The Ancient Highways of Whittle-le-Woods

As I write, the country is in the middle of the coronavirus lockdown. All who don’t have to go out to work are encouraged to stay at home, save for trips to the supermarket and for exercise. For the latter, we should walk, run or cycle modestly and locally. This is not a hardship for me. Living in Whittle-le-Woods, I have the luxury of several rural or semi-rural walking routes, and for the past 35 years I have been exploring them regularly. I enjoy both their familiarity and the occasional new discovery that improves my understanding of the history of where I live. In this article, I will consider the ancient, and in one case not-so-ancient, roads and lanes that form a network throughout the township.

Lucas Lane (East) is an archetypal country lane, probably of medieval origin

There are different types of road in Whittle, some of recent origin, others that are likely to have been here for a thousand years or more. We have our own motorway, the M61, that neatly bisects the township and whose drone is ever-present. The largest number of roads in the township are modern residential streets, mostly in the winding cul-de-sacs that serve the growing housing estates. Off Chorley Old Road there are a few short residential roads that date from the 19^th century, dead straight and lined, or previously lined, with terraced houses that once accommodated handloom weavers and mill workers. I will not say any more about these roads, but will concentrate (with one exception) on Whittle’s older roads, that date from long before Whittle became an industrial village.

Prior to the beginning of the industrial revolution in the late 18^th century, the township of Whittle-le-Woods was a sparsely populated area of scattered family-run farms, mainly rearing livestock. The only industries were quarrying for building material and millstones, and textile production, carried out in the farms by families who spun and weaved linen and fustians. There was no village as such and no churches. There were however two landowners’ residences: Crook Hall, built in the 17^th century, and Shaw Hill, built sometime after 1750, and there was a long-established network of roads providing access to the farms and linking the township to its neighbours.

Before the 1720s, Whittle’s roads would have all been lanes. Lanes have been defined by Oliver Rackham as, “ribbons of public territory with hedges and ditches separating them from the adjacent private lands”. Lanes were part of the common land of the township, providing access to all. The large majority of lanes had their origins in medieval or Saxon times, and it is quite possible that some existed in prehistory, though it is not possible to date their formation accurately. They were largely intended for foot or horse traffic, including packhorses carrying goods of all kinds - even millstones. Carts were not plentiful and carriages even less so.

Unlike Roman roads, or those constructed in some parts of the country during the agricultural improvements of the late 18^th and 19^th centuries, medieval lanes are rarely straight. G. K. Chesterton famously opined that “the rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road”, but the real reasons for the lack of straightness are more prosaic. In essence, medieval lanes are curved for the same reasons that modern motorways are curved: to find the best route through the local geography and to avoid existing structures and possessions. Roads probably developed organically, eventually becoming established and formalised after years of use. In the first half of the twentieth century some, though not all, were tarmaced to allow their use by motor vehicles.

The quality of England’s highways in pre-modern times was notoriously poor. Maintenance was the responsibility of parishes and by Act of Parliament, every able-bodied man had to give up to six days a year labour to maintain their local roads. Inevitably, some fulfilled this responsibility better than others. Journey times for long distance travel were lengthy and carts and carriages could find the going difficult. This led to the establishment, from the early 18^th century of ‘Turnpike Trusts’. These bodies, made up of local stakeholders, raised money to improve the main roads in their locality, and recouped their investment through charging tolls on those who used the road. By the end of the century, Britain had a comprehensive network of turnpike roads that revolutionised travel, leading to greatly reduced journey times on long distance routes. Whittle-le-Woods experienced the turnpike boom early and we will explore Whittle’s turnpike(s) along with her ancient lanes.

The plan below, adapted from William Yates’s 1786 map of Lancashire, shows the roads of Whittle on the eve of the industrial revolution. The M61 motorway is of course missing, and so are the Lancaster and Leeds/Liverpool canals, that would shortly cut through the township. Perhaps more surprising is the partial absence of Preston Road, and the presence of Carwood Lane, which is no longer a traffic-bearing road. We will consider each road in a tour of the township, putting roads together where they combine to form routeways. As in the plan, I will refer to roads by their modern names, for ease of identification. We will begin with the most important road in the 18^th century: the turnpike from Wigan, through Chorley and Whittle, to Preston.

