JESSIE FOTHERGILL
LITTLEBOROUGH’S LITERARY LADY
Most people in Rochdale
associate the name Fothergill
with the famous group of
companies whose headquarters dominate the banks of the
Rochdale Canal between
Littleborough and Summit. Jessie Fothergill was the
daughter of Thomas Fothergill who, along with Alexander
Harvey, set up their firm in 1847. A blue plaque on the wall of
Sladen Wood Mill on Todmorden
Road commemorates this
literary lady. But who was she?
Jessie Fothergill was born in Manchester in 1851, before moving to Bowdon, a suburb of Altrincham. After her father's death in 1866, Jessie and her family moved to Littleborough where they lived at Sladen Wood House, Summit, overlooking both the canal and the western portal of the Summit Tunnel. This house was later the home of Gordon Harvey and his brother Ernst. Sadly, the house was demolished a long time ago. 28
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