The Baron Street drill hall is a former military installation in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

, England.

History

The building was designed as the headquarters of the 12th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers in around 1865. This unit evolved to become the 2nd Volunteer Battalion the

Lancashire Fusiliers The Lancashire Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that saw distinguished service through many years and wars, including the Second Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, and had many different titles throughout its 28 ...

in 1883 and the 6th Battalion, the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1908. The battalion was mobilised at the drill hall in August 1914 before being deployed to Gallipoli and ultimately to the Western Front. The drill hall continued to be used by the battalion until the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and, although the 6th Battalion was disbanded after the war, elements of the 5th (Volunteer) Battalion continued to use it until the 1980s when it was decommissioned and sold for industrial use.

References

{{Authority control Drill halls in England Buildings and structures in Rochdale