Milnrow, Newhey and Ogden Co-operative Heritage Trail

Overview

This is one of a series of Heritage Trails jointly produced by Link4Life, the Rochdale borough-wide cultural trust, and the Co-operative Heritage Trust. This organisation’s mission is to preserve the heritage assets of the co-operative movement in the UK, which began in the Rochdale area in 1844.

The development of Co-operative societies and enterprises in Milnrow, Newhey and Ogden reflect many aspects of the optimism and commercial skills of early Co-operators. Here we find stores and their branches, mills and industrial development, housing, and the extensive use of the railways as aids to development. At Ogden the Co-op became the central focus of the village (alongside church, pub, waterworks and farms) and its managers adapted their retail techniques to succeed into the early 21st century, becoming world-famous in the process.

This trail is divided into three sections, with the Milnrow section being about 0.6 miles / 0.9 km in length. As the leaflet suggests, you could complete the Newhey and Ogden separately. Alternatively, continuing to include the Newhey section will result in a linear walk of approximately 1.2 miles / 2 km to Newhey Metrolink station. Walking even further to the sites at Ogden and then back to Newhey Metrolink (as there is no bus service to the end point) will create a route, including some gradients, of 3.7 miles / 6 km.

Each step of the walk is detailed in the downloadable leaflet.

Accessibility and facilities

As this is a walk along streets, we believe that most of the route will be accessible to wheelchair-users and families with pushchairs. Note, however, we have not been able to verify conditions on the ground. The longer route up to Ogden will include some gradients and possibly cobbled sections and so will be less accessible.

While there are no public toilets en route, there are pubs and cafes en route, notably the Bulls Head in Ogden.

How to get there

The start of the walk, in Milnrow, is very close to Milnrow Metrolink station. We have given the end point of the walk as Newhey Metrolink station, as you will need to return to this point even if you continue to Ogden. All Metrolink stations offer full step-free access.

To work out how to get to and from the walk start point and end point, simply click the Google Maps link(s) on this page. Then click ‘Directions’ and enter your postcode or location in the relevant field. For public transport options, click on the train icon.

Alternatively, input the postcode(s) shown on this page into the TfGM journey planner at https://my.tfgm.com/#/planner/