Buildings & Locations
Many
buildings that play vital parts in Leylands history are long since forgotten...
but some still remain, or at least evidence of them still remains. On this page
we hope to indicate to you were certain places are/were in relation to the roads
and each other. So, in taking the c.1250 reconstruction illustration from page
19 of David Hunts excellent book 'The History of Leyland & District' •5
as
an inspiration, below is a (very) rough interpretation of key places or factors
in and around Leyland. The roads shown on the map are those
believed to have been in existence at around the thirteenth century.
| Click on the map to reveal more information... | Key |
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Legend
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The types of land in and around around Leyland fall into 3 basic categories... Moorland to the East, Mossland in the West and in the middle, some of the richest soils in Lancashire, the Townfields...
Moorland
The unfertile moor land can still be seen today, especially if one drives
along the A49. In places both sides of the road are clothed in tall grasses
and have soil underneath that was, without pre-modern farming tools,virtually
unworkable. The land here is higher up than in Leyland and as such is susceptible
to harsher weather in winter.
Little
wonder then that most of the farming activity going back into Leylands history
takes place in the more lower, more rewarding lands within the 4 roads of
Golden Hill Lane, A49, Back Lane/The Avenue and Leyland Lane. In particular
are the areas either side of Towngate and Worden Lane that are known as the
Townfields
Mossland
Surrounded
by mosses in nearly every direction except Eastwards, the mosses initially
would have been meadows and forest which was prone to violent flooding in
ancient times. Because of this constant cycle of growth/natural cutback/re-growth
these soils have become extremely fertile. These moss lands however were slowly
invaded, mastered and exploited by man.
In the earliest days people would go on to the moss land and take lumps of
soil/peat for building structures (probably similar in principle at least
to early Roman fortifications/buildings) or more commonly as a fuel. This
fuel gathering was know as the right to Turbary, which is also the old name
for the big garden-centre in Whitestake which, of course, is on the moss as
well).
Gradually the moss was reclaimed as farmland, though more for grazing then
growing. Roads such as Dunkirk Lane and Slater Lane led into the moss, with
other roads penetrating in other directions (such as Paradise Lane). One road
in particular, now little more than a farm track crossed by the Railway line,
had a thatched building that had the lovely name of 'Sod Hall' (this was also
known as the Farington Round House because, surprisingly, it was round in
shape).
Eventually'
trackways' were built connecting the outlying villages with Leyland. But even
today, on a cold winters evening, the moss land is a desolate, unforgiving
place. So heaven knows what it must have been like, say, 200 years ago, with
little or no 'light pollution' to brighten up the sky in the way it does today.
Townfields
View of the Townfields, March 2002
The
view across the Townfields was previously blocked by shops, banks and the old
public hall cum snooker hall. After being demolished, the land laid barren for
a number of years. At the time of writing, the Tesco development has just begun,
so maybe this view will not be seen again for a good few years. Its a pity that
maybe more hasn't been learned from this area, especially as it was left abandoned
for so long. Still, that's progress for you... In this panoramic image there
is (from
left to right) the Leisure Centre, the Police Station, the Magistrates Court,
the Library (hidden behind mound of earth), New Tesco building (just to the
right of the mound of earth) & the remains of the old market with Sukerts
the Chemists.
The Townfields
were a fundamental part of early Leyland life. Probably having already been
in existence for centuries when the Normans invaded, these fields didn't fall
into the classical technique that all school children will recognise as crop
rotation, but rather of a half-yearly use for growing crops and then a half-yearly
use as land for grazing animals (and presumably to re-fertilize them along the
way). These were known as half-year lands.
The area
on the map highlighted as 1800s Townfields are some of the most worked areas
of land in the vicinity... These plots of land would have been sown, cultivated,
harvested and re-sown, year after year after year, infact very probably since
before the Normans arrived. Fox Lane and Church Road would have been little
more than glorified footpaths through the Townfields of the early part of the
last thousand years, and gradually incursions along them (for example to new
farms or buildings) would have seen them increase in stature amongst the locals.
Soon they became part of the road structure of Leyland that we all recognise.
Buildings
The Almshouses,
Fox Lane
The Almshouses were initially situated at the lower end of what is now Fox
Lane, and were partly paid for by the Farington family of Worden Hall. An
original inscription dates them to 1607 with an extra few houses being built
in 1661 when William Farington generously gave them to the almspeople.
