News

Lancashire Local Nature Recovery Strategy

Lancashire County Council have been designated as the responsible authority to lead the preparation of a Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Lancashire. This document introduced by the Environment Act 2021 will aim to:

  • agree priorities for nature’s recovery in Lancashire;
  • map the most important areas for nature now in Lancashire;
  • map specific proposals for creating or improving natural habitats and or contributing to wider environmental goals.

Rossendale Borough Council is a supporting authority and will work with Lancashire County Council to prepare the strategy.

If you would like to be involved in the process of creating this new strategy and be invited to comment on the draft and future versions of the document, please contact the Lancashire Local Nature Recovery Strategy Team at lnrs@lancashire.gov.uk.

 

RMNF AGM – Thursday 2nd Feb

Rooley Moor Neighbourhood Forum
Annual General Meeting

Just a reminder that you are cordially invited to attend our AGM on Thursday, 2nd February 2023 from 7pm at The Old Library, Edenfield Road, Norden, Rochdale OL11 5XE.

Following on from the recent boundary changes our neighbourhood area is now in the Norden Ward and we are pleased to advise Councillor Peter Winkler has expressed an interest in becoming a forum trustee. Please see the updated AGM reports pack for more information.

Please let us know if you would like to be more involved with the forum.

As a local charity we are looking for new trustees to join at our AGM.

We particularly want to hear from local people with the time, interest and skills who can help our charity meet its objectives. We are currently working on a number of projects with partner organisations to raise awareness of the area’s history and heritage and to protect the natural environment through moorland restoration and the protection of peat.

About RMNF

RMNF is a registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) – Charity Number 1165601. The forum was created because of a shared common purpose to protect and enhance our neighbourhood and to make it an area that is vibrant, socially inclusive, and generally the greenest, safest place to live, work and play that it can possibly be.

Forum members are individuals who are connected in some way to the daily life of the neighbourhood. They either live, work, regularly pursue leisure activities (walking, horse riding, cycling, ornithology, fishing, etc.) or are interested in the Rooley Moor area.

We know that sometimes the smallest of changes can make a big difference and our forum is established for the public benefit without distinction for the following purposes in the area of benefit:

  1. To promote high standards of planning and architecture in or affecting the area of benefit
  2. To educate the public in the geography, history, natural history, culture, and architecture of the area of benefit, and
  3. To secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features or areas of historic or public interest in the area of benefit

We wish to see a thriving, beautiful neighbourhood area in which the countryside and green spaces are accessible to everyone for legitimate use. An area rich in nature and playing a crucial role in responding to the climate emergency. An area that enriches all of our lives, regenerating our wellbeing, and that we in turn can regenerate, protect and celebrate.

Becoming a Trustee

The trustee role is an exciting opportunity to add value and scale to what RMNF does and contribute to its success. We are involved in many activities and increasing the number of trustees and volunteers will help deliver our charitable purpose.

Trustees are responsible for controlling the charity’s management and administration. They are responsible for ensuring our charity’s income and property is used only for the purposes set out in our governing document and for no other purpose.

Trustees have a responsibility to act reasonably and prudently in all matters relating to the charity and they have a responsibility to act in the best interests of the charity

As a trustee you will:

  • Use your skills and experience to make a positive difference to the neighbourhood area, environment, and local community.
  • Meet like-minded people and enjoy being part of a team.
  • Be invited to free training courses, workshops, meetings, and the AGM.
  • Safeguard the good reputation and values of our charity.

Please contact the Forum Secretary (email: info@RMNF.org.uk) if you would like to get more involved.

RMNF AGM – Agenda

Rooley Moor Neighbourhood Forum (RMNF)
Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Date & Time: Thursday, 2nd February 2023 at 7pm
Venue: The Old Library, Edenfield Road, Norden, Rochdale OL11 5XE

2022 – RMNF AGM – Agenda and Reports Pack

You are cordially invited to attend our AGM and to be more involved if you wish.

As a local charity we are looking for new trustees to join at our AGM.

We particularly want to hear from local people with the time, interest and skills who can help our charity meet its objectives. We are currently working on a number of projects with partner organisations to raise awareness of the area’s history and heritage and to protect the natural environment through moorland restoration and the protection of peat.

About RMNF

RMNF is a registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) – Charity Number 1165601. The forum was created because of a shared common purpose to protect and enhance our neighbourhood and to make it an area that is vibrant, socially inclusive, and generally the greenest, safest place to live, work and play that it can possibly be.

