Lostock Hall (and Tardy Gate)

 Lostock Hall is about 3 miles south of Preston, just west of Bamber Bridge. The centre, where the shops are, was called Tardy Gate at one time, but the name is slowly disappearing, and most people consider it all to be Lostock Hall.


According to Wiki, it was established by James de Lostock who in 1212 built Lostock's Hall. It gives its name to the River Lostock, which flows past the south of the town, having passed through Cuerden Valley Park and past Bamber Bridge, on its way to the Ribble, via the Yarrow and Douglas.

The hall that gives the town its name still exists - though was rebuilt in 1764, following a fire. It was donated to Preston Royal Infirmary in WW1, and became St Catherine's Hospice in the mid-eighties. Unfortunately, this makes it hard to get photos.

There were three mills. Just west of the centre, Tardy Gate Mill was built in 1908, and still exists, its chimney visible for miles around. It is actually quite an attractive building, unfortunately rather obscured when I took this image.


To the south, was Cuerden Green Mills and the adjoining Lostock Hall Mill. The former dates to 1783, according to here, though I think the buildings are not that old. The building is still there. I cannot find much about the latter, but it was there by 1891. It has now been demolished, and is the site of a housing estate.

The other big industry was the motive power depot, which was one of the last five in the country serving steam locomotives up to 1968. There is a good website about it here. The site has yet to be re-developed, as can be seen from the photo below, I think because the land is contaminated.


There are about forty shops in the centre, nearly all on the west side for some reason. As of today, all but one seem to be open. None of them are for sale, and though three or four are charity shops, this is pretty health for the present day.

As far as I can see there is only one pub that has closed in Lostock Hall. This was the Railway Hotel, which closed in 2008, exactly 40 years to the day after the motive power depot, which was on the other side of the road.


Heading north from there, the Vic, previously the Victoria, is on the left.


And further up, into the centre, there is the Pleasant Retreat, by the war memorial (see the first photo). An old photo can be seen here. Kind of behind it, Lostock Hall's new micropub, Lostock Ale, which opened in January 2020, just before the COVID shutdown!

On the other side, slightly further up, is the Wishing Well, which was formerly the Tardy Gate.


At one time this had quite an ornate exterior, as you can see here, here and here.

The last pub is southwest of the centre, down Croston Road, the Anchor.

[Sorry no photo yet]

Just beyond the Anchor, the road dips under the railway to Blackburn. An early photo of the pub and bridge can be seen here. The road then rises to cross the West Coast Mail Line. The north of the bridge was the site of Farington Station.


This is about 0.5 km from the centre of Lostock Hall, and 2 km from the centre of Farington, both of which were small villages when the station was built, so why it was called Farington I am not sure.

Lostock Hall had two other stations. Lostock Hall is on the line from Blackburn. It closed in the sixties, but was reopened in 1984. It occasionally sees steam trains that have been on Settle and Carlisle line.


Todd Lane Station was on an alternative line between Preston and Bamber Bridge, which the East Lancashire railway built in 1850 so they had their own station in Preston. The line closed in the early seventies, and is now a nature walk. There is a pond where the station used to be.

Todd Lane itself is home to Todd Hall, which was built in around 1630.


Lostock Hall was the victim of a German bombing raid targeting factories in Leyland in 1940. Houses in Ward Street were destroyed (just opposite Cuerden Green Mills) and 28 people died - photo of the aftermath here. After the war a dance hall was built on the site; it is now a place of worship.


There are (at least) three churches; the Methodist Church to the south being the most photo-worthy.


The catholic church is not so nice; the trees partly obscuring it are a blessing.






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