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Stoodley Bridge Footpath Claim In 2000 the owner of Stoodley
Bridge Mill in Eastwood, Todmorden, who had recently purchased the factory, blocked off a well established footpath that passed
from the A646 through the Mill yard and joined the canal towpath, thus forming a through route to Todmorden along the canal
side. In 2001 I prepared and submitted a successful claim for
the footpath to be added to the Definitive Map. This claim, which was well supported (over 35 witnesses showing
20 years or more unhindered usage of the footpath) also uncovered considerable historical evidence about
Application for a Modification Order for the Creation
of a Definitive Footpath Connecting the Public Bridleway down Stoodley Lane, Eastwood with the Public Footpath Running Along
the Rochdale Canal Towpath Via the Car Park of Stoodley Bridge Mill, Eastwood. STATEMENT OF EVIDENCE On behalf of the Applicant, Mr Tim Challis of Eastwood, Background I have lived in Eastwood for a period of 12 years during which time I have used
the claimed public right of way on an almost daily basis either to gain access to my boat, which is moored on the Rochdale
Canal nearby, to go fishing, to travel to Todmorden or Hebden Bridge, to travel to other places, and for other purposes. During
that period I have seen many thousands of people use this connecting route between the existing bridleway and footpath for
the purposes of recreation, shopping and travel to work. Also during this period
nobody has challenged my right, directly or indirectly, to enjoy access to the Canal towpath through this route, and I’ve
neither seen nor heard accounts of anyone else’s right to use the footpath being challenged. In late spring/ early summer 2001 ownership of Stoodley Bridge Mill changed hands,
and the new owner made it clear he was planning to prevent or restrict public access to the towpath through the car park by
putting up fencing and gates. I spoke to him twice about the impact this would
have on the public’s established access to the towpath, and he informed me that public access to the towpath was via
a steep banking to the left of Stoodley Canal Bridge, and that it was only since this was blocked off two years ago that the
public had been using his car park to gain access. He later repeated this account
to the Todmorden News and Advertiser. I know myself from my own experiences that this account is not accurate, and
I agreed to represent local residents and others by collecting evidence of 20 years continuous public usage, without
hindrance, and other historical evidence, and by applying for the above mentioned Modification Order. The evidence attached to this statement has been collected through a variety
of means from a cross section of the local public, and from historical research in This footpath to the towpath has been used by the general public for a period
of at least 80 years without hindrance or challenge, and probably for much longer than that.
It is an important thoroughfare that connects the existing bridleway that runs up The footpath is used by a considerable cross section of members of the general
public, including residents of the immediate vicinity, residents of the more general locality, anglers, boaters, ramblers,
general recreational visitors and tourists, and employees of the Rochdale Canal Company and other services and utilities such
as the Fire Brigade.
Closing the footpath is unthinkable, and would mean that for people cycling or
walking down The purpose of this application is to seek to have the footpath added to the
Definitive Map as a Public Footpath, and through this to ensure that the right of the general public to unhindered access
from Stoodley Lane to the Rochdale Canal towpath (and vice versa) on the footpath through the car park of Stoodley Bridge
Mill is upheld. History of the Footpath I haven’t made a detailed study of the history of
Stoodley Bridge Mill, but do know there was a mill there in 1823(1), and that it was marked on the 1853 Ordnance Survey map. The area that is now the car park was for the most part a small reservoir supplying
water, presumably for the cotton mill’s steam turbine. It may well have been a millpond for a water mill further down
the valley in the past, and been later adapted to function as a reservoir(2). By the 1890s the reservoir had been drained,
but in an old photograph(3) a footpath can still be seen clearly travelling through a small gate on the right just beyond
the river bridge, along an embankment behind the river wall (following the contour line on the 1894 map exactly), across the
dam or retaining wall at the far end of the reservoir towards the wall of Stoodley Lane, and apparently up a flight of stairs
before swinging off to the right towards the towpath and the Mill entrance.
The 1894 Ordnance Survey map marks both the end dam or retaining wall, and a
contour line running alongside the river wall, suggesting the reservoir had been drained by that point (a contour line would
not have been marked if it had been full). The deep depression left by this
reservoir (10 to 15 feet) was by the 1950s used for allotments (see Witness xiv's evidence later. The river wall is also clearly
much lower than at present, something that Witness xiv also recalls in the 1950s, and which he remembers led to the allotments
flooding frequently).
