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NORTH
RAMSDEN FARM
WALSDEN
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This area of Walsden is on
the western side of the valley and today is accessed via Ramsden
Wood Road, which takes you up the narrow clough, past the old mills
of Ramsden and Spring Bottoms, and upwards to Ramsden North Farms.
They stand on a track, which in days gone by was the main route
leading from the many farms on Inchfield Moor down to the valley
bottom at Bottoms in Walsden. The view to the rear of the farms
looks out over Inchfield. |
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| There
were two adjoining farmhouses on the site, both known as
North Ramsden. By
the 1760's, the farm was held by Samuel Holden and then by his son
James. James was still farming North Ramsden in 1841 at the age
of 70 with his second wife, Ann. |
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After
the death of old James Holden, this part of the farm was taken on
by Thomas Wood, and later by his son John.
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Before
1820, James Crossley moved across the valley from Bottomley to Ramsden
North with his wife Sally and five children. His sixth and last
child, Jimmy, was born at Ramsden on 6th February 1820. James died
four years later and his widow married Robert Newell. Together they
took over this part of the farm. They are there in 1841 along with
James Holden. |
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Following the death
of his mother, Jimmy Crossley took over the farm. Jimmy supplemented
his farming income with weaving. He and his wife, Mary Crowther,
had 11 children although six of these died in infancy. In 1871,
James and Mary buried three children within four days of each other,
two of them on the same day. It is likely this was from smallpox
as there was an epidemic at the time. |
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The Woods and the Crossleys
were together at Ramsden North for over 40 years. John Wood retired
and moved down to Staff Row at Bottoms. Jimmy died at Ramsden a
few days after the 1891 census was taken. |
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A
more recent resident of North Ramsden was Leonard Greenwood. Len
was a well-known personality in and around Walsden. He and his sheep
dog, Sweep, made the headlines in the Rochdale Observer about 1975:
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One
Man and his Dog.
The trust between a man and his dog was never more apparent than
at Littleborough Cricket Ground on Monday when the 6th annual
sheep dog trials were held in wet and windy conditions. Pictured
are Mr Len Greenwood of Ramsden Farm Walsden and his 3-year-old
dog Sweep, which appeared in the television serial Joe and the
Sheep Rustlers.
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Len also appeared on Esther
Rantzen's "That's Life" television programme with a comical story
about him having some special teeth made so he could whistle his
dog during the sheep dog trials. He died in 1978 aged 84. |
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| Today,
there are four separate cottages at North Ramsden. The first one
you arrive at has a date stone showing it was re-built by JE 1897.
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NORTH
RAMSDEN LINKS
NORTH
RAMSDEN CENSUS TRANSCRIPTION 1841 TO 1901
I
am indebted to Richard Holt for the photograph and information about
his great grandfather Leonard Greenwood.
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