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.