NGR: SD 8577 7952. On Rooley Moor to the north of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, and quite close to Rooley Moor Road, there is a Bronze Age burial mound (barrow), which actually looks more like a long barrow? However, this ancient mound has been missed by the archaeologists and the Ordnance Survey people, even though it is quite a prominent grassy mound with what looks to be a faint outer ditch. The barrow appears to have been damaged at one side, though whether it has been dug into, or robbed of what was contained inside it,  is not known.  The barrow is at the E. side of the moor some 50 metres to the west of Rooley Moor Road, and is not far from the scant remains of the Old Moorcock Inn, where two tall gateposts still stand like sentinels. Moorcock Inn was in its heyday in the 19th Century.  There are two footpaths going onto the moor from Rooley Moor Road: one running N.W. to Ding Quarry and Cowpe, another running S. to Reddyshore.

There are other ancient features on the moors around here including an enclosure, a cup-marked rock, and a bit further away to the east at Bagden Hillocks, a cairn. Bagden Hillocks is just inside the boundary with Rossendale. Rooley Moor used to be called Shore Moor and Rooley Moor Road used to be Catley Lane; it is nowadays known as ’the Cotton Famine Road’ and, in Medieval times, it was the packhorse route between Rochdale, Whalley Abbey and Clitheroe. Hamer Hill has some recumbent stones which archaeologists had thought were part of a stone circle, while Hunger Hill has possible burial mounds at its northern side. The moor is scattered with mines, quarry pits and mounds dating from the time of the Industrial Revolution, and sometimes these can, perhaps, be mistaken for ancient burial mounds, but this particular mound does appear to be a prehistoric barrow of Bronze Age date. 

Stephen Oldfield, who told us of this site, gives directions to finding the burial mound, saying: “You will see a small rectangular wall which was the perimeter for the Old Moorcock pub. The cairn is at the north corner of this. Unmissable. Head about 100m due north-east and you hit the superb Bagden Hillocks cairn. Both are lined up with the north-east/south-west axis of Knowl Hill.” Stephen goes on to say that: “Just behind the ruins of the old Moorcock Inn on Rooley Moor Road is a Bronze Age burial mound lined-up exactly with the prehistoric site of Knowl Hill to the west.  It appears to have been dug into in the past.  The alignment cuts through a ’henge feature’ too and my guess is they are aligned with sunrise at the equinoxes but I’ll have to check this out,” he adds.

Sources / References & Related Websites:-

I would like to thank Stephen Oldfield for the use of his photos (above) and for his input with further information on the site and its surroundings. Thanks mate. All photos are Copyright © Stephen Oldfield 2020.

https://lancsarchaeology.wordpress.com/category/rooley-moor/

https://lancsarchaeology.wordpress.com/tag/rooley-moor/

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18858

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=35513

Photo of the Old Moorcock Inn:   https://www.facebook.com/RochdaleLocalHistory/photos/the-moor-cock-rooley-moor-road/635869649903867/

Copyright © Ray Spencer, The Journal of Antiquities, 2020.