Picturesque Greenbooth and the Submerged Village, Norden, Rochdale

The old village of Green Booth now lies deep beneath the waters of the Greenbooth reservoir, Norden.
A weaving mill was built at Green Booth during the 1840s, on or near the site of a former corn mill that was probably erected during the 18th century. The new mill was owned by James Butterworth of Norden, and specialised in the production of woollen flannel.

Butterworth created a village around his mill for the workers to live in, including two rows of terraced housing as well as some bigger homes for the managers. Rent was deducted straight out of wages, as was the cost of delivering milk to each house. There was a shop and school in the village.

In 1911 the mill, which by then was managed by Butterworth’s grandsons, went bankrupt. There were about 80 homes in the village at the time, but with the major source of employment gone the locals began to move away to find work elsewhere. Greenbooth village struggled on but the school closed in 1930, after which time the remaining children had to walk to Norden for school. The village apparently never received electricity.

The death knell for the village came in the 1950s when the Water Board proposed the construction of a new reservoir there. High cliffs were carved into the valley and trees were torn down during construction of the reservoir, which cost in excess of £2 million and providing some 700,000,000 gallons of water to Heywood.
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