They were rebuilt in their present location in 1849 to be closer to the church
Charnock Hall,
Balcarres Road
One of the oldest dwellings in the area, Charnock Hall (or Leyland Hall or
Old Hall as it has been known) is on what was one of the main roads connecting
the northern side to the Southern side of the town, Sandy Lane. Rebuilt in
1660 by Robert Charnock it became a subject of a legal case after it was left
to a lady called Grace Bold. A trial took place which determined that it had
been left illegally (it was bequeathed to the Roman Catholic priests of the
area) and it was therefore declared as belonging to the King.
North &
South Works, Hough Lane
On the site of the old North Works of Leyland Motors, the old tool room has
recently been renovated into a new, modern Market Hall.
This has been done to compensate for the previous market place being part
of the new Tesco developments. If you look upwards to towards the beams and
joists there is a series of old photographs reproduced that help chart Leylands
history. The South works were on the opposite side of Hough Lane.
The clock (pictured centre) is now on display on the roundabout at the bottom
of Hough Lane where it meets Churchill Way, Chapel Brow & Turpin Green
Lane.
St Andrews
Church, Church Road
The mighty St Andrews church would have been an imposing structure when there
were no tall buildings in Leyland... It must have dominated the skyline of
Leyland for centuries. The first indication of a 'Church' in Leyland is at
around Domesday, though it is feasible that Leyland
Cross, a stones throw away, may well have been a preaching and worshiping
venue for many years prior to this. Restoration work was carried out on it
in the late 1400's (co-ordinated by a Seth Woodcock) and in certain light
a carving of a Woodcock can be seen on the tower on the underside of the bevelled
stone that makes up the 'turrets', slightly to the left of centre (along with
many other symbols or emblems indicating the benefactors paying for the restoration
of the Church. (Click on image below for clearer look). In 1816 it
was rebuilt and in 1852 more alterations took place and when carrying out
this work some old stones were removed that revealed fragments of a still
earlier church, complete with stone work and stone coffins. Many gravestones
still visible today date from as early as the 1700's, together with an collection
of placestones outside the Eastern end of the Church indicating the final
resting places of many of the Baldwin family who were vicars here for so long...
Many headstones act as reminders to people long since gone... these individuals
may be forgotten but their surnames - Sumner or, Balshaw for example - still
live on in Leyland today. One of the aspects in the placing of the Church,
and the subsequent development of roads and pathways in Leyland meant that
up until very recently, if you were to walk up (or down) many of the main
roads/paths at this side of Leyland they all would have had the church right
in front of you... Roads like Union Street (Fox Lane), Church Road, Sandy
Lane, Cow Lane, Worden Lane and Towngate all heading in one generally direction..
a true case of 'All Roads Leading To God'!!!
Leyland Cross,
Towngate
Standing in the middle of a now busy road system, the Cross stands proud,
symbolising Leyland throughout the past few hundred years.
Probably erected in Saxon times and situated at the convergence of Church
Road,, Towngate, Fox Lane and Worden Lane, this may well have been one of
the first religious meeting places in Leyland (crosses were always thought
of being sacred, as is the land around them, and these were often used as
meeting places for like-minded individuals). Although the head of the cross
is not original (it was apparently made from a piece of stone taken from Wellington
House), it previously had two gas lamps, to help light the road. It was restored
in 1887, a year after the stocks were finally removed.
It has also taken a fair amount of abuse of the years, what with Roundheads,
car fumes, vandals and World War 2 Tanks!!!
Allegedly even in the first illustrations or drawings of it it appears to
have been not been in one piece...
Step Houses on Union
Street, Bradshaw Street, Water Lane & Heaton Street
The famous step-houses
of Leyland.
Built to accommodate weavers in the 1800's, the only remaining houses are
at the top of Fox Lane (formally known as Union Street). Steps lead down into
a cellar where a small number of weavers would work. They were basically built
under the guise of a 'building society'. After the weaving boom had died down,
the cellars were often sub-letted to more poorer tenants. One interesting
fact is that two of the houses at the top of Fox Lane still have a little
metal badge above the door lintel. These are plaques indicating insurance
had been taken out on these buildings. One of these is number 198555 for the
Royal Exchange Insurance Company (now better known as Guardian Royal Exchange)
and was issued for 'a house on Union Street, Leyland' on March 03 1803.
Bleachworks
at Shruggs Wood, off West Paddock
There were two bleachworks
in Leyland - Northbrook & Shruggs Wood.