A plan of Whittle-le-Woods at it would have appeared in the late 18th century

The Wigan and Preston Turnpike (Chorley Old Road & Preston Road)

The Wigan and Preston Turnpike Trust was one of the earliest in the country, being formed in 1726. The main motivation behind its establishment was the need for a better road to transport coal from the Wigan coalfields; existing roads being largely unsuitable for wagons. Like most early Turnpike Trusts, it did not build new roads, but made improvements, such as resurfacing and constructing new bridges to existing ancient routes. Unusually, the turnpike followed two routes, both of which remain as important roads. The ‘Lower Road’ is now the A49, taking a fairly direct route from Wigan through Standish, Euxton and Bamber Bridge to Preston. This road can be seen on a 1675 map by John Ogilby of the complete route from London to Carlisle, confirming that it was an important road prior to its conversion to a turnpike. The ‘Higher Road’ branches off at Langtree and passes through Coppull, Chorley and Whittle and Clayton-le-Woods, before rejoining the Lower Road at Bamber Bridge. The southern section of this road is now the A5209, while the northern section largely follows the A6. But through Whittle, the road went down Shaw Brow and along Chorley Old Road to Radburn Brow, where it then picked up the route of the A6 again. That the road from Chorley to Preston at that time followed this rather hilly route through Whittle is probably due to it passing near to the long-established stone quarries in the Whittle hills.

The implementation of coronavirus lockdown drastically reduced road traffic, briefly allowing horses to resume their dominance of Chorley Old Road

Cow Well Lane is not an ancient road. Kenneth Hodgkinson suggested that its name means "Cold Well Lane" and that it was originally a path taken by villagers to a well at the foot of the hill

Overall, turnpike roads significantly lowered journey times for long distance trips. One effect of this was to make it more attractive for city-based landowners to visit their country houses. It is surely no coincidence that in the mid-18^th century, Thomas Crosse chose to build his fine new country house, Shaw Hill, next to the now well-established turnpike road.

Prior to the 19^th century there was no village in the township of Whittle, but there were probably hamlets strung along the side of the turnpike road at Waterhouse Green and Rip Row, housing farm labourers and quarry workers. As the cotton textile industry began to expand in Whittle in the late 18^th century, and the Lancaster canal arrived in 1803, these hamlets formed the basis of a new, if somewhat unfocused industrial village.

In the early years of the 19^th century, a new wave of turnpike trusts led to improvements in existing turnpike roads and the construction of some new roads. By this time, the road through Whittle came under the awkwardly named Wigan and Preston (North of the Yarrow) Trust, which in 1825 effectively bypassed Whittle by constructing a new road from the top of Shaw Brow to Radburn Brow – the current A6. It was a considerable feat of engineering, necessitating the construction of a huge bank from Shaw Brow to School Brow, with the river Lostock culverted underneath it, the bank being known as Shaw Hill Bridge. The toll house at the northern end of the new road still stands near Radburn Brow, as a private house. Chorley Old Road remained as a turnpike, and was itself improved, with the construction of Waterhouse Green Bridge and the easing of the gradient up Dolphin Brow. Prior to this, the road crossed the river Lostock at the bridge on School Lane and then made a sharp turn through what is now Grasmere Grove and up a steep incline.  Stagecoaches apparently still followed Chorley Old Road after the construction of the ‘bypass’, leading to an accident in 1836 when a coach overturned on the bend at Dolphin Brow, one passenger being killed.

The 18th century bridge carrying School Lane across the river Lostock is a listed building. It originally carried the Wigan to Preston turnpike (Chorley Old Road)

Shaw Hill Bridge, seen from Dawson Lane, with the river Lostock flowing below Preston Road

The rare sight of Preston Road empty of traffic in the middle of the day, another consequence of lockdown

A few years after the new section was opened, Whittle’s first Church of England chapel was built beside it, and the National School moved to a new building next to the vicarage. However, apart from these establishments and a couple of inns (the Bay Horse and the Halfway House), the new road remained remarkably undeveloped until the end of the 19^th century, when J.N. Boothman built rows of terraced houses for workers at his new Swansey Mill. The road from Shaw Brow south to the Sea View inn remained undeveloped until after World War Two, when “ribbon development” of middle-class houses reached all the way along to Hartwood Green.

Dawson Lane

On 19^th century Ordnance Survey maps, the legend ‘Site of Stone Cross’ appears by the side of Dawson Lane, on a bend near to the western access road to Crook Hall (now Lisieux Hall). Wayside stone crosses were once numerous in many parts of the country. They were erected between the 9^th and 15^th centuries and served as waymarkers and also as places of comfort to the Catholic faithful. They were often found on routes with religious associations. Following the reformation, most crosses were taken down, but the stone pedestals on which they stood sometimes survived into the 19^th century.

