Smallbridge, Hurstead and Greengate Co-operatives 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.

This trail basically involves a straightforward walk along the often busy Halifax Road (A58) northeast of Rochdale town centre and enables you to view the former Co-operative sites around Smallbridge.

We give the start point as Rhodes Street in Smallbridge. From here you can walk back towards the main Halifax Road, enabling you to view the two other sites in Smallbridge. You can then continue northeast along the main road to pass the site described at Hurstead before finishing at Dearnley. This gives a linear walk of 1.1 miles / 1.8 km.

Accessibility and facilities

Regular buses from Rochdale and Littleborough run along the main Halifax Road (A640). The end point at Dearnley is also not far from Smithy Bridge train station. According to National Rail, the station offers full step-free access.

As this is a walk along streets, we believe that 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.

While there are no public toilets en route, there are pubs on Halifax Road and other facilities nearby.

How to get there

To work out how to get to and from the walk start point (and end point, if it’s a linear walk), 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/