Bleaching obviously requires a lot of running water so the location of both
bleachers, complete with wells to tap into makes perfect sense. In 1825 John
Bainbridge and Robert Brindle were the bleachers in Leyland while later in
1837 this had changed to William Finch and James Fletcher (who was employing
about 130 workers). Fletcher was based at Shruggs Wood (which possibly had
started out as early as the 1780's) and by 1871 he in turn had been replaced.
John Stanning and Son (this area is also simply known as Stannings by locals)
now ran the company and under his control the company became a leading light
in the bleaching industry, with excellent machinery and steam engines.
Many workers lived an uncertain working life, often with the mills closing
for weeks at a time fro various reasons (lack of materials, tenancy problems
etc.). The site at Shruggs Wood finally closed in 1967 and is now a nature
reserve, using the large reservoirs as a haven for animals both wet and dry,
winged or otherwise.
Seven
Stars
An area that is today built around a Mill (of which
one has stood here in one guise or another for centuries), like its cousin
at the top of Leyland Lane, Earnshaw Bridge, Seven Stars would have been a
small hamlet on a road junction which built up in time to form the lower half
of Leyland. Indeed, people from these areas were often known as Lower Leylanders!
Over time these two hamlets would have expanded, getting closer to each other
until today were they seamlessly blend into each other. Today the mill-site
is owned by Leyprint. In the past it has been known as Mount Pleasant Mill
and has been operated in both the weaving industry and as a saw mill. An enviable
road network leading South to Eccleston & Croston, West along either Slater
Lane or Dunkirk Lane, North along Leyland Lane towards Preston and East along
Fox Lane into the administrative centre of Leyland. Also near here was the
Leyland Watermill and Lower House Farm, known for their excellent cheeses.
And for
what was initially such a small area it has a high number of pubs (3 - The
Seven Stars, The Original Seven Stars & The Crofters).
If anyone was interested (and had permission) in doing an archaeological dig in this area, then one site springs to mind immediately... the car park of the Original Seven Stars Pub. Why??? Well having seen some maps from c1880 as well as some photos from the turn of the century (complete with accompanying text) we are led to believe that the stabling for horses was around the back of the pub. Because of this fact this small area may well have not had a building on it since around the time of the construction of the pub, which has a mark on the front that dates it to 1686.
Mount Pleasant
Mill, Seven Stars
The rectangular tower in
the background, left of centre in the image is the present day mill, built
on a site which has been 'milling' for years and years and years. Today owned
by Leyprint, it has been a textile mill and a wood mill. On early maps of
Leyland there are a few houses around the mill and until 5 years ago I lived
in a terrace in a range of these houses. Other houses round here are named
after a war in the Crimea (Alma Terrace).
Worden Hall (also know
as Shaw Hall), Worden Park
To
avoid any confusion here let me first explain that there were/are infact two
Worden Halls.
The one known today as Worden Hall (in Worden Park) is traditionally also
known as Shaw Hall.
The original or 'Old' Worden Hall is out of sight in the grounds of the Royal
Ordinance Factory near Euxton.
The Faringtons lived at both residences at the same time, with one being the
main home and the other a 'farm'.
Most people are aware that the 'new' Worden Hall was seriously damaged by
fire in 1941 and only the Derby Wing is standing. If you can get a photo of
the Hall before it burned down you can see that it was positioned to the right
of the Greenhouses, and with its magnificently manicured gardens it still
reeks of opulence. The gardens are open for the public to enjoy and I guess
that a number of the large, straggly trees in the vicinity of the Hall could
tell a good yarn or two.
If the buildings
that surround us contain the heartbeat of Leyland, then it is surely the
road network that is the blood-supply that helps makes-up the body of a
town such as Leyland.
6 principle roads or trackways would have made up Norman Leyland. To the
north is Golden Hill Lane and to the East is the main route North on this
side of the Penines (the Kings Highway no less). To the South was Back Lane
which led onto The Avenue (through Worden Park today). This in turn became
Shaw Brook Road this meets up with Leyland Lane in the West of the town,
near Wade Hall. Leyland Lane then runs all the way up to the bottom of Golden
Hill Lane again (and beyond). Splitting these roads into four parts are
the West/East running Fox Lane & Church Road, while North/South ran
School Lane/Water Street/Towngate/Worden Lane. The Townfields (especially
the early ones) were more centred around the junction of Fox Lane/Church
Road & Towngate/Worden Lane. Eventually more roads would have naturally
upgraded from mere pathways, roads such as Sandy Lane, Cow Lane & Turpin
Green Lane. Then shortcuts between main roads would have appeared and these
too, possibly like Hough Lane or Bent Lane, would have gradually become
common roads. The roads would have been little more than a muddy path in
winter time, and probably only the most important roads would have any kind
of surface or mettaling on them (probably our 6 key roads).