The Mill’s entrance proper during the 1890s was a small access road that
dropped off
The gas lamp illuminating the footpath’s stairs in the 1890s photograph
was typical, and there are numerous examples locally of street lighting surviving on non-council owned property. Indeed, there are two lights on the back of nearby Victoria Terrace, which is unregistered land and an
unadopted road, and both are positioned to illuminate stone stairways. Both will have been gas lamps in the past, probably
installed by the Todmorden Union Board when the Terrace was built in 1875(4). Equally, on Duke Street there is a footpath
that connects Higher Eastwood and what was in the 19th Century the Eastwood Shed with Eastwood Dye Works and Eastwood
Station in the valley bottom. The stairs on this path were illuminated with gas lamps, the remains of which can be seen today.
A combination of factors suggest that the mill was in decline in the 1890s(6),
and by 1905 the Ordnance Survey map marked it as ‘disused’. In
1914, after the death of Amanda Hinchcliffe, the estate was sold to the Tathams, Stoodley Bridge Mill itself being described
in the conveyance as ‘unoccupied’ (Wakefield Deed Registry 1914, 32/1434/489).
In the same conveyance, however, mention was made of two cottages at the western most end of the Mill, one of which
was occupied by Annie Shuttleworth, and the other by ‘another’(7). The
only access to these cottages was from the towpath either through the gated entrance or through the footpath itself. I haven’t discovered a great deal about the footpath or the mill between
1914 and 1945, when a conveyance described the mill complete with the two cottages, but did not mention the larger dwelling
referred to in the earlier (1914) conveyance. Both the footpath and the gated
entrance were certainly in existence in the 1940s and 50s. The footpath clearly
changed route slightly during this period, in that during the 1890s it passed along an embankment by the river wall to the
right of the depression left by the reservoir before cutting back to the left to join the wall of Witness xiv was a resident of Back Victoria Terrace, Eastwood, in the late 1940s and 1950s, and recalled in conversation
with me that his grandfather, who also lived on Victoria Terrace, used the claimed footpath for 30 years or so to gain access
to the towpath, and through that to a pub in Spring Side on the way to Todmorden. In
conversation with me, and detailed in a separate letter, Witness xiv told me that in the days before the present car park
(i.e. pre-1972, see later) there was a clearly defined footpath that followed the route of the claimed footpath almost exactly,
up against the wall of Stoodley Lane. Witness xiv remembers that there was also
an access road in the 1950s that ran across the yard of the Mill with Stoodley Lane to its left and an area of sunken allotments
to its right (i.e. between the access road and the banks of the River Calder). As
mentioned earlier, these allotments were developed in the basin left by the draining of the millpond or reservoir some time
before the 1890s. The Mill yard was much bigger then, and the area of open access
to the canal towpath was the width of the present, new factory. The footpath
followed the wall of By 1963 the main part of the Mill, which was according to JC, a former owner
of Stoodley Lodge, a traditional ‘narrow’ mill, had been demolished and the area of access to the canal broadened
considerably (Witness xiv's evidence confirms it had been demolished much earlier than this).
The broken line in the wall of Stoodley Lane at the site of the Mill’s gated entrance would suggest that this
earlier access road still survived, and JC has informed me in conversation and again later in correspondence that this gate,
which as I mentioned earlier was then known as the ‘gated entrance,’ was removed in 1972. Another resident of Victoria Terrace, whose witness form was submitted as part of my initial application,
informs me that when he moved to the Terrace in 1963 the car park area was level, and there was no sign of the reservoir/allotments.
It would appear, therefore, that they were filled in and the river wall raised some time between 1957 and 1963.
When the new Mill was built in 1974, JC challenged the fact that part of it was
being constructed on land that did not belong to Stoodley Bridge Mill (i.e. it was on the square of land adjacent to the towpath
and belonging to the Rochdale Canal Company), not, he states, in the interests of conveyancing but in the interests of preserving
public access. Mr C. recalls that the architect, who was a local man called BM,
assured him that public access would be preserved. I have spoken recently to
BM, who is now retired but still living in Todmorden. He tells me that he cannot
recollect the conversation with JC, but that there would have been no need for such assurances anyway, as the route to the
canal through the car park had always obviously been a right of way. He also
agreed to complete a witness form confirming his own use of the footpath over the years. Searches for the planning approval for the 1974 construction have proven unsucessful
(Calderdale MBC’s Planning Archives only hold approvals on microfiche from 1977 onwards), but the fact that a gap of
some three metres was left between the new building and the wall of Stoodley Lane would appear commensurate with a commitment
to preserve public access, as would the fact that no attempt has been made by subsequent Mill owners to impede access during
the ensuing 27 years until the present. Evidence
of usage of the present access route over the 27 years since the new Mill was built is detailed later, but I would like to
reiterate that I believe the evidence suggests that the former reservoir/ allotments were filled in some time after the late
1950s, and certainly before 1963. When JC bought Stoodley Lodge in 1969 the car park area had an even higher level than today. Excavation of the present level in 1972 as a prelude to building the modern
mill in 1974 required the removal of the lane leading down from the gated entrance in Although the witness forms completed and signed by members of the public who
have used the route for 20 years or more have been submitted separately as distinct pieces of evidence in themselves, I have
here summarised and categorised their content to illustrate the geographic range they cover and the considerable range of
different activities and purposes that people have used the footpath for. Not
one of these witnesses has ever been challenged or hindered in their usage of the footpath; indeed, the only witness who recalls
speaking to the previous owner about usage of the footpath attests that was told he could
use it. The clearest evidence of the level of current usage of the footpath is provided
by the path itself where it joins the
Witness statements have been divided into two broad groups; those 12 that were
submitted with the initial application, and those that have been completed and signed since then. Witness
statements submitted with the initial application (in no particular order). Witness i of Eastwood, has been using the footpath for 50 years, and recalls the existence of the two cottages at the Witness ii has been using the footpath on a weekly basis for 37 years,
and again has never been challenged or hindered at all. Witness iii of Eastwood has used the footpath for 23 years, and uses it on a weekly basis to
visit her daughter and granddaughters, who live nearby (her daughter has submitted a separate witness
form). Witness iv has only lived by the footpath for the last five years, but has lived in the
Witness v of Eastwood, has used the footpath on a weekly basis, as a keen rambler, for
the last 37 years, and in conversation with me recalled that the millpond/allotment area that now forms
much of the Mill’s car park had been filled in during the whole of that time. Witness vi of Todmorden has used the footpath
to get from the towpath to his smallholding since 1951, and has never been hindered in any
way. Throughout that time until the present, he has used the footpath about four times a week. Witness vii of Hebden Bridge has used the footpath both on foot and on bicycle for 23 years
up until the present both for recreation and to visit friends in Eastwood. He
notes on his form that ‘This is a well established right of way that has been used freely all the time I have lived
in H(ebden) B(ridge)’. Witness viii first used the footpath in 1965, and has used it on an occasional basis ever since.
On her witness form she notes that: ‘It is a most pleasing way to walk, without the danger of being
killed by oncoming traffic.’ Witness ix of Eastwood has used the footpath longer than any other witness, having used it
for over 80 years. He has used it occasionally during that time, both as a resident
of Victoria Terrace in the past, and more recently. Witness
x has lived in the immediate area for 18 years, but has known and used the footpath since he
was 16 years old (27 years ago). On his witness form, he writes that the footpath
has been in its present position since before the new Mill was built, and that the ‘Canal Co. also use (it) for access
to canal for repairs.’ Witness xi first used the footpath in 1980, and has used it on a daily basis since then both
for recreation and to travel to work. He has used it both on foot and on a bicycle,
and notes on his witness form that the footpath is ‘used by fishermen, fire service, canal boat people (and) walkers’.
Witness xii has used the footpath on a weekly basis for 23 years for recreation,
shopping and travelling to work (for many years he owned a workshop unit in Spring Side).
He has never been hindered or challenged in any way when using the footpath, which he has used both on foot and on
a bicycle. Witness
statements collected since submission of the application (in no particular order). Witness xiii, of Eastwood, has used the footpath for 22 years without hindrance on a daily basis,
first using it in 1979 and last using it on July 7, 2001. Witness xiv, of Todmorden, lived on Victoria Terrace between 1947 and 1957 (dates he later amended
slightly, in correspondence to me, to 1948 to 1958) and recalls using the footpath on a regular basis
as a child. He has given more detailed evidence in a letter in which he recalled
that his grandfather lived on Victoria Terrace for 30 odd years from the 1930s and used the footpath to get to the canal towpath
and to Spring Side. Witness xv has known the path for 23 years, first using it in 1978. He remembers the previous owner giving him permission to use the path, and notes that it ‘gives access
to towpath of Witness xvi has used the footpath since 1976 on a weekly basis, using it originally as a child
living on Victoria Terrace and more latterly to visit her mother.
She last used the path in July 2001. Witness xvii, of Todmorden, has used the footpath for 30 years, first using
it as a junior angler. Witness xviii, first knew of the footpath 30 years ago, and has used it on an occasional basis
since. He last used it in September 2000, and writes on his
form that ‘to my knowledge it has been used by anglers and horses for at least 30 years.’ Witness xix, of Todmorden, has known the footpath
for 50 years or so, and has used it on a weekly basis either in a vehicle or on foot for fishing the canal. He last used the footpath seven years ago. Witness xx, of Walsden, has known the footpath for 45 years, when he first used it as a junior
angler. He has used it on an occasional basis since, last using it some nine months before completing his witness
form. He notes on his form that he was given permission to park on the car park
provided he didn’t block the works area, and comments that the route has ‘been used for footpath, bikes, prams
etc. without hindrance.’ Witness xxi, of Todmorden, has used the footpath since the mid to late 1960s
on an occasional basis, last using it in June 2001. Witness xxii, of the Todmorden Angling Society, has used the footpath on an occasional basis
since 1961, and notes that ‘I also park my car on the land over which this access crosses.’ He last used the footpath in March 2001. Witness xxiii, of Todmorden, has used the footpath for 40 years, last using it earlier this
year. He notes that ‘This access has probably been
used by the Rochdale Canal Company for a considerable number of years.’ Witness xxiv, of Walsden, has used the footpath since he was 14 years old,
35 years ago. He last used it in 2000 during a fishing match. Witness xxv, of Eastwood, has known the footpath for 57 years, first using it in about 1943 or
44. She has used it on a weekly basis since then for recreational purposes (she
and her husband, whose witness form was submitted with the original Application, are both keen ramblers),
but also uses it for visiting relatives and friends at Spring Side. She has not
used the footpath since the new owner started erecting obstacles on it, and notes on her witness form that: 'The stone mill
was a weaving shed belonging to Robert Tatham of Nanholme Mill who lived at Calder Bank House.
There was a row of cottages at the Todmorden end of the mill occupied by families - Butterworth, Carling and Daniels
among others.' Witness xxvi, of Walsden, has used the footpath
for 40 years as an angler, last using it in January 2001. Witnesses xxvii have both known the right of way for 37 years and have used it on a daily
or weekly basis during that time. They write on their form
that 'To our knowledge this has always been a right of way as access to the canal bank.' Witness xxviii, of Bacup, who was approached directly by the Applicant after using the footpath
on July 26, 2001, has known the right of way for 25 years, first using it in about 1976. He has used it as an angler on a weekly basis since then. Witness xxix, of Todmorden, has known the footpath for 47 years, first using it when he was seven
years old. He has used it on an occasional basis since then as an angler, last
using it at the end of June 2001. He notes on his form that he didn’t need
to seek permission to use it, ‘as (it’s) always been open as footpath.’ He also notes that ‘When factory was a cotton mill they used to bring small wagons onto canal bank
to load and unload.’ This will have been through the ‘gated’
entrance. Witnesss xxx, of Witness xxxi, of Todmorden, has used the footpath since 1976 to gain access
to his allotment, last using it on the day he completed his witness form, August 1 2001. Witness xxxii, of Todmorden, has known the footpath for 20 years, first using it in 1981. She has used it weekly since then to visit friends, and states on her witness form
that: 'I have always known (the footpath) as an access from the canal towpath to Victoria Terrace.' Witness xxxiii, of Todmorden, grew up as a child on a terrace of houses on Duke Street, which
no longer exist, and has known the footpath for 30 years. He
writes on his witness form that: 'Being reared in the area I have always known (the footpath) as an access from the canal
towpath to Victoria Terrace.' Witness(es) xxxiv (two people) are, respectively, 73 and 75 years old, and have known the footpath most of their
lives. They have used it on an occasional basis during that time, both for recreation and going to work. One was employed by the Mill itself when it was owned by Tatham's, and writes on his
form: 'All my life it has been a recognised right of way.' Witness xxxv, of Eastwood, has used the footpath on an occasional basis since belonging to the YHA in the 1960s. Since moving
to Eastwood in 1986, she has used the footpath on a daily basis, and explains in an attached note that,
as someone who is disabled (she sometimes needs to use a wheelchair), she has not been able to access the towpath since the
present owner blocked the access in August 2001. Witness xxxvi, of Todmorden,
has been using the footpath since she was 10 years old, 33 years ago.
As a keen runner, she uses the footpath on a weekly basis to connect the towpath to Stoodley Lane. The table below demonstrates in crude terms the range of activities the witnesses
have used the footpath for. Note that some witnesses appear under a number of headings, and that ‘Recreation’
covers a multitude of activities, some of which doubtlessly should appear under the other headings in the table (the distinction
between recreational walking and rambling in particular is a fine one).
ACTIVITY WITNESS
REFERENCE General
Recreation i,
ii, iii, iv, v, vii, viii, x, xi, xii, xiii, xiv, xv, xvi, xxv, xxvii, xxxii, xxxiii, xxxiv, xxxv, xxxvi Angling iv,
xvii, xviii, xix, xx, xxi, xxii, xxiii, xxiv, xxvi, xxvii, xxviii, xxix, xxx Walking/
Cycling v,
vi, vii, x, xi, xii, xiii, xiv, xxi, Travel
to work/ premises/ shopping v,
vi, viii, ix, xi, xii, xxi, xxvii, xxxi, xxxiv, xxxv Visiting
relatives/ friends iii,
vii, xvi, xxxii, xxxiii, xxv Identification and Marking of the Identification of the footpath is easier than might be
expected across the car park. Despite the fact that more general usage of the
car park has never, until the present, been discouraged (see later), most users of the footpath naturally gravitate towards
the wall of Stoodley Lane, and follow this round to the towpath (see Route of claimed footpath).
The width identified for the footpath where it leaves the canal is 2.9 metres. This reflects the actual width of the established footpath there, including the weedy
verge between the footpath and the wall of
As the footpath enters the car park proper and turns towards
The claimed route of the footpath follows, as closely as possible, the wall of
Other Considerations I have given synopses of the witness forms submitted in Section 4, and made the point that none of the witnesses reported
any attempt by previous owners to impede or challenge their right to use the footpath.
In fact, I made the point that one witness was even told he could use it. There
are, however, three other pieces of evidence that should be considered, as I believe they prove that not only did previous
owners not object to or try to stop public access, but they acknowledged and accepted it. The
first piece of evidence is the decision by Calderdale MBC in 1999 to route the National Cycle Way down the canal towpath,
through the footpath and onto It
is worth reiterating the fact that, according to what I have been told by Calderdale MBC, this proposal was only changed once
the Highways Agency objected to the fact that directing cyclists onto the A646 from The second piece of evidence concerns the inaugural Todmorden Centenary Walk
in 1996, which I have been told by a Todmorden Town Councillor passed along the towpath, through the footpath and on to The third and final piece of evidence concerns the parking sign situated on the
Eastern end of the factory wall near the junction of the footpath with the towpath.
This states: ‘No parking this side please, lorries turning’.