The significance of the wayside cross on Dawson Lane is twofold. Firstly, it confirms that it is an ancient road. Secondly, it emphasises its main original purpose, which was to provide a route from Whittle to the parish church at Leyland; indeed it can be followed all the way to that church. In a thirteenth century document, it is referred to as ‘the kirkgate to Leyland’. Generations of parishioners, and many hundreds of funeral processions, would have passed by the cross, perhaps stopping to rest and to offer up a prayer. We will encounter the site of another stone cross shortly.

Dawson Lane also provided access to the nearest thing that Whittle had to a manor house, Crook Hall. ‘Old Crook’ was sited not far from the stone cross and ‘New Crook’ (the present Lisieux Hall) was a quarter of a mile to the east. As I discussed in my article on ‘The Stately Homes of Whittle-le-Woods’, the route of Dawson Lane was almost certainly altered when New Crook was built in the 17^th century. It was pushed to the south to extend the park in front of the new house, and to allow the construction of a fine drive from the road to the house. Dawson Lane returns to its original route, which can still be followed by taking a public footpath and the access road to Lisieux Hall, after two precipitous right-angled bends, needed to keep the road away from neighbours’ lands.

One of the right-angled bends that irritate motorists on Dawson Lane

The modern course of Dawson Lane embraces a number of bends as it passes Crook Hall. It was apparently diverted when Crook Hall was built, to give the new house more land to its south side. The previous course of the road can be traced, via a footpath to the east of Crook Hall and an access road to the west. (Diagram taken from my article 'The Stately Homes of Whittle-le-Woods'

The former route of the 'Kirkgate to Leyland' is now a public footpath

Dawson Lane originally began in the east at Waterhouse Green, but the construction in the 1820s of the new turnpike and Shaw Hill Bridge means that it now starts from Preston Road. A public footpath from that road down a flight of steps to Waterhouse Green acknowledges the original route of Dawson Lane.

These steps mark the original route of Dawson Lane to Waterhouse Green

Carwood Lane/Hilltop Lane

The other stone cross in Whittle township was sited on Chorley Old Road at its junction with Carwood Lane, and marked the beginning of the old road from Whittle to the parish church at Brindle. Indeed, this route can be seen as a continuation of Dawson Lane, linking Leyland and Brindle. Today, Carwood Lane is a footpath, and was saved from dereliction some twenty years ago by volunteers who restored it to something like its appearance when it was an ancient packhorse road.

There were many lanes in medieval times and not all have become modern roads. Lanes fell out of use for many reasons. In the early 19^th century, Carwood Lane was cut through by the Lancaster canal, the ensuing diversion across the canal to Hilltop Lane adding about a third of a mile to the route. The canal resulted in the wharf at Rip Row becoming the main focus of the village and so traffic from Brindle may have headed in that direction rather than along Carrwood Lane. Also, Brindle itself was scarcely touched by industrialisation and became something of a backwater. All these factors led to the decline of Carwood Lane.

Carwood Lane has been tastefully restored to something like its appearance when it was part of the packhorse road to Brindle

Its northern counterpart, Hilltop Lane, is a classic country road. Ascending a hill, it is in places a holloway, the roadway sunken below the surrounding fields by centuries of erosion; rain washing the former gravel surface down the hillside. At the bridge across the M61 it enters Brindle parish and continues as Denham Lane to the parish church.

Hilltop Lane is in places a holloway, the road level sunk below the adjacent fields by centuries of erosion. The mature oaks on the right once formed part of an ancient hedge

Town Lane

Town Lane is so named because it once gave access to Whittle’s ‘Townfield’, an area of common arable land in which local farmers could grow grain crops. The townfield was sited on the flattish land to the north of Town Lane and remained common ground until the end of the 18^th century, when it was enclosed and let out to individual tenants. Town Lane was also the road from Whittle to the neighbouring township of Heapey.

