so fierce that it broke skylights and windows in houses and weaving sheds. At Moss Mill, Rochdale, the hail was said to have broken one thousand panes of glass. Fairies Chapel Another feature of the River Spodden is the Fairies Chapel. Passing through Healey Dell, the river flows through a narrow gorge, called the Thrutch, "thrutch being a Lancashire dialect word meaning to push, to press, and to crowd, derived from the Anglo-Saxon "thrycan". Within the gorge, the river waters had carved out a cave to the side of the river, and the rocks there had assumed strange shapes, described as "a pulpit, reading desk and seats", leading to the area being imagined, and described, as the Fairies Chapel. A woodcut of the Fairies Chapel, in 1854, is reproduced in the Victoria Pictorial History of Lancaster. William Robertson, a local historian writing in 1881, stated; "The credulity of the uneducated working class was something amazing...the chief topics at (holiday-time social) meetings was the doing of fairies, who were regarded as real human beings, whose chief business it was to thwart evil designs, and especially protect those whose good the fairies had at heart." The Fairies Chapel was under the control of the Fairy Queen, who was regarded as having the gift of prophecy. Her most famous prophecy was given to Lady Eleanor Byron, a relative of the poet Lord Byron, when her marriage and widowhood on the same wedding day was foretold. Some parts of the Fairies Chapel were destroyed by the July Flood, 1838. (See above) Healey Dell Nature Reserve The River Spodden forms the centrepoint of the Healey Dell Nature Reserve. In addition to the river, with the Fairies Chapel, above, the nature reserve contains many species of wild flowers and grasses, with brightly coloured fungi, such as Wax Caps, visible in autumn. From the height of the viaduct footway, migrant birds such as swifts and martins, by day and bats, in the evening, may be seen in summer. Tributaries Red Brook Shawclough Brook Caldershaw Brook Smallshaw Brook Dunishbooth Brook Prickshaw Brook Fern Isle Brook Tong End Brook Cowm Brook Walstead Brook Hud Brook Knowsley Brook Red Shore Brook See also River Roch Spodden Valley asbestos controversy External sources Healey Dell Nature Reserve website Healey Dell Heritage Centre & Tea Rooms website "Visit Rochdale" website - Healey Dell page Gallery References Spodden, River Spodden, River Spodden 1Spodden