A photographic journey through our local history, heritage and landscape

Sometimes the places closest to us are the places we notice the least. We drive past the same buildings, cross the same bridges and walk the same paths so often that they simply become part of the background. But pick up a camera and deliberately go looking for photographs, and suddenly you begin to notice things differently.

That was the idea behind Castleton in Pictures.

As a local photographer, I wanted to start creating a photographic record of Castleton — not just the obvious landmarks, but the buildings, waterways, pubs, churches and little pieces of history that give the area its character.

Some are photographs of Castleton as it looks today. Others I've used to create more atmospheric interpretations, showing familiar scenes in winter, at golden hour or in a way that hopefully makes us look at somewhere familiar with fresh eyes.

This is very much a work in progress, and I'll be adding more photographs and locations over time.

Rochdale Canal

Blue narrowboat moored on a calm canal at golden sunset, reflecting in still water surrounded by lush green trees.

The Rochdale Canal is one of the threads that ties much of Castleton's history together. Long before it became somewhere to walk, cycle, fish or simply enjoy the scenery, the canal was an important transport artery serving the industries of Rochdale and the surrounding towns.

The canal passes directly through Castleton and then continues towards Slattocks, where it encounters the impressive Laneside or Slattocks flight of six locks, beginning at Lock 54.

It's also one of my favourite parts of Castleton to photograph. Water gives you reflections, leading lines and changing light; the bridges and locks provide structure, while the trees and vegetation mean the same photograph can look completely different depending upon the season.

Golden sunset reflects on a calm canal beside lush green trees and a historic brick building along a scenic towpath.

Golden hour

Golden hour can completely transform the canal. The warm light catches the brickwork and stone while the water reflects the colours in the sky.

Narrowboats moored along a serene canal at golden sunset, reflecting warm light on calm water surrounded by lush green trees.

Winter scene

Then winter changes it again. Snow simplifies the landscape and brings out shapes and structures that can almost disappear amongst the greenery during summer.

Snow-covered cottage at sunset with glowing orange sky, smoke rising from chimney, and frost-laden stone walls in winter.

March Barn Bridge

This is one of those structures that you could quite easily walk past without realising its importance.

Stone arch bridge over calm canal surrounded by vibrant autumn foliage in shades of red, orange, and gold.

March Barn Bridge crosses the Rochdale Canal near Castleton and may initially appear to be simply another old stone canal bridge.

But there is something rather special about it.

March Barn Bridge is regarded as the first properly constructed skew bridge in the country, its winding courses of stone allowing the arch to cross the canal at an angle rather than at 90 degrees. It's a lovely example of how something of genuine engineering significance can be sitting almost unnoticed on our doorstep.

It's exactly the type of location I want Castleton in Pictures to document, places that are familiar to local people, but whose stories aren't always as familiar.

Arrow Mill

Few buildings represent Castleton's industrial past quite like Arrow Mill.

This enormous red-brick spinning mill was designed by renowned mill architect Sir Philip Sidney Stott. Work began after the building contract was signed in late 1906, the first brick was laid in January 1907 and cotton was being spun by March 1908. At five storeys high and approximately 44 bays long, the scale of the building gives some idea of just how important textile manufacturing once was to communities like Castleton.

The mill was acquired by Courtaulds in 1933 and became involved in the development and spinning of artificial fibres. Spinning finally ceased in 1999, by which time Arrow Mill was one of the last mills in Rochdale still carrying out spinning work. It had been granted Grade II listed status three years earlier, in 1996.

St Martin's Church, Castleton

Standing prominently alongside Manchester Road is St Martin's Church, Castleton Moor. The church dates from the nineteenth century, with construction taking place between 1858 and 1862 to designs by Manchester architect Ernest Bates. Contemporary descriptions planned a church in the Decorated Gothic style with nave, aisles, transepts, chancel and a tower and spire rising to around 110 feet.

Snow-covered church with gothic spire and graveyard under dramatic sunset sky in winter.

