From here, a thrutch traverse leads to a 12-metre deep second pitch, located in a constricted rift, broken halfway down by a second thrutch traverse.
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This was the world's first open ended grading system. In addition to climbing, Ewbank also established Australia's first rockclimbing magazine, Thrutch.
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This was dismantled in 1972 and the route is now hard to trace, although the tunnels can be seen in Thrutch Gorge or 'The Glen', a picturesque cutting to the east of the village.
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In 1826 the Haslingden and Todmorden trust built another new road along the valley bottom, from Stacksteads through Thrutch, Rawtenstall and Newhall Hey. By 1848 a number of woollen and cotton mills had been established along the river. And by the late 19th century it was the valley bottom that had become the population centre. In 1889, the short-lived Rossendale Valley Tramways Company was established to operate a route between Bacup and Crawshawbooth via Rawtenstall.
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Textile mills and chimneys and gritstone terraced houses are the dominant buildings and roads are concentrated in the narrow valley. The river has its source on Deerplay Moor in Cliviger near Burnley, heading south to Bacup, where it turns to the west past Stacksteads. The valley narrows at Thrutch, and the Irwell collects Whitewell Brook shortly afterwards at Waterfoot. It flows onward to Rawtenstall where it is met by Limy Water and then turns back to the south.
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As the Irwell valley is quite narrow the line had many engineering features in its 5-mile length, including 14 crossings of the River Irwell alone, plus many over and underbridges, embankments and cuttings, and tunnels at Thrutch Gorge (The Glen) in Waterfoot. Most of the bridges have been demolished or infilled in the years since closure. A foot and cycle path now follows much of the route including the 1/8 mile Newchurch No. 1 Tunnel and 1/4 mile Newchurch No 2 Tunnel. However, there are proposals to reopen the line as part of the Governments strategy to reopen old rail lines in the country which have been closed in the 1960s or later cuts under British Rail.
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"James Butterworth A History and Description of the Town and Parish of Rochdale(Rochdale, published by subscription) 1828, p190 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. "cited by James Butterworth, above, p190 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.The Victoria Pictorial History of the County of Lancaster (author not identified) (George Routledge, London) 1854, p166 The road alongside the river, northwards from Spotland Bridge, was, and remains, Spod Lane.
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