Roads St Chad, Rochdale, Lancashire, England

[Cathryn Cavaney]

Has anyone come across a town called Roads?   I can find no trace of it.   Is it just a mistake on teh transcript?

Cheers

[rolnora]

Hi Cathryn,

Can you tell us where you found the transcription?

[Cathryn Cavaney]

On Lancashire opc:  http://lan-opc.org.uk/

Robert Scholfield son of Robt. Scholfield  ( a weaver of Roads) & Martha, his wife bapt 26 Apr 1778 St Chad, Rochdale, Lancashire

[Cathryn Cavaney]

Also found this one:

Robt. Scholfield son of Jno. Scholfield (Weaver of Roadsforth) & Alice, his wife bap 23 Apr 1753 St Chad, Rochdale, Lancashire

But can't find Roadsforth anywhere.

[rosie99]

You would need to find some old maps.  Roads / Roadsforth is probably just a very small area in Rochdale as opposed to another town.  Towns and villages at this time often did not have street names for every area.  If you look at other entries around that time on St Chads registers their abodes were places such as Church Stile - Newbuilding - Wheelpit - Horsecroft

Rosie

[ele002]

There is a Rhodes just to the west of Middleton.

[Barbara.H]

Hi Cathryn,

I think I may have helped with transcribing Rochdale St Chads early records such as this one.
As I recall, there were many spelling variants of surnames  and placenames, which was normal in those days before spelling was more standardised.
There are more baptisms (on Lancs OPC) for children of Robert and Martha Scholfield at St Chads, that give their abode as Spotland Fold. 
There is a photo here of the 'Royds Arms' pub in Spotland Fold, so 'Royds' may be another variation of Roads. Just something to consider maybe.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1734332

  Barbara

[ele002]

Does seem a bit more likely than Rhodes, Middleton.

At the time, I did think Rhodes seemed a bit far for a Rochdale Baptism.

But don't discount it!

[lancsann]

If you google Roadsforth there are several references to it in St Chad's registers so maybe Roads was just an abbreviation