St Martin's has stood on the site since 1862. By the late 1980s, however, dry rot had caused serious problems and the building was declared unsafe. With assistance from English Heritage funding, the church was repaired and extensively reordered. The work created upper and lower halls while retaining a smaller worship space, and the restored building was rededicated by the Bishop of Manchester in July 2003. Today it remains both a place of worship and an important community building.

St John the Evangelist, Thornham

Continue towards Slattocks and the landscape begins to change, becoming greener and more rural. Amongst that landscape sits St John the Evangelist, Thornham.

Historic stone church with clock tower at golden sunset, flanked by lush green trees and vibrant pink flowering shrubs.

Its setting makes it particularly interesting photographically. Surrounded by mature trees and open land, the appearance of the church changes dramatically throughout the year.

The church forms part of the historic development of the communities around Thornham and Slattocks, and its architecture and more rural setting provide quite a contrast to St Martin's and St Aidan's.

For me, that's one of the pleasures of photographing the three churches together. They each tell a different part of the story of the communities that grew along the route between Rochdale, Castleton and Middleton.

St Aidan's Church, Sudden

At the Rochdale end of Castleton, on Manchester Road in Sudden, stands the impressive St Aidan's Church.

Historic stone church at golden sunset with bare trees casting long shadows across a frost-kissed churchyard path.

Its origins go back further than the present building. A Sunday school was established in Sudden in 1876, followed by St Alban's Mission Room in 1883 and a St Aidan's Mission Church in 1897.

The present church was designed by the distinguished church architect Temple Moore. Its foundation stone was laid on 18 October 1913 and the church was consecrated by the Bishop of Manchester on 24 March 1915, while the First World War was already underway.

The tower was completed in 1931 as a tribute to Hartley Harrison, the first Vicar of St Aidan's.

Another particularly poignant feature arrived after the Second World War. The East Window, designed by Harry Grylls, was consecrated in 1946 as a memorial to members of the parish who had lost their lives in the two World Wars.

St Aidan's is now a Grade II listed building. It's a magnificent building and one that I think deserves to be photographed as part of this project..

Castleton and Blue Pits

There's also an interesting story behind a name that many local people will immediately recognise: Blue Pits. When the Rochdale Canal was built, the settlement here was known as Blue Pits, taking its name from the blue clay that was dug in the area.

As the village grew it was renamed Castleton in 1875, after nearby Castleton Moor. The name didn't disappear, though. More than 150 years later, Blue Pits remains firmly embedded in the local vocabulary, including, of course, the name of one of Castleton's best-known pubs.

The Blue Pits Inn

Pubs are an important part of this project too. It would be easy to make a local-history photography project entirely about churches, bridges and listed buildings, but that wouldn't really tell the whole story of a place. For generations, pubs have been part of the social fabric of communities like Castleton, places to meet friends, celebrate, play darts or dominoes, watch sport and catch up with neighbours.

The Blue Pits Inn also carries that historic local name forward into the present day. These are the sorts of photographs that may actually become more interesting as time passes.

A photograph of an ordinary local pub might not seem particularly historic today. Give it another 30, 50 or 100 years and it could tell future generations an enormous amount about how Castleton once looked.

The Commercial

Another familiar Castleton pub is The Commercial. Again, I've included it because Castleton in Pictures isn't intended to be simply a collection of grand architecture. I want it to document the places local people recognise.

The buildings we pass on our way to work, the pubs we've met friends in, the shops we've used and the streets we've walked are every bit as much a part of Castleton's story as its grander landmarks. Sometimes photography can make you look twice at a building you've passed hundreds of times.

The Top House

The third pub I've included so far is The Top House. Together, photographs of the Top House, Commercial and Blue Pits help record another side of Castleton, its social rather than industrial or ecclesiastical history. That's something I'd like to expand upon as this project develops. There are undoubtedly other buildings and former pubs that deserve to become part of the collection.

Abandoned corner building at sunset with dramatic orange sky in an urban street setting.

Towards Slattocks

Follow the canal south from Castleton and eventually you reach Slattocks and the beginning of one of my favourite stretches of the Rochdale Canal. Lock 54 is the top of the Slattocks, or Laneside, flight of six locks. From there the canal descends through Locks 55 to 59 before continuing towards Middleton. For photography, it provides almost everything: old stonework, lock gates, water, bridges, trees, cottages and long views along the canal.

Narrowboats moored along a serene English canal at golden sunset, reflecting warm light on calm waters surrounded by lush trees.

The Lock Keeper's Cottage

The Lock Keeper's Cottage is another reminder that this peaceful stretch of canal was once a busy working environment. Lock keepers were an important part of canal life, overseeing locks and helping to keep boats and goods moving through the system.

Snow-covered cottage at sunset with glowing orange sky, smoke rising from chimney, and frost-laden trees in a winter landscape.

Today, buildings like this provide a physical connection with that working past. It's also a wonderful photographic subject, particularly in winter. A little snow, smoke from the chimney and warm late-afternoon light can make it feel as though you've stepped into another period altogether.

The Ship Inn, Slattocks

Close to Lock 55 stands another familiar landmark - The Ship Inn. Its position immediately beside the canal makes the pub part of the character of this stretch of the Rochdale Canal; historical canal guides still identify the Ship Inn when describing Lock 55 at Slattocks. .

The Ship pub exterior at sunset with warm orange sky, white building facade, green signage, and hanging flower baskets.

It's another building that connects the canal with the communities that developed around it. And, photographically, its traditional frontage and position close to the locks make it a natural addition to this collection.

Castleton Through the Seasons

One of the things I'm particularly interested in exploring with this project is how dramatically our surroundings change through the seasons. This is the Castleton we recognise in summer: green, colourful and full of life.

Sunlit stone canal bridge surrounded by lush green trees and a towpath at golden hour.

Then autumn arrives and the same scene is transformed by reds, oranges and browns.

Terraced brick houses at sunset with vibrant orange sky in a UK street scene.

And finally winter strips everything back. Snow can transform somewhere you've photographed many times before into an entirely new picture. That's one reason I don't think this project will ever really be "finished".

Snow-covered frozen canal flanked by bare winter trees and brick buildings under a dramatic cloudy sky.

What's Next?

I'll continue adding photographs as I find new locations, revisit familiar ones in different seasons and learn more about the history behind the places I'm photographing, but I'd also like to take the project a little further. As a professional photographer, one of the things I enjoy is helping other people get more from their cameras. So I'm considering organising an informal Photography Walk.

Nothing too serious. No need for expensive equipment and certainly no requirement to be an experienced photographer.

Bring a DSLR, mirrorless camera, compact camera or simply your phone. We'll go for a walk, take photographs and you can pick my brains about photography along the way.

Want to understand manual mode? Ask me.

Not sure why your photographs aren't as sharp as you'd like? Ask me.

Want advice about composition, lenses, shutter speed, aperture or ISO? Ask away.

Or simply come along because you enjoy taking photographs.

Castleton to Tandle Hill?

One route I'm considering would start in Castleton and eventually take us towards Tandle Hill.

We could photograph interesting subjects along the route, talk photography as we go and finish with the landscape and woodland around Tandle Hill Country Park.

And there's another reason I'd particularly like to do that walk. It could become the next chapter of this project:

Tandle Hill in Pictures

A new photographic blog documenting the landscape, history and character of another wonderful place right on our doorstep.

If you'd be interested in joining me on a photography walk, let me know..

Brick terraced houses at sunset with dramatic orange sky in a UK street scene.

And finally… what have I missed?

This collection will continue to grow. There are buildings I've not photographed yet, bits of history I've still to discover and undoubtedly places that local residents know far better than I do.

So I'd like your help.

What should I photograph next?

Is there an old building with an interesting story?

A hidden part of the canal?

A street that has barely changed in generations?

A former pub, mill or shop?

Or simply a view that, to you, says "Castleton"?

Let me know.

One of the wonderful things about photography is that an ordinary photograph taken today can eventually become an extraordinary piece of history.

Dave Jones

Go360 Events | Photography

Castleton in Pictures