The former Townfield of Whittle, with Town Lane running behind it

From the early 19^th century, Town Lane was a hive of activity. At its western end, off Waterhouse Green, was Lowe Mill Print Works, many of whose workers lived in the row of cottages at the foot of the Lane. A little further up was a small cotton spinning mill, which after its closure became known as the Old Factory and accommodated handloom weavers and mill workers. It was demolished in the 1880s. Along the ridge at the top of the hill were up to five farms and smallholdings, and lanes led to more farms at Lucas Green and Wilson’s Nook. From 1803, the Lancaster Canal cut through the road and a wharf was built to load and unload goods, with a public house, the Navigation Inn, to cater for the thirsty boatmen. In the second half of the century a small brick works was sited beside the canal near Wilson’s Nook farm. Continuing up Town Lane, there was a colony of handloom weavers near Johnson’s Hillock, whose cottages later in the century housed mill workers, with their own beerhouse, the British Lion. Finally, near the junction with the Chorley to Blackburn Road (known at that point as Sandy Lane) was Whittle’s oldest church, the Catholic St Chad’s, opened in 1791. Town Lane today is a picturesque and relatively quiet residential road, with little remaining evidence of its busy past.

The access road to Wilson's Nook farm does not have the status of a named road, but retains the feel of a country lane

Town Lane, looking towards Lowe Farm

Lucas Lane

Lucas Lane is today divided into east and west sections, and they are different in character. Lucas Lane West (from Town Lane to Lucas Green) is the best example of an ancient lane in Whittle; narrow, winding and lined by mature trees and hedgerows, or drystone walls. It originally provided access from Crostons farm to the Townfield and it retains its character despite the encroaching housing estates that may eventually surround it. By the way, I will not be hypocritical or nimbyish about the amount of new building in Whittle. I myself live on a modern estate on the site of a 19^th century farm, and I don’t see why others shouldn’t have the opportunity to live in such an agreeable area. Britain needs many more houses and with proper planning, Whittle can do its bit to supply them while maintaining its semi-rural feel.

Old meets new on Lucas Lane (West), with the remains of an ancient drystone wall looked over by new housing

Lucas Lane East (from Lucas Green to Preston Road), by contrast, has a different appearance. It is wider and dead straight, with spacious verges. It is depicted like this on 19^th century maps, but it is undoubtedly an ancient lane. It seems that it was ‘improved’ in the late 18^th or early 19^th century, but why?

Lucas Lane (West) is as narrow and winding as a country lane should be...

...while Lucas Lane (East) is wider and dead straight, following early 19th century improvements

The answer lies in drainage. The fields that used to surround this section of the lane all had names including ‘Moss’, signifying that the land was once marshy. Lucas Lane East includes field drains on its course. It appears that at some point, drains were dug to make land more suitable for farming, and at the same time, the lane was rebuilt and straightened to parallel the drain. Today, the fields are covered by houses, their occupants presumably unaware that they are living on a former marsh. Which brings us to…

 Moss Lane

This lane runs along the relatively flat south end of the township, bordering the former marshland of Gale Moss. It is not the township’s southern boundary; that honour goes to an ancient hedge that runs parallel to Moss Lane from the Sea View pub. Moss Lane provided access to a number of farms and linked the Chorley/Preston and Chorley/Blackburn roads. Today it is the B6229 and is cut through by the M61, and as such retains little of its former character, but it still follows its ancient winding route, that presumably reflected the need to avoid patches of marshland.

Lockdown has even quietened the M61, seen here from Moss Lane

Dark Lane/Copthurst Lane/Birchin Lane

These lanes together form a route through the hilly eastern half of the township, from Moss Lane in the south-east to Chorley Old Road in the north-west. Dark Lane was known in the 19^th century as Lower Lane. In the 1830s, a chalybeate spring was discovered nearby, leading to the establishment on the lane of a spa (Heyes Hotel, later the Howard Arms) and Whittle Springs brewery. Both had ceased to function by the 1920s. Copthurst Lane is the highest road in the township, originally serving Higher Copthurst Farm before crossing the Leeds-Liverpool canal and plunging down Copthurst Brow, past the ruins of Denham Springs Print Works, to cross the river Lostock at Denham Springs farm. The steep gradient has allowed Whittle’s deepest holloway to develop. The bridge across the Lostock may well be a former packhorse bridge, with low side walls to avoid obstructing the horses’ panniers.

