The Edwin Waugh - Rochdale

A party of 4 of us had lunch here on 21st June. The service was excellent lovely staff, the food was also excellent and well worth it, we had the special menu fish and chips couldn't fault anything the best about our experience was how pleasant and helpful all the staff were. We will be returning again and recommend to others,

Good honest food with cheap prices, what is not to like. the atmosphere in this spoons is a little lively but it's all good.

Before we went on holiday in June with friends we called in here to have our breakfast. The breakfast was wonderful with the price to match. Will definitely call again for food.

Great prices, friendly staff, children welcome, always a good atmosphere. Management and staff professional.

It's not the most obvious destination so not surprisingly very little traffic was heading our way to Heywood, Lancashire, for a lunch break in this Wetherspoon before continuing to Rochdale for the football match between them and Blackpool. I doubt if very few people have even heard of Heywood but after research by my wife it turns out once upon a time following the introduction of a spinning mill in the 18th century the rural economy became factory driven and by 1833 there were 27 cotton mills. This growth of industrialisation brought an influx of people to the town causing dense population so much so that Rochdale poet, Edwin Waugh was able to describe Heywood as ‘almost entirely the creation of the cotton industry’. In 1881 there were 67 cotton mills, 67 machine works, plus other related work shops. Needless to say, in the early 20th century the mills began to close and now most are gone, one being converted into apartments and a few are listed buildings. Our Wetherspoon pub was called The Edwin Waugh after the poet and as usual the history of the pub is on its walls and tells us that in 1851 an iron foundry stood on the site, in the 1890s it was a cab and carriage business, then at the turn of the century it was private houses and in the 1930s the houses were replaced by an Art Deco building as it became a branch of the Woolworth’s chain. And now Woolworths has gone and many of the pubs near Wetherspoons are boarded up and looking sorry for themselves demonstrating that all things come and go with the passage of time.