| Official Name: | Rhodes |
| Country: | England |
| Region: | North West England |
| Coordinates: | 53.5447°N -2.2269°W |
| Metropolitan Borough: | Rochdale |
| Metropolitan County: | Greater Manchester |
| Hide Services: | Yes |
| Population: | 2917 |
| Population Ref: | (2018 estimate) |
| Area Total Km2: | 0.552 |
| Static Image: | All Saints Church, Rhodes, Greater Manchester.jpg |
Rhodes is a suburb of the town of Middleton,[1] in the Rochdale district of Greater Manchester, England. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 2917.[2]
Rhodes has a church called All Saints[3] on Manchester Old Road,[4] a primary school called Little Heaton Church of England Primary School on Boardman Lane[5] and a hotel called the Comfort Inn Manchester North on Manchester Old Road.[6] Rhodes formerly had a Primitive Methodist church on Chapel Street.[7]
Rhodes was a chapelry in Middleton parish.[8] From the late 1700s it became the site of a bleaching and calico printing works established by Daniel Burton (1744-1812) in conjunction with his cotton mill nearby in the centre of Middleton.[9] The works passed into the hands of Salis Schwabe (1800-1853) in December 1832, who built up what according to the ODNB was "the largest calico-printing complex in Britain, covering an area of 31 acres, famously boasting the tallest factory chimney in the industrial north (some said in Europe), and employing a labour force of more than 750."[10] [11] [12] The chimney, nicknamed the "Colossus of Rhodes",[13] was ultimately demolished brick by brick between 1979 and 1982, and the land around it redeveloped for housing.[14]