Newhey expanded as part of an unplanned process of urbanisation, brought on by the introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, and is now home to the Ellenroad Steam Museum - the engine house of the former Ellenroad Ring Mill, the rest of which was demolished in 1985. It holds the world's largest working steam engine.[citation needed]
Lying by the older localities of Milnrow, Ogden and Haugh, Newhey is thought to have acquired its name as a result of land reclamation.[3]
Newhey was home to the Newhey Brick and Terracotta Co. Ltd., a prosperous brick and tile works which opened on Huddersfield Road in 1899. Its bricks are found in buildings worldwide. Most mills and associated terraced houses in the Rochdale and Oldham areas were built from this "Newhey brick".[citation needed]
Localities in and around Newhey include Haugh and Woodbottom. Several reservoirs lie above and to the east, including Ogden, Kitcliffe and Piethorne.
Landmarks
St Thomas's at Newhey
Milnrow War Memorial, a Grade II listed structure, is in Newhey's Memorial Park.[6] Originally in central Milnrow (set back from the road near Milnrow Bridge), it was unveiled in 1924 by Major General A Solly-Flood, a former commander of 42nd (East Lancashire) Division. Sculpted from Sandstone by G Thomas in 1923, the memorial is surmounted by a bronze statue of a First World Warinfantry soldier with rifle and fixed bayonet, symbolic of the district's young manhood in early First World War. The plinth has bronze and slate panels which show the names of local men who died in the two World Wars.[7]
Newhey parish church, dedicated to St. Thomas, was built in 1876 to serve the new Anglican parish of Newhey.[8] Its patron is the Bishop of Manchester.[9] The church was badly damaged by arson on 21 December 2007.[10]
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