Borough of Rochdale is 40 years old

Coat of arms of Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council

The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale was formed on 1 April 1974, as part of the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, by a merger of the former county borough of Rochdale and, from the administrative county of Lancashire, the municipal boroughs of Heywood and Middleton, along with the urban districts of Littleborough, Milnrow and Wardle.

It was originally proposed that the borough include the neighbouring town of Bury and disclude Middleton; Bury however went on to form the administrative centre for the adjacent Metropolitan Borough of Bury.

In his book 'Greater Manchester Votes: A Guide to the New Metropolitan Authorities', David M Clark says, prior to its creation, it was suggested that the metropolitan borough be named Chadwick (with reference to social reformer Sir Edwin Chadwick), but this was rejected in favour of Rochdale.

It is fair to say that 40 years on there is still strong resistance in Heywood, Middleton and Littleborough to being part of Rochdale.

At the same time, the towns and districts that make up the Borough of Rochdale also ceased to be in Lancashire when, also on 1 April 1974, the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester was created comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the cities of Manchester and Salford.

Greater Manchester is an amalgamation of 70 former local government districts from the former administrative counties of Lancashire, Cheshire, the West Riding of Yorkshire and eight independent county boroughs.

For the 12 years following 1974 the county had a two-tier system of local government; district councils shared power with the Greater Manchester County Council. The county council was abolished in 1986, and so its districts (the metropolitan boroughs) effectively became unitary authority areas.

Before the creation of the metropolitan county, the name SELNEC was used for the area, taken from the initials of 'South East Lancashire North East Cheshire'.