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Monkey Town: The History of Heywood

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The pages linked below will tell you all about Heywood and capital punishment, and some shocking local murder cases from history:

Link to article about hanging in Heywood, Lancashire.

Are the stories of people being hanged in Heywood really true?

Link to article about a murder in Birtle and the hanging of the murderer

Read about an horrific case of double murder and a hanging that shocked Birtle in 1826.

Link to story of a murder at Plumpton wood, Heywood, Lancashire

A hanging at Strangeways in 1911 featured a prisoner from Heywood and a hangman from Rochdale.

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© and website design: Christopher Dawson MPHA (Qld)

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Ashworth
Ashworth Valley
Bamford
Birtle
Cemeteries
Chartists
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Co-operative Movement
Coal mining
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factory conditions
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Hooley Bridge
Industrial Revolution
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'The Old Mills of Heywood' Project

Explore the history of Heywood's old workplaces.

Popular Pages

Edwin Waugh's Heywood of 1855

'A living writer has said of the place, that it looks like a great funeral on its way from Bury to Rochdale.' (Edwin Waugh, writing about Heywood, 1855) The following view of Heywood is taken from Edwin Waugh's 1855 book Sketches of Lancashire Life . Following in the footsteps of Edwin Butter worth (1840) and Samuel Bamford (1842), he visited Heywood, took the time to find out what he could about it, and then wrote an engaging portrait of the young town. He was visiting a friend whose home was ‘pleasantly situated in the green outskirts’, but Waugh described the town itself as having a ‘monotonous, cotton-spinning look’. While Waugh lacked the statistical eye of Butterworth and the political zeal of Bamford, he was a dialect writer who vividly depicted the characteristics and quirks of the everyday people he met. As a Rochdalian, he was well acquainted with the district and wrote of the traits of life in South Lancashire with an insider’s knowledge. Heywood was a t

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

The Fall of the Weavers

‘Fifty years ago there lived in this district a goodly number of handloom weavers; a class of men to which Lancashire is indebted for much of its subsequent commercial prosperity. Some of these men had a narrow and stern piety, but their thoughtfulness, good common sense, and general sterling qualities left their mark upon us.’ ( Heywood Advertiser , 1908) ‘The handloom weavers... though they labour 14 hours upwards daily, earn only from five to seven shillings a week. They... are affected by all the causes of moral and physical depression... ill-fed, ill-clothed, half-sheltered and ignorant - weaving in close, damp cellars or crowded workshops.’ (Dr J.P. Kay, 1832) One of the trades worst affected by the onset of the Industrial Revolution during 1760-1840 was handloom weaving, in which cloth was spun and woven inside the home. When it came to weaving, Heywood was exclusively a cotton village (whereas Middleton had a thriving silk industry). Although the weavers were not a wea

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

Darnhill: A Little Corner of Manchester in Heywood

For centuries, Darn Hill was a rural farming area in the township of Heap. That changed dramatically in the 1960s, in the lingering aftermath of World War II. Manchester had suffered heavy bombing during that war, leaving it with a housing crisis. Manchester City Council’s solution was to buy land from neighbouring boroughs for the construction of new municipal housing outside the city boundaries, although the residents of these new estates would still pay rent and rates to MCC. By 1955 at least 68,000 houses in Manchester were unfit for human habitation, 600 were falling down per year, and there was a pressing need for 81,000 new houses. 171 acres of land in the west of Heywood, mainly home to fields and some farm buildings, had been identified in 1952 as a potential site for what was termed an ‘overspill development’. A request from Manchester Town Hall was made to Heywood councillors to allow them to use the land for construction. A subsequent public inquiry revealed many local

A List of Heywood Pubs and Beerhouses

Heywood area beerhouse keepers listed the 'Heap’s Bury Directory' for 1850: John Ashton, 78 Bury Street Ralph Ashton, Church Street Robert Brearley, Bury Street John Butterworth, Ashton’s buildings Thomas Chadwick, Heady Hill Robert Clifton, Miller Street Thomas Clegg, Peel Street John Bradshaw, Brunswick Street Benjamin Dearden, Heady Hill Ann Fitton, 7 Ashton Street Jacob Fitton, 60 Manchester Street William Fitton, Wilton Street James Fletcher, 23 Mount Street Samuel Frankland, Bury Street Alice Gee, 23 York Street Jacob Gee, New field John Glover, Church Street James Grindrod, 77 Bridge Street Robert Hamilton, 49 York Street Luke Helliwell, Church Street James Hilton, Manchester Street Alice Holt, Higher Lomax Hannah Horrox, Charlestown Jane Hutchinson, 44 Bury Street Job Leach, 59 Manchester Street Edmund Lee, 78 Manchester Street Henry McCraith, 64 Bridge Street John Mills, Aspinall Street John Mill, Mount Pleasant Robert Mills, Prettywoo

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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