Spring 2020Fairies Chapel & Witches at Healey Dell

Well-known for its nature and beautiful surroundings, Healey Dell’s almost mystical setting carries its own rich folklore and legends.

Visiting its hidden nooks and secret niches, it is not hard to envisage how the area lent itself to stories of magic and supernatural mischief, involving fairies, dwarves, witches, elves and evil spirits. 

Perhaps the best known of these is the ‘Fairies’ Chapel’, once clearly visible in the ‘Thrutch’, a narrow gorge in the heart of the Dell, until it was submerged by a great flood in the summer of 1838. It was said to contain a pulpit, reading desk and seats, carved from the rock by the relentless force of rushing water. The old Spodden Bridge and many of the surrounding mills and other structures were destroyed or damaged in the flood, and the ‘chapel’ disappeared into a fissure of the rock.

In one version, the ‘chapel’ was created as a place of banishment for witches and evil spirits by the King of the Fairies. He had freed Robin Hood, who in earlier versions of his story originates in western Yorkshire, of their bewitchment. On the King’s advice, Robin dropped a magical ring into the witches’ cauldron from a tree on a cliff above the gorge. The cauldron exploded in a thousand pieces with a clap of thunder.

Another legend concerns Lady Eleanor Byron, an ancestor of the poet Lord Byron, during the reign of Edward IV (1461-1483). A local fortune-teller and communer with the Fairy Queen, Mother Bagden, whose son owned the ‘Owd Mill i’ th’ Thrutch’, had predicted Lady Eleanor would become a bride and a widow on the same day. Indeed she did. Her groom, Oliver Chadwick, was killed in a feud with the rivalling Trafford family on his wedding night.

Dating back much further is the legend of the ‘Healey Dwarf’, a small stone sentinel in the middle of the river. He cavorted with the fairies there and told them he never wanted to leave, so there he still stands. The dwarf was said to be the size of a small child with a huge ginger beard, always dressed in green and brown checked trousers and a white shirt rolled up at the sleeves.

If you want to find fairies in the Dell, one good way is to imagine the many small creatures that live there as carrying their spirits, such as the bright blue kingfisher or the grey wagtail.

The Healey Dell Heritage Centre & Tea Rooms at Dell Road, Rochdale OL12 6BG is open on Thursday to Sunday and is a good starting point. Here you will find maps and further information on the Fairies’ Chapel and other interesting points.

Thanks to David Lowe for his contribution to this article.