Forum members are individuals who are connected in some way to the daily life of the neighbourhood. They either live, work, regularly pursue leisure activities (walking, horse riding, cycling, ornithology, fishing, etc.) or are interested in the Rooley Moor area.

We know that sometimes the smallest of changes can make a big difference and our forum is established for the public benefit without distinction for the following purposes in the area of benefit:

  1. To promote high standards of planning and architecture in or affecting the area of benefit
  2. To educate the public in the geography, history, natural history, culture, and architecture of the area of benefit, and
  3. To secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features or areas of historic or public interest in the area of benefit

We wish to see a thriving, beautiful neighbourhood area in which the countryside and green spaces are accessible to everyone for legitimate use. An area rich in nature and playing a crucial role in responding to the climate emergency. An area that enriches all of our lives, regenerating our wellbeing, and that we in turn can regenerate, protect and celebrate.

Becoming a Trustee

The trustee role is an exciting opportunity to add value and scale to what RMNF does and contribute to its success. We are involved in many activities and increasing the number of trustees and volunteers will help deliver our charitable purpose.

Trustees are responsible for controlling the charity’s management and administration. They are responsible for ensuring our charity’s income and property is used only for the purposes set out in our governing document and for no other purpose.

Trustees have a responsibility to act reasonably and prudently in all matters relating to the charity and they have a responsibility to act in the best interests of the charity

As a trustee you will:

  • Use your skills and experience to make a positive difference to the neighbourhood area, environment, and local community.
  • Meet like-minded people and enjoy being part of a team.
  • Be invited to free training courses, workshops, meetings, and the AGM.
  • Safeguard the good reputation and values of our charity.

Please contact the Forum Secretary (email: info@RMNF.org.uk) if you would like to get more involved.

AGM & Trustee Recruitment

Rooley Moor Neighbourhood Forum (RMNF)
Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Date & Time: Thursday, 2nd February 2023 at 7pm
Venue: The Old Library, Edenfield Road, Norden, Rochdale OL11 5XE

You are cordially invited to attend our AGM and to be more involved if you wish.

As a local charity we are looking for new trustees to join at our AGM.

We particularly want to hear from local people with the time, interest and skills who can help our charity meet its objectives. We are currently working on a number of projects with partner organisations to raise awareness of the area’s history and heritage and to protect the natural environment through moorland restoration and the protection of peat.

About RMNF

RMNF is a registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) – Charity Number 1165601. The forum was created because of a shared common purpose to protect and enhance our neighbourhood and to make it an area that is vibrant, socially inclusive, and generally the greenest, safest place to live, work and play that it can possibly be.

Forum members are individuals who are connected in some way to the daily life of the neighbourhood. They either live, work, regularly pursue leisure activities (walking, horse riding, cycling, ornithology, fishing, etc.) or are interested in the Rooley Moor area.

We know that sometimes the smallest of changes can make a big difference and our forum is established for the public benefit without distinction for the following purposes in the area of benefit:

  1. To promote high standards of planning and architecture in or affecting the area of benefit
  2. To educate the public in the geography, history, natural history, culture, and architecture of the area of benefit, and
  3. To secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features or areas of historic or public interest in the area of benefit

We wish to see a thriving, beautiful neighbourhood area in which the countryside and green spaces are accessible to everyone for legitimate use. An area rich in nature and playing a crucial role in responding to the climate emergency. An area that enriches all of our lives, regenerating our wellbeing, and that we in turn can regenerate, protect and celebrate.

Becoming a Trustee

The trustee role is an exciting opportunity to add value and scale to what RMNF does and contribute to its success. We are involved in many activities and increasing the number of trustees and volunteers will help deliver our charitable purpose.

Trustees are responsible for controlling the charity’s management and administration. They are responsible for ensuring our charity’s income and property is used only for the purposes set out in our governing document and for no other purpose.

Trustees have a responsibility to act reasonably and prudently in all matters relating to the charity and they have a responsibility to act in the best interests of the charity

As a trustee you will:

  • Use your skills and experience to make a positive difference to the neighbourhood area, environment, and local community.
  • Meet like-minded people and enjoy being part of a team.
  • Be invited to free training courses, workshops, meetings, and the AGM.
  • Safeguard the good reputation and values of our charity.

Please contact the Forum Secretary (email: info@RMNF.org.uk) if you would like to get more involved.

Black History Month

 

Why do we commemorate Black History Month?

