Longridge Heritage Trails 1.5-2 Miles
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HOW LONGRIDGE TRAIL 1 Quarrying & Textiles Approximately 2.4 km (11/2 miles) – about 11/2 hours A MILL VILLAGE DEVELOPED Following the arrival of the railway, Longridge boomed. 1. With the Millennium Cross on your left walk up Berry Lane 6. At the junction, continue straight ahead along Higher Road. 7. Continue along the road to the junction with Green Lane. was also used for The Harris Museum, Fulwood Barracks, and the Between 1850 and 1874, four coal-powered cotton Longridge started life as a small to the Post Office. This was the original main road from Preston to Clitheroe, Early in the 20th century, The Cabin was the site of Harry Clegg’s Railway Station in Preston, as well as Blackpool Town Hall, Bolton settlement around St. weaving mills were built along the railway line. This was The Post Office was built around 1880 and replaced one in King known as High Street. We will now walk uphill noting a Temperance Saloon, which was housed in a wooden cabin. Just Parish Church, Liverpool and Fleetwood Docks and many other accompanied by an influx of workers. Houses were built Lawrence's Church St Lawrence’s Church major buildings in Lancashire. Street. It is one of only two properties in Berry Lane conducting number of sites along the way. beyond The Cabin is Cut Thorn believed to be eight mill workers for them in the Stonebridge area, in Berry Lane and in about 500 years ago. cottages dating from the mid 1800s. the same business after more than 100 years. (Number 71, Immediately on your right is a row of 11. Cross back over Higher Road and into Chaigley Road and the streets built off it. The Churches, Berry Lane By the end of newsagent and stationer is the other.) cottages known as Club Row. These 20 8. After passing The Cabin, walk for a then right into John Smith’s Playing Field. Just on your right the 18th School and the Co-op building were all completed by 2. Turn left up Irwell Street and admire the view of St Paul’s cottages built between 1794 and 1804 are further 150 metres along Higher Road. is the cast iron base of a crane, still in its original position. 1890. Longridge continued to grow during the first half century this thought to be the world’s oldest surviving Church before returning to turn left into Berry Lane. On the right is a cream coloured building Turn sharp right towards the tunnel entrance. of the 20th century. had extended In the right-hand corner of Irwell street is the Guide Hut, which building society dwellings. A group of just beyond a row of Edwardian villas. Look Steam engines could not get through the tunnel into the quarries up the end was opened on October 20th 1934. It was rented by the Borough subscribers met in the White Bull and carefully at the front and you can see the beyond, so cranes were used to pull trucks through with rope. The of the ridge clubbed together to build them, one at a Council for the ‘duration of the war’ and used extensively by the bridge words Crown Hotel through the paint. legend above the tunnel entrance reads ‘P & L R (Preston & to Market Place, which WVS (Women’s Voluntary Service). Here, among many activities, they time. You will notice that the cottages are Longridge Railway) - 1839 - F H P C T’ (Frederick Henry Park, the acted as a focal point for the local farming rolled bandages, knitted, packed parcels, and made clothes for the not all the same, suggesting that they were Strickland House former engineer, Cooper & Tullis, builders). Look across the park beyond the quarry community. Rows of cottages for handloom weavers troops – pyjamas being a speciality. built separately. Each cottage has a datestone. children’s play area and you can make out the quarry face. Imagine basement with room for one loom. Look were built in Club Row, King Street and New Town. 3. Continue up Berry Lane to the next turning – Church Street. Willows how it used to be, the original quarries here and on the other side for Blue Plaque. Next, on your left is Farm 12 On the corner is The Manse built in 1865 by the Rev William Booth of Higher Road extended to more than 20 times the amount of Strickland House – note the datestone of JOHN SMITH’S PLAYING FIELD Quarