Castleton is an area of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, increasing to 10,159 at the 2011 Census.
History
thumb|left|upright|Arrow Mill is a former [[cotton mill and Grade II listed building in Castleton]]
The most ancient known reference to Castleton is found in the Domesday Book (1086). The name suggests a link with a fortification; the Castleton area was the site of Rochdale Castle. The castle is believed to have been located on the south bank of the River Roch, which runs through Castleton.
During the 13th century, Castleton was known as Castletown, or Castle Town. Approximately 60 acres of land (four bovates) were endowed to Stanlaw Abbey in the late years of Roger de Lacy (1170–1211) for the benefit of its Cistercian monastic community.
Back around the time the canal was built, Castleton was known as Blue Pits Village, because of the blue clay that was found and mined around the area that the railway is now. This information is on a tourist sign on the entrance to the canal off the Manchester bound side of Manchester Road.
The Rochdale Canal was routed through Castleton around the year 1800 and made Castleton one of the larger industrial areas in North West England. The canal granted jobs for hundreds of local residents, as it enabled the construction of several cotton mills. With the mills came the need for engineering and from 1892, Castleton was the home of Tweedales and Smalley who manufactured looms and textile machinery. Their Globe Works factory no longer exists, being part of the Woolworths site.
The Manchester and Leeds Railway Company (later the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway) arrived in Castleton in 1839, and it was here that the line formerly diverged to Bury, Ramsbottom, Rawtenstall, Bacup and finally rejoined the main line at Rochdale. Castleton's railway area was one of the last mainstays of steam, being a huge resource of freight.
Castleton Hall was a country house belonging to the Holtes; it was built in the Elizabethan period and enlarged in 1719. It was occupied in the late nineteenth century by the "Joyful News Training Home and Mission", now Cliff College, which moved from Castleton to its current location at Calver in Derbyshire under the direction of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1904.
In 1903, Whipp & Bourne Ltd. was founded by Samuel Whipp and Charles Bourne to manufacture electrical switchgear. The company closed its factory in Castleton, in 2007.
In 1913, the Dunlop Rubber company began building a vast textile mill complex at Castleton. At its peak the mill employed over 3,000 workers. Most of the mill was demolished in 1979. Dunlop Textiles ceased trading in 2005.
Governance
Lying within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire from a very early time, Castleton constituted a township within the ancient parish of Rochdale, in Salford hundred. During this time, Castleton stretched beyond what is now recognised as its boundaries, including with it the localities of Balderstone, Captain Fold, Hartly, Marland and Newburn.
In 1865, part of Castleton was transferred to the newly created Municipal Borough of Rochdale, in 1866 Castleton became a separate civil parish, in 1894 the parish was abolished to form Castleton by Rochdale, part also went to Rochdale, Heywood and Milnrow. In 1891 the parish had a population of 38,509. Following local government reorganisation in 1894, Castleton, though lying wholly within the administrative county of Lancashire, remained divided on this basis, forming two local government districts; "County Borough of Rochdale" and "Castleton-by-Rochdale".) split and transferred to the neighbouring Rochdale and Heywood local government districts.