Milnrow (pop. 13,062(2011)) is a
suburban town within the
Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in
Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the
River Beal at the foothills of the
South Pennines, and forms a continuous urban area with
Rochdale. It is east of Rochdale's town centre, north-northeast of the city of
Manchester, and spans across urban, suburban and rural locations—from
Windy Hill in the east through to the
Rochdale Canal in the west. Milnrow includes the villages of
Tunshill and
Newhey, and is adjacent to junction 21 of the
M62 motorway.
Historically a part of
Lancashire, Milnrow during the
Middle Ages was a
hamlet located within the
township of Butterworth and
parish of Rochdale. It was named by the
Anglo-Saxons, but the
Norman conquest of England resulted in its ownership by minor
Norman families, such as the Schofields and Cleggs. In the 15th century, the descendants of these families successfully agitated for a
chapel of ease to be constructed in Milnrow by the banks of the River Beal, triggering its development as the main settlement in Butterworth. Despite this distinction, Milnrow did not increase much further in size or population until the dawn of the
woollen trade in the
Late Middle Ages.