Birtle is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

within the

Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England. It is named after its largest town, Rochdale, The borough covers other outlying towns and villages with a population of 206,500 at the ...

, in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, England. It lies in the

Cheesden Valley The Cheesden Valley is a valley in the Heywood area of Greater Manchester, England. It runs on a north–south alignment between Bury and Rochdale in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Cheesden Brook runs through the valley, joining with Naden ...

, set amongst the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Commo ...

Historically History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

a part of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, Birtle is archaically referred to as

Bircle The historic parish of Bircle, near Bury, England, was created on 1 July 1846, although the village of Bircle (nowadays known as Birtle) pre-dates this by many centuries. It is believed that 'Bircle' is a shortening of the phrase 'Birch Hill ...

or Birkle which means Birch Hill. Together with neighbouring

Bamford Bamford is a village in the Peak District, Derbyshire, England, close to the River Derwent. To the north-east is Bamford Edge, and to the north-west the Ladybower, Derwent and Howden Reservoirs. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 1,241 ...

, it formed the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

of Birtle-with-Bamford (also known as Birtle-cum-Bamford). It was in Middleton ecclesiastical parish and in Bury poor law Union. In 1933, Birtle-with-Bamford was dissolved with Birtle being amalgamated into the

Municipal Borough of Heywood The Municipal Borough of Heywood was, from 1881 to 1974, a local government district in the Administrative counties of England, administrative county of Lancashire, England, with municipal borough, borough status and coterminate with the town of ...

. The local church is Bircle Church, St. John the Baptist, Castle Hill Road,

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

. In addition to the graveyard and garden of remembrance, the Church land includes an area now known as ‘Bircle Church Wood’, which was gifted by the Reverend Trend Smith.

References

Villages in Greater Manchester Heywood, Greater Manchester {{GreaterManchester-geo-stub