Does OL1 flood?

Yes — parts of the OL1 district carry real flood risk: 1 of its 5 at-risk postcodes reach the Environment Agency's High likelihood band. The OL1 postcode district covers Chadderton North, St James', close to Shaw, Newhey, Milnrow, and surrounding villages in parts of Greater Manchester and Lancashire.

5 postcodes in the OL1 district appear in the Environment Agency's rivers-and-sea flood-risk dataset — worst bands: 1 high, 4 low. A postcode not listed here has no properties in any recorded risk band (which is good news, but never proof it cannot flood).

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Which OL1 postcodes are at risk?

OL1 4SR up to High OL1 2RR up to Low OL1 2RX up to Low OL1 2SZ up to Low OL1 2TX up to Low

Rivers and flooding history near OL1

The rivers that matter here, each monitored live on FloodRadar:

Bridge Street Shaw on the River Beal — 4.6 km away, highest on record 1.38m
Beal Bridge on the River Beal — 5.4 km away, highest on record 1.17m
Station Road on the River Beal — 5.9 km away, highest on record 1.86m
Rochdale on the River Roch — 6.3 km away, highest on record 2.22m

161 official flood warnings and alerts have been raised within ~10 km of the district's centre since 2006 (69 at warning level or above), most recently 14 December 2025. Warnings cover flood areas, not individual addresses.

Recorded flood extents near the district (Environment Agency record):

2022 February Flood Incident -Storm Dudley, Eunice and Franklin (2022) — about 48 km from the centre
2020 February Flood Incident - Storm Dennis (2020) — about 80.8 km from the centre
June 2007 Flood Event (Ridings Area) (2007) — about 41.7 km from the centre
EA01326_30 July 2002_River Irk_Middleton, Gt Man (2002) — about 2.9 km from the centre

Records, not floods: no outline on the record is not evidence a place has not flooded.

🏠 Buying or renting in OL1? The full property flood-risk report covers any postcode here — the official likelihood band, every recorded flood nearby with distances, warning history year by year, how the local rivers behave, and an insurance outlook, print-ready for £19. See what's in the report →

Flood risk in nearby postcode districts

OL2 OL3 OL4 OL5 OL6 OL8 OL9 OL10

Band = the worst likelihood band of any property in that postcode (EA Risk of Flooding from Rivers & Sea, defence-adjusted, area-level). Check any postcode in detail — or get the full £19 property report — at the property flood-risk report. © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2025. All rights reserved. Some features of this map are based on digital spatial data from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, © NERC (CEH). © Crown Copyright and Database Rights 2025 OS AC0000807064. This product is produced in part from PAF® and Multiple Residence Data, the copyright in which is owned by Royal Mail Group Limited and/or Royal Mail Group plc. All rights reserved. Licence number AC0000807064.