Autumn 2023“It’s right on your doorstep and it deserves to be romanticised.”

Tom McNeeney’s love letter to Healey Dell

Walking though Healey Dell in lockdown was like being in a restaurant that had just opened. For a month or two it was the place to be, just absolutely packed with couples and families all taking pictures and talking (from a respectable distance, naturally) about just how lucky we are to have it on our doorstep.

Regardless of anyone’s views, one great thing that came out of lockdown was this realisation that you’d struggle to walk ten minutes from almost anywhere in Rochdale and not fall over somewhere green; we really are lucky to have all these spaces on our doorstep.

From Queen’s Park to Ashworth Valley, we all really got a newfound appreciation for these dreamy, leafy spaces and the Dell seemed to be the one everyone flocked to the most.

Since then, a huge amount of people seem pretty happy to forget how lucky they felt in that weird time; these spaces that felt like such a lifeline not so long ago feel strangely empty again, which is understandable really because there’s loads of other stuff to do now.

That being said – for a few bizarre months – this place that’s always been so special to me was just as important to so many other people, and I’m thrilled I was there to see that.

I went to nursery in Healey Dell, I go for the odd brew in the tea rooms and adore how lovingly they’ve been expanded and cared for, all my terrible Couch to 5k attempts have been though the Dell. It would be impossible for me to continue my love letters to Rochdale without here being double underlined.

I couldn’t count the times I’ve walked the seven different routes that run through it: the one that takes you right under all 32 dizzying meters of Victorian viaduct, the one that takes you up to Station Road right past the incredible waterfalls (complete with scenic photography area), or the one that has somewhere to stop for a beer by the river next to an art gallery… It’s all very cosmopolitan for a nature reserve.

As for the valley itself, it’s steeped in history on top of history – with more history on top for good measure. I don’t have the space to tell you all of it (or the talent to do its story justice), but there’s a good amount of literature on boards all around the Dell covering its history, folklore and wildlife, put together by a team who really know what they’re talking about.

Again, I could do some serious research to tell you all about the munitions factory in the Dell and the part it played in the war. I could talk about the fairy bridges, the waterfalls, how a steam train used to go over the viaduct in the most Harry Potter fashion imaginable but that’s all a Google search away if you really want to know.

What you can’t Google is how it feels to have a good slow wander through somewhere like that when the seasons are changing, countless different shades of oranges and yellows taking over the greens of summer, something about it makes this shift towards the colder months that much more bearable.

There isn’t a search engine on Earth that can tell you how stopping on a walk over the viaduct and taking a deep breath of October air on a clear day is going to make you feel; you really do need to just go try it out.

I have this one really distinctive memory from when I was little, when we used to live above a pub in Shawclough. It was one of those multicoloured October days we’ll soon be in the thick of: we’d been wrapped up to head out into the Dell, looking, I can only assume, adorable. And off we toddled with my dad to go pick brambles on an autumn day.

We came home with armfuls of conkers, and we all made bramble jam like we were a family in a yogurt advert; it was all deliriously wholesome and it’s one of those moments in life that’ll just stick with me. The beautiful thing is, you can still go do all of that and I can’t stress enough how much you really should.

Recently I’ve found, autumn has become really Americanfeeling. We obsess over pumpkin spiced lattes, photo opportunity pumpkin patches and forever making Halloween bigger and bigger, but there is an alternative right on your doorstep, and it deserves to be just as romanticised when it comes to getting excited about the nights drawing in.

My advice? Pull on your wellies and take a long walk through the dell, play Poohsticks, stop for a cup of tea, kick leaves and head home with at least one decent conker in your pocket. Trust me, you’ll feel better for it, because even though times have changed, we’re all still really lucky to have this out there waiting for us.