Richard Ronksley, Rochdale Sixth Form College Principal/CEO writes:

Because we should. Because it’s fascinating. And because there is so much history out there in addition to the often white, upper-class, male and Euro-centric view of the past we sometimes get. Black is the new black is a fascinating documentary series where… Exceptional figures from politics, business, sport, culture, religion and science share their insights into being black and British today, how they got where they are and their thoughts on what the future holds.

The first episode is about arriving and growing up in Britain. A cast of distinguished black Britons including Naomi Campbell, Sir Trevor McDonald, Thandie Newton, Baroness Scotland, musicians Jazzie B of Soul II Soul, Dizzie Rascal, Sir Lenny Henry, writer Gary Younge and many others talk about their parents as pioneers who came to the UK in search of a better life for them and their children.

What they encountered was a whole raft of new experiences from snow to smoking chimneys – as well as prejudice, verbal abuse and physical violence. Actor David Harewood recounts attending his first football match at Leeds United as an eight-year-old, which ended with him leaving before the match had even begun with monkey chants and jeers ringing in his ears.

The programme is a tribute to the dedication of immigrant parents who, with firm discipline, imparted important lessons about being twice as good, working hard and rising above racism. Their struggle was supposed to make it easier for the next generation to come to terms with their dual identity of being both black and British.

Black History Month – RSFC Special

How Rochdale cotton mill workers supported the emancipation (freedom) of slaves during the American Civil War

Richard Ronksley, Rochdale Sixth Form College (RSFC) Principal/CEO writes:

Now, what links Black History Month and Victorian Rochdale? It’s a fascinating story that will make you proud of the area. It starts in the middle of the 19th century, at the time of the American Civil War. The war took place between the North (the Union) and the South (Confederates). The war was about a number of things, but one of the key areas of disagreement was with regard to slavery – put simply, the South thought it acceptable, and had a whole economy based on it. Cotton (we’ll come back to that later), was a key product for the South, and slavery enabled many people to become very rich by running plantations with a workforce they didn’t have to pay, or really have any obligation to look after. If you’ve seen the film 12 years a slave, you’ll get the idea. The North, for a variety of reasons due to the nature of its economy, and beliefs, didn’t want slavery.

Now, if war affects a country its infrastructure and economy are hit in particular ways. A lot of energy goes into producing weapons, and training and looking after troops. Food is prioritised for soldiers. Normal life is disrupted, and shortages start. One of the ways the Union side disrupted life in the South was to blockade their ports and vastly restrict the export of cotton.

As our Economics students know, our contemporary economy is a web of trade that takes in all the world. The 19th century was like this, but on a much smaller scale, and Britain, at the heart the industrial revolution, was at the centre of this web of trade.

One of these webs of trade was around the cotton industry. As I’m sure you’re well aware, in Victorian times, the north west of England, was the world centre for producing cotton goods at this time. Whole towns were almost totally dependent on a single industry – cotton mills. The Civil War in America, and the blockading of cotton exports, had a drastic effect on these towns. No cotton, no work. No work, no money – there was no welfare state at that time, though some religious and co-operative groups did provide some basic relief.

In a situation like this, as you would expect, a number of cotton mill towns broadly supported the South in the civil war. You can see their reasoning. They needed cotton for their livelihoods, cotton needed plantations, plantations needed slavery; the threat of the abolition of slavery had an implication for their livelihoods.

There were exceptions to these responses. While other boroughs supported their own economic interests, workers in some towns in the north west, including Rochdale, supported the North, and the abolition of slavery. This was obviously against their immediate economic best interests, but they stood by their principles.

The American Civil War had therefore created a cotton famine in many parts of the north west of England.  In response to this, the Union sent food aid to Rochdale and other parts of the north west of England, to thank them for their support.

The picture above is the final surviving barrel of this food aid. The inscription says:

I am one of the thousands that were filled with flour and sent by the Free States of America in the ship George Griswold to the starving people of Lancashire whose miseries were caused by the aggressive and Civil War of the slave owners in 1862-3-4

And where will you find this barrel? About 200 metres away from the college, in the Touchstones Museum.

Our thanks go to the BBC and David Olusoga for letting us use this video clip.

Recent Boundary Changes

The Rooley Moor Neighbourhood Area is now in the Norden Ward

Following on from the recent boundary changes our local Councillors are:

The Norden Area Forum is a formal conduit for residents to seek information and raise concerns with Council.

Click HERE for more information about the Norden Area Forum, meeting details and dates.