The Revealing the Roch project, to uncover two sections of the river (on The Butts and The Esplanade in Rochdale town centre) and expose the historic medieval bridge, began in 2015 and was completed in 2016.

The bridge and sections of river being exposed were covered over in the Victorian period and had been hidden from public view for more than a century (apart from a brief time in the nineties when engineering works were carried out).