SPOTLAND, a township and a chapelry in Rochdale parish, Lancashire. The township is partly within Rochdale borough; comprises parts of the valleys of the Roach, the Spodden, the Nadin, and the Irwell; is cut into three divisions,-S.-Nearer-Side, containing 2 hamlets,-S.-Further-Side, containing 6 hamlets,-and Whitworth, containing 4 hamlets; exhibits much picturesque scenery; carries on coal mining, slate and freestone quarrying, and extensive cotton, baize, and flannel manufacture; and has several post-offices under Rochdale, a literary institution, two churches, five dissenting chapels, the Rochdale workhouse, and some charities. Acres, 4,518. Real property, £118,074; of which £18,099 are in mines, £2,501 in quarries, and £93 in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 23,476; in 1861, 30,378. Houses, 5,994. The chief villages are Whitworth, Bridge-Mill, Shawforth, Facit, Bagslate, Blackpits, and Shawclough; and the old-seats are Oakenrod, Chadwick, Greave, and Wolstenholm,- the last now a farmhouse.—The chapelry comprises the tract around Spotland-Bridge; was constituted in 1844, and curtailed prior to 1868; and has a post-office, of the name of S.-Bridge, under Rochdale. Pop. in 1861, within the original limits, 11,016; within the curtailed limits, 8,354. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Manchester. Value, £500.* Patron, the Vicar of Rochdale. The church is ancient.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))