Dec 24 2008
Cultural Capital of the Universe
Hi folks
Today, I thought I’d take time out from my ranting criticisms, to tell you all about my birthplace, a very under-rated and historic town in the Northwest of England.
Rochdale, about 9 miles north/northeast of Manchester, is shrouded in history and culture, and this year its football (soccer) club celebrates its 101st anniversary. Staying with Rochdale AFC for a brief moment, they have never won anything, are possibly the most friendly team in the whole of English football, and was once voted the club with the best pies in the league.
Anyway, that’s enough about football, let’s move on to politics, and the great impact that Rochdale has had on the world, though never really receiving the credit it deserves. Rochdale is the birthplace of ‘Communism’, and to that end, once had a street in Moscow named in its honour. In 1844, before Marx and Engels had even learnt how to clean their teeth, never mind write their communist manifesto, Rochdale had established the ‘Co-op’, an organisation that still flourishes across the UK today. The ‘Workers Co-operative Society’ was created to help the families of the men, and later women and children, working in those ‘dark, satanic mills’ mentioned in William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’ lyrics. The shop was basically owned by its customers, and any profits accrued during the financial year were re-paid to the customers in the form of a dividend, based upon how much they had spent in the shop. The movement spread across the mill towns of the Northwest of England, and almost one tenth of Manchester city centre is still taken up with the Co-ops Head Offices, which have branched out into insurance, banking, and funerals! The movement is still the only financial institution in the UK to have a moral policy over lending.
Rochdale has also been the birthplace of many great entertainers, film and pop stars, and one famous barmaid! The first, and perhaps best known, of this band of tremendous celebrities was one Grace Stansfield, who attained stage and silver screen fame under the abbreviated name, Gracie Fields. ‘Our Gracie’, as she is still affectionately known, has a newly refurbished theatre named in her honour in Rochdales town centre, not far from the colourfully decorated and famous Town Hall, and during WW2 was one of the great ‘forces sweethearts’, performing live close to the front lines for our troops. About 60 years later, another Rochdale Stansfield searched the world looking for her baby, the one and only Lisa Stansfield, whose fame and quality singing even led to her dueting with Barry White, before the great stars death.
Perhaps inspired by the ‘Gracie Fields Theatre’, several wonderful tv and film actors/actresses have followed in Gracies thespian footsteps, most recently, the English Rose, Anna Friel, who shot to fame as one half of the first lesbian kiss on British tv, during her role in Brookside, a soap opera based in Liverpool. Far too good an actress to remain in the realms of soap operas, Anna has gone on to star in many theatre and film roles has just completed 9 episodes of ‘The Jury’ for Fox T.V. in New York, has been a great success in the tv series ‘Pushing up daisies’ and has completed filming ‘Perfect Strangers’ with Rob Lowe.
Okay, Soap fans out there, what is the most famous pub in Britain? Yes, Coronation Streets own ‘Rovers Return’, and one of its most famous barmaids, Bet Lynch was played on screen by Rochdales own Julie Goodyear. Additionally, the sixth Dr Who, Colin Baker, lived in Rochdale for a long period of time prior to travelling time and space!
Whilst there have been several economists and unionists to be born in Rochdale, I shall not bore people with those figures, who can easily be traced via any of the numerous websites devoted to Rochdale. However, there are two important figures in the towns history whose names have spread farther afield than the others. The town features in the famous Domesday Book, compiled by William the Conqueror and his son during the twenty years after 1066, under the name ‘Recedeham Manor’ although the area was first settled about 5000 years ago. It was one of the Salford Hundreds until 1638, when it became part of the lands of one Lord Byron the famous and magnificent poet.
Possibly the biggest thing to ever come out of Rochdale, was the tremendously charismatic Liberal MP, Sir Cyril Smith, who represented the town throughout the 1980s and 1990s. A wonderfully large and jovial northerner, his name will remain associated with the town for decades to come.
On either side of this metropolis of class and culture, it is unrivalled, by Oldham (the ‘Home of the Tubigrip’) and Bury (claims to have invented the ‘Black Pudding’, though this is contested!). Clearly, Rochdale could well have been the inspiration for the old adage, a rose between two thorns.
So, the next time you’re planning a trip to the UK, ignore London (it’s full of French people nowadays), and Stratford-upon-Avon (the bard was really Christopher Marlowe), and make the short journey up the M6 motorway (they even have trains and coaches going into and from the town), and visit the Mecca of history and culture that is Rochdale.
All the best for the festive season (even if it is a big con based on the Persian Demi-God Mithra, venerated by the Romans as Mithras), and a joyous New Year to all and sundry.
