Speculation was rife among dog walkers and ramblers as to the plotline when Coronation Street took over an oasis just off the M60 for two consecutive nights. Springwater Park in Whitefield is where the Rivers Irwell and Roch merge and is haven for wildlife.
Deer silently move through its woods, dippers and grey wagtails bob on river rocks, birds of prey hover, above rough grass waiting to pounce.
But the location where nature has taken over a sprawling former bleachworks, in the shape of woodland, small ponds, and a thriving river, is to be known to millions of TV viewers. For two nights this week it was used for the filming of scenes in Corrie.
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The main access road to the park was closed as actors and crew moved in and a huge spotlight was set up in a builders yard overlooking the spot. Rumours spread that the script for the the park included the disposal of a body in the river.
But the scenes, which will be screened in January, will be tense but will not end in tragedy. The episode centres around Roy Cropper and his niece Nina Lucas, played by David Neilson and Mollie Gallagher. The pair go batwatching but the night-time expedition takes a dramatic twist which involves the Irwell, according to a Corrie insider.
During the filming a lighting rig shone so brightly it could be seen from Radcliffe New Road and illuminated all of Cromwell Road. One local resident said: "We do get bats in Springwater Park, so its an ideal location."
Roy Cropper, played by award-winning actor David Neilson, has been a fixture on the ITV programme since he made his first appearance in 1995. Initially a supporting character, Roy soon featured in some of the the soap’s biggest storylines and as the owner of the café Roy’s Rolls.
Roy won a legion of fans for his marriage to British soap’s first transgender character, Hayley Cropper, played by Julie Hesmondhalgh, until she was killed off in 2014. Roy has had paternal relationships with the likes of Fiz Brown, Chesney Brown, Carla Connor and his niece, Nina.
Neilson who won a Best Actor award for portrayal of Roy in 2021 told the publication Inside Soap: "It’s lovely for me and Mollie that idiosyncratic characters such as Roy and Nina appeal so much to viewers. They can be seen as eccentric, but they are valued and loved – and that’s wonderful."
The country park was once the site of Spring Water Print Works, established in 1827 where calico dress material was printed using hand blocks and child labour. In the 1900s it became a bleachworks - polluting the river. The works were demolished in the 1970s but the ruins, pillars, and stonework, and traces of workers' cottages can still be seen despite nature taking over.
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