Moor
All original material © C Dawson
dawsonchris@outlook.com

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