Croston
Croston is a delightful village about 5 miles south-southwest of Preston. If the church looks crooked in the image above, that was how it looked to me at the time. Croston actually means Town of the Cross, and the original cross supposedly was planted hereabouts by a monk in AD 644. According to Wiki, the parish of Croston once included many of the nearby villages and towns, including Chorley until 1793; today these are all independent and Croston has declined in importance, but this has left much of the town unchanged. The pack horse bridge dates to the 15th century, and crosses the River Yarrow. Croston is on the line between Preston and Liverpool, which opened in 1849, and used to see express trains going all the way to Glasgow. However, it narrowly avoided closure in 1969. Today the line is single track to Ormskirk, and trains can go no further, though passengers can change to the electrified Mersey Rail service at that station. Having explored Croston itself, I took a walk to the