Golden Hill Lane
Wigan Road
Back
Lane / The Avenue / Shaw Brook Road
The Avenue (pictured here) is the main path through what is Worden Park
today.
Situated on what would have been the edge of the early Townfields it would
have been a handy supply route for sending produce either to lower Leyland
(Seven Stars etc.) or up to the main Preston/Wigan
road at the top of Back Lane. Today Back Lane has now become Langdale
Road, and The Avenue is only driven on by vehicle that are visiting the remnants
of Worden Hall. At the bottom of the Park this road
then becomes Shaw Brook Road, a reference to the nearby brook that also gave
Worden Hall its first name (Shaw Hall).
Leyland
Lane
The main road along the west of Leyland for centuries has been Leyland
Lane. From Roe Moor in the South all the way up past Earnshaw Bridge, it has
been a key route for traffic passing on the moss side of Leyland. It has many
key roads leading off it (such as Fox Lane, Golden Hill Lane and the roads
out to the mosses) and has seen its fairshare of activities (weaving mills,
potteries and making ice-cream are all fairly recent uses of land around Leyland
Lane).
Church Road
Church
Road is another one of our key roads.
Originally thought to be a footpath down from the main Wigan-Preston road
it leads (as its name suggests) to a church - St Andrews church to be exact
- and probably before there was a Church there was (and still is) Leyland
Cross. Later roads such as Bent Lane and Sandy Lane spring out like feelers
until they reach their respective targets on the other side of Leyland. The
Grammar School is on this road, as is/was Wellington House, Stokes Hall, the
Eagle & Child Pub (above) and Balshaws High School. Much of the early
development of modern Leyland was done around this road, and generally to
the East of the Church, building on what is still betrayed by local road names,
Crocus Field & The Beeches.
Fox Lane
Worden Lane
Towngate / Water Street / School Lane
Turpin Green Lane
Hough
Lane
Longmeanygate
Longmeanygate is possibly the longest road in Leyland (I can only think
of Leyland Lane to match it). It certainly has the longest word in a road
name at least. The Meanygates were roads that led out onto the mossland and
you would have been tolled to access them, in order to help pay for the frequent
upkeep of roads built on such dodgy ground (think of the coast road at Southport
as a modern day equivalent.) Many Meanygate type roads would have been in
operation at one time or another, probably even in earliest times, with the
roads becoming redundant when the peat levels have gone down. Paradise Lane
is probably a Meanygate leading off Dunkirk Lane (which I guess would have
been an earlier version of a moss road on the first reclaimed lands West of
the River Lostock), with others including the road that Sod Hall stands/stood.
A number of
locally recognisable words in places or road names can still reveal their
origins or their history today.
Obvious examples are buildings that contain peoples names, such as Charnock
Hall, or roads that are indicative of their use (i.e. Church Road).
But other, more obtuse connections can be made from names as well. For example...
Bent -
A course grass
Broadfield - A broad or big field
Earnshaw - A wood or a grove with Eagles
Farington - A settlement where ferns are found growing
Golden Hill - Derived possibly from the yellow/golden colour of buttercups
or marigolds which may indicate permanent pastureland.
Hough - Level ground by a stream or brook
Midge Hall - An area infested by midges
Shaw - A copse or a small wood.
Sod - Peat
Wellfield - A field containing a well
Worden
- A Wooded river valley with a weir or a dam
The principle river in the area is the Lostock which flows through the Cuerden Valley (which is to the East of Leyland) in a Northerly direction and then it arcs around the top of Leyland until it heads back South and Westward, through Farington, Moss Side & Ulnes Walton until it meets the River Yarrow which in-turn meets the River Douglas and likewise this meets the River Ribble and then out into the Irish Sea.
Other small rivers or brooks are Bannister Brook, Shaw Brook, Wade Brook and Wymott. Some of these would have been used in the bleaching or millenary work of the weavers of Leyland. Most flow into the Lostock at some point.
= Key Buildings 
= Housing
