The River Roch is a tributory of the River Irwell.  It rises on the moors south of Todmorden and flows through Littleborough on its way to Rochdale.  It enters the town centre in the vicinity of the new transport interchange where it flows below Smith Street.  For more than 100 years this was the last Rochdale residents saw of the river before it reappeared beyond the town hall beside the Esplanade.

The reason being that in the early 20th century space was needed for an expanding tram system in the town and it was deamed a good idea to link together a number of existing bridges over the river creating a culvert.  In all seven bridges were joined together to form what was claimed to be one of the widest bridges in the world.

Circa 2002 the centre of Rochdale looked as shown in the image below with an impressively wide roadway cutting through the centre.  Out of sight was the river making its way through its subterranean tunnel.

In 2015 the town embarked on a £4.9m project to once again open up the river.  The council scheme, backed by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Environment Agency, was part of an ongoing £250m town centre regeneration programme.  In the process a bridge built in the 14th century (see below) is once again visible.

In 2015 Rochdale town centre was innundated by flood water when the Roch broke its banks.  A multi million pound flood prevention project was put in place to reduce the chances of that happening again.  The project involved the construction of storage reservoirs but it was also considered that the exposure of the river as it passes through downtown would also help to prevent flooding.  Another by-product of the scheme has been the reappearance of wildlife including brown trout, bullhead fish, heron and kingfishers.  The image below confirms that.