[2] It flows south through its narrow valley through Shawforth, Facit, Whitworth and Broadley, and for about a kilometre it forms the boundary between both Rochdale and Rossendale districts and Greater Manchester and Lancashire counties.

"[8] Dr. Whitaker, a respected local historian, writing in the early 1800s, stated that "Spod or Spud, in some dialects of the Teutonic language, signifies a spear, and the term appears to have been applied to this stream, from the unbended straightness of its course, which terminates at its junction with the Roch.

"[9] The Spodden valley, and Spotland, was described in 1854 as "a district where the leaven of the old Saxon tongue, customs and character is less adulterated than in most other parts of Lancashire, as the naming of the Thrutch, below, indicates.

[10] The road alongside the river, northwards from Spotland Bridge, was, and remains, Spod Lane.

[15] At the Rochdale Waterworks Amendment Bill Enquiry, preceding the enactment of the Rochdale Waterworks Amendment Act 1847, evidence was given by mill owners adjoining the River Spodden that proposals for new reservoirs north of the river would affect the operation of their mills.

The railway line followed the course of the river from Lower Fold, more or less to near its source at Shawforth Moor, thence to Bacup via Britannia.

The initial building of the line to Facit was "of great service in conveying stone and coal from the quarries and mines in the Whitworth valley to their destination.

"[20] The railway line closed, and the track was taken up, in 1967; the viaduct remains with a footway and the Rochdale to Whitworth sewer pipe over it.

On the following day, hailstones on Rooley Moor were found, weighing as much as 12 oz (340 g); the hailstorm was so fierce that it broke skylights and windows in houses and weaving sheds.

[26] 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.

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.