The
River Irk is a
river in
Greater Manchester in
North West England that flows through the northern suburbs of
Manchester before merging with the
River Irwell in
Manchester City Centre.
Rising to the east of Royton, north of Oldham and running west past Chadderton (where it passes under the Rochdale Canal) and Middleton, its course has been extensively altered as the Industrial Revolution took its toll on the region's landscape; the Irk has been labelled 'the lost river of Manchester'.[citation needed]
Historically, the Irk has also been known as the Iwrck or the Irke, names thought to have been derived from the Roebuck, suggesting that the Irk was at one time a swift-running river.[1] According to The New Gazetteer of Lancashire (1830) the Irk had more mill seats upon it than any other stream of its length in the Kingdom." and that "the eels in this river were formerly remarkable for their fatness, which was attributed to the grease and oils expressed by the mills from the woollen cloths and mixed with the waters."[2] However, by the start of the 20th century the Irk Valley between Crumpsall and Blackley had been left a neglected river, "not only the blackest but the most sluggish of all rivers". Recently a project has been set up to rejuvenate the river and remove the pollution.
The Marxist writer Engels vividly describes the banks of the Irk in Manchester at the height of the city's industrial excess