Lockdown may be boosting the displays of wild flowers on roadside verges. This is Copthurst Lane

The steep gradient of Copthurst Brow has made it into Whittle's deepest holloway

The bridge across the Lostock at Denham Springs may be a former packhorse bridge, with low side walls to avaoid obstructing the horses' panniers

The route then ascends another hill as Birchin Lane. This lane is also the township boundary, emphasising that it is an ancient routeway. Township boundaries were drawn up in late Saxon times and in places followed existing roads. Birchin Lane's antiquity is reinforced by the presence of the ancient woodland of Denham Wood on its eastern side.

Birchin Lane is the boundary between Whittle and Brindle townships. Denham Wood, on the right of the picture, is ancient woodland; the wood on the left dates from the 1970s

After crossing Denham Lane (and the M61 motorway), Birchin Lane swings west towards Chorley Old Road. It passes between two old abandoned quarries, then the site of St. Helen’s well and finally the site of St. Helen’s chemical works. Its junction with Chorley Old Road was cut off by the Lancaster canal, so it turns south along a residential road that was once known as Barracks Street. It was supposedly the site of a camp for French Napoleonic War prisoners, conscripted to build the canal. In the 19^th century, Barracks Street was part of the rowdy mix of handloom weavers, mill workers, boatmen and quarrymen that made up the little community of Rip Row.

Mill Lane & Swansey Lane

On the face of it, our final lanes are unlikely candidates for ancient routeways. Mill Lane today runs from Rip Row down the hill to Preston Road. Its top section curves round the former canal basin and is lined with post-war houses, indistinguishable from the adjacent housing estates. It then runs dead straight past Swansey Mill, suggesting a Victorian origin. But appearances can be deceptive. Look across Preston Road from the bottom of Mill Lane, and you will see, through a jumble of houses, Back Lane ascending a hill and heading into Clayton-le-Woods. Prior to the construction of the 'new' turnpike, Mill Lane joined onto Back Lane. This provided a packhorse route from Rip Row to the former community of Clayton Town, at the foot of Sheep Hill Brow, where there was a corn mill that flourished until well into the 19^th century. So Mill Lane is indeed an ancient routeway. And so is Swansey Lane, which was once the continuation of Birchin Lane and also connected with Back Lane. It carries the boundary between Whittle and Clayton-le-Woods and also hosts Swansey farm, which in the 17^th century was the second largest dwelling in Whittle, after Crook Hall.

So there we have it. This completes my trip around the ancient highways of Whittle-le-Woods. I hope it will encourage you to explore these fine lanes yourselves, if you do not do so already. You may well meet me on my daily walk. But if you do so while social distancing is still in place, I will probably cross the road to avoid you.

Postscript: Sandy Lane/Blackburn Road

After completing and publishing this article, I realised that I had left out one of Whittle's ancient roads, albeit one that is within the township boundaries for just a quarter of a mile. This is the road from the north of Chorley to Blackburn, via Botany Bay and Wheelton. The section in Whittle, now named Blackburn Road,  runs from just south of Moss Lane to the junction with Town Lane. Old maps show the site of a stone cross near Moss Lane, signifying an ancient route, and the road appear on 18th century maps. In 1843 the route became the Chorley to Finnington Bar turnpike, the last turnpike to be created in Lancashire. This improvement made the establishment of a mill in Wheelton more viable, leading to the growth of that village. The short section in Whittle is not without interest. In the 19th century it was known as Sandy Lane, and was flanked by weavers' cottages. Near to Town Lane was the Red Cat inn, that dated from the 18th century and is still (pre-pandemic) a thriving restaurant. To the south was Gorse Hall, a 19th century gentleman's residence that was demolished in 1970. In the early 1970s, the new A674 was built, running from Junction 8 on the M61, crossing the old turnpike near Moss Lane and bypassing Wheelton. Sandy Lane, by now Blackburn Road, became a relatively quiet B-road, flanked by housing estates.

Sources Used

Tithe maps available at Lancashire Archive, Preston.

Historic Ordnance Survey maps available at Old Maps.
Census returns available at The Genealogist 

A History of the County of Lancaster, Volume 6 (Victoria County History). British History Online

Hodgkinson K (1991) Whittle & Clayton-le-Woods: A Pictorial Record of Bygone Days. Chorley: CKD Publications.
Muir R (2000) The New Reading the Landscape. Exeter: Exeter University Press
Rackham O (2003) The Illustrated History of the Countryside. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson

Winchester A (2006) England’s Landscape: The North West. London: Collins (English Heritage).

Whittle-le-Woods Community Hall (2006) Whittle Walks: Exploring the heritage of Whittle-le-Woods, Lancashire.