Around Preston

 Skelmersdale - or Skem to the locals - is about 15 miles south of Preston, on the M58, a short spur off the M6. It was designated a "New Town" in the late sixties, and if that is conjuring up an image of the place in your head, you will not be too far off the mark! The older (pre-sixties) buildings are unremarkable, and the newer are worse... However, it does have some positives. It is great for pedestrians, with vehicles largely kept away, and plenty of bridges to cross the roads when you have to, and while the housing estates are all dead ends for cars, there are lots of routes through if you are on foot. It also has a lot of greenery. Trees are scattered everywhere, and the town is bifurcated by a large park. I parked near the library, and headed west, though said park, towards the oldest parts of the town. I did not venture inside the library, but it looked pretty smart from the outside.  There was quite a complex of modern buildings in the area, including the police sta...

Bury is a market town about ten miles north of Manchester, and thirty miles southeast of Preston. Formerly in Lancashire, it is now in Greater Manchester. It was on the Roman road from Manchester to Ribchester. Today the town has two big claims to fame; the black pudding market and the East Lancs Railway. And I must admit, I did not visit the market... The original East Lancashire Railway operated from 1844 to 1859 between Liverpool, Manchester, Salford, Preston, Burnley and Blackburn.. Their line into Manchester run through Bury, and they had a station, Bolton Street. Bury also had a second railway, going east to west, connecting Oldham and Bolton,  on the Lancashire and Yorkshire, with a station at Knowsley Street. the two companies were fierce rivals, until 1859 when the East Lancashire was adsorbed  into the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Bolton Street station burned down in 1947; the building we can see today dates from 1952. Knowsley Street Station closed in 1970, and...

 I have posted previously about where the Lancaster Canal joined the Leeds Liverpool Canal here , and, on another web site , where it connected to the tramway. There are still traces of it between those two points. We will start from the south, and head north. Whittle-le-Woods The canal run some way east of Whittle-le-Woods, on an embankment, where is crossed the River Lostock. The aqueduct is still there and presumably still maintained to ensure the river can flow. The canal turned somewhat westward, through a steep cutting, towards the village, passing through two very short tunnels, both of which have roads over them. When built, this was one long tunnel, but the tunnel collapsed in the 1830s, and so was split into two short tunnels, presumably to carry the roads. This is the canal today before it enters the first tunnel. And between the tunnels. You can just about see there is still water there. There are old quarries in the hill above the canal still visible. The end of the se...

This follows on from my last post, which went up Moor Lane, and then back south down Lancaster Road South. This is what lies to the north and east of there, so we start by heading up the Garstang Road. Garstang Road At one time this was called Gallows Hill, as several men were hung here after the Battle of Preston. Immediately on the left in the Moor Park pub, on the corner with Aqueduct Street. Obviously named after Moor Park, which was originally much larger - and came closer to the pub. Apparently it was the last pub in Preston to brew its own beer - though with microbreweries, I suspect that is no longer true. There is a video of it from 1945 on YouTube here . On the other side of the road is The Church of St Thomas of Canterbury and the English Martyrs, or just English Martyrs. An impressive building, this Roman Catholic church opened in 1867; old maps indicate there was previously a cattle market here! This building at the back of it was a school for the church. The school is...