Walton-le-Dale

This short walk is following in the footsteps of David Hunt (the local history historian) who led a group, of which I was one, on this walk one day last summer,

The first and only obstacle on this walk was a climb up a long flight of steps leading to the old stone church of St Leonards.

Once at the top of the steps we tarried awhile to get our breath back. The vandalised building on the left was once the school. The red sandstone is quarried locally.

The church on this occasion was locked, but on the previous occasion had been opened up specially. Mr Hunt had organised his walk to raise funds to go towards replacing some of the windows in the church. There are plaques on the wall in the chancel commemorating members of the De Haughton family,and a stone behind the alter in memory of Samuel Crooke. The carving on the stone reads.

Here lies the body of Samuel Crooke Esq                                                                                  He was killed going to the assizes by Mr William Buckley                                                        To the great griefe of his family and friends, August 9th 1722                                                   He was an affectioned husband and usefull Magistrate                                                             And a faithfull subject to the best of Kings.                                                                               He married Anna daughter of Charles De Haughton Bart                                                                               And left issue a son born two months after his death.

The oldest parts of the church are the Chancel (which I failed to take a picture of) and the tower. The transepts were added in 1816, a time of prolific church building following the defeat of Napoleon at waterloo  Up to the 19th century both Protestants and Catholics used to be buried in the extensive graveyard. Towards the end of the eighteenth century whenever a Protestant died the funeral took place in the afternoon and the passing bell was slowly tolled prior to the burial, but whenever a Catholic died the interment took place towards the evening and a full peal of bells was rung upon the bells immediately before the ceremony.

A path leads down through the adjacent St Patricks cemetery to the Catholic church at the bottom of the hill.

The church stands alongside the Old Blackburn Rd. After visiting the church we turned left along the road to its junction with Knot Lane. Old Blackburn Road from Knot Lane to Chorley Road corner was only built in the early years of the nineteenth century, up until then the route between Preston and Blackburn was up Church Brow and down Knot Lane. The house on the corner of Knot Lane used to be a toll bar. It was on Knot Lane on that fatal day in 1722 that William Buckley met up with Samuel Crooke, both men had a servant with him. An argument ensued resulting in both men agreeing to fight a duel, by that time dueling was illegal. Samuel Crooke being a magistrate would have been well aware of this.

At the top of Knot Lane we turned left down Church Brow. The taller building just behind the white house is Calvert Court. The conservative club used to be on that site and close by it was another toll gate. The cottages just beyond it are some of the oldest houses in Walton.

This photo is looking east. The sand bank on the bend is church deeps and where I used to go swimming with my mates in my youth.

This old church is at the bottom of Church Brow. The River Ribble round the corner on Victoria Road used to be very prone to flooding. To the south of the road is known as Walton Cop and it was flooded many times,

On the above map (circled) is shown a mill race, in the 18th century before the new stretch of the Blackburn Road was built, the mill race on the River Darwen continued northwards to where the garage is at Chorley Road corner where it turned west running parallel with the Ribble to a point just behind the Old Police Station, at which point it turned and merged with the Ribble. Along the route of the race were three mills. Two corn mills close to the river Darwen, one of which survives to this day, but it has grown considerably since those days, and an oil mill close to where the garage is today which I assume must have been vegetable oil. The existence of this race contributed in no small way in exacerbating the flooding potential of the Ribble. A bridge was built to carry the Blackburn Rd over the race onto Church Brow, it was known as Burscough Bridge after a Peter Burscough who provided the funds for building it in his will. This was no small bridge, being 24 foot with an 8 foot arch.

                                  The river Darwen where it joins the Ribble.

     

We walked along the Boulevard towards London Rd Bridge, looking across the River, the area on the opposite side stretching all the way to the Capital Centre is known as The Flats. This was another area that was often flooded. On one particular occasion the river burst its banks in such a catastrophic way that the course of the river took an easier route across the Flats leaving the bridge high and dry and causing the authority to go to great expense in nudging the river back to its original course, raising the level of the road and defences.

                                                                        The End