I am not be sure how long this sign has been in position, other than that it
is for a number of years. The sign’s wording, I believe, clearly accepts public usage of the car park, and makes a clear
request for the works area to be left clear. It does not challenge people’s right to use the car park. This accords
well with the evidence of Witness xx, an angler, who remembers being given permission to use the car park provided he did
not block the works entrance. It is worth stressing that members of the public
have traditionally only used the factory car park for two reasons, either to visit residents of Victoria Terrace or, more
usually, to go fishing or walking on the towpath. To accept that people will
be parking in the car park is also to accept that they will, as a rule, be using the footpath. References (1) I have two pound notes issued by the Mill in 1823, which was then owned by the Sutcliffe brothers (Jospeph,
Thomas and John). By the end of the Century the Mill was in the ownership of
the Hinchcliffes (George, Joseph and William), and in the 1881 Census Stoodley Lodge was occupied by George Hinchcliffe, described
as a retired millowner. There is evidence that his brother Joseph had been occupying
a house in the mill grounds at the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th Century. In 1914 George’s daughter Amanda died, and the estate including the mill, a house occupied in the
past by Jospeph Hinchcliffe, two cottages to the western end of the mill, and Stoodley Lodge were conveyed to the Tathams,
who owned Nanholme Mill at Spring Side. At this time (1914) both the mill and
the house formerly occupied by Joseph Hinchcliffe were described as unoccupied. The
house formerly occupied by Joseph Hinchcliffe seems to have stood between the coach house and the river wall, and was probably
the original mill owners house, predating Stoodley Lodge. It was probably demolished
before 1945 (it did not figure in the conveyance of that year). There was also
a Stoodley House, which was also occupied by mill owners in 1881 (the Leah family).
This could have been the premises occupied by Joseph Hinchcliffe referred to in the 1914 conveyance, but it seems strange
that it was not named as such. Local mythology has that there was a separate mill-owners house built on the field to the East
of Stoodley Bridge Mill, which had to be dismantled and removed because of flooding. (2) Without making specific reference, general reading of ‘Yorkshire Textile Mills 1770-1930’ (HMSO,
1992) suggests that Stoodley Bridge Mill in the 1820s and on is more likely to have been steam turbine than water powered. The possibility that the pond might have been intended originally for an 18th
Century mill further down the valley is an obvious one, and the 1907 Ordnance Survey map shows what looks intriguingly like
the remains of a track or channel passing from the eastern most end of the pond under the river bridge and eastwards along
the river side of the field that is now rented by one of the witnesses. (3) I own two photographs from this period, the first being that shown above and the second being a more general
picture of the valley bottom there. Although they were taken at different times of year they are clearly from a similar period,
and have in both cases been identified positively as one half of a Victorian stereo photograph. The second, more general picture
shows Duke Street in the foreground (which was demolished in the 1960s), and Victoria Terrace on the other side of the railway
line, but not Stoodley Glen, on the far side of the Rochdale Canal, which had not been built when this picture was taken. The photographs can be dated confidently to 1875-c.1914 (the date of Stoodley Glen),
and John Chadwick, co-founder of the Todmorden Antiquarian Society, feels a date in the 1890s would be right. Herbert Murgatroyd, the (4) In 1860 Todmorden adopted the Local Government Act and elected a Local Board to look after, amongst other things,
footpaths and street lighting. Townships that formed part of the (5) This has been confirmed to me in conversation by Witness xiv, whose written evidence is described elsewhere. (6) George Hinchcliffe was described as retired in the 1881 Census, and in the 1890s the reservoir had been drained.
There was a minor depression in the 1880s in Todmorden, which might have been a factor (c. 1883, see The Development of Todmorden,
1700-1896 by E.M.Savage, Todmorden Antiquarian Society, 2000, p. 33). (7) Annie Shuttleworth’s parents Matilda and William,
and Matilda’s son by a previous marriage Walter Hepworth (who died in 1880), are buried in Eastwood Congregational Church
cemetery, which still survives despite the demolition of the church itself. The
Census return for Stoodley Cottages (the name of the two cottages at the westerly end of the mill) in 1881 tells us that Annie,
who was at school then, had five brothers and one sister (Joseph, Morris, Frank, Ellen, George and John Herbert), and their
neighbours in the other cottage were the Greenwoods (John and Ann), with six children (Elizabeth, Clara, Sarah, Ada, Willie
and John). Both William Shuttleworth and John Greenwood seemed to have worked
for the mill, the former as a coachman and gardener and the latter as a cotton throstle overlooker. |
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