History
The Etherow valley was an important trans-Pennine route, and in AD78 the Romans under Agricola built the fort of Ardotalia (later known as Melandra or Melandra Castle) to defend it. The Mercians settled at Hollingworth about 650AD. Many placenames of the area date from this period; for example, Mottram and Glossop. By 1086 the river was firmly established as the boundary between Cheshire and Derbyshire.
A packhorse route (known as a saltway) was maintained from the Middle Ages onwards to allow the export of salt from the Cheshire towns of Nantwich, Northwich and Middlewich across the Pennines. The saltway followed the Etherow to Ladyshaw, and at Salters Brook (SK137999) it forked, with one route leading to Wakefield and another to Barnsley.
Water was an important source of power for industry, and the Etherow and its tributaries were fast flowing and constant. Watermills were used to grind meal and to full woollen cloth (Littlemoor 1781). Wool was transported along the turnpike road (1731) that ran from Ashton-under-Lyne, Stalybridge, Mottram, Woodhead and Lady's Cross to Sheffield, to be woven on hand-looms in the dale.
From 1782 to 1820, water-powered cotton mills were built along many brooks feeding the Etherow, including six on the Glossop side of the river. With the adoption of steam to power the ever-larger mills, built closer to the coal fields, the river assumed a new role as a source of water for Manchester and Salford. In 1844 John Frederick Bateman advised Manchester Corporation that the River Etherow, which rose at the highest point of the Pennine chain, could provide water, collected in purpose-built reservoirs, "nearly as pure as if it comes from the heavens." This led to the construction of the Longdendale Chain of reservoirs, the first scheme of its type in the world. Three reservoirs were built on the Etherow to impound drinking water, with another two to provide compensation water for the mills downstream.
Read more about this topic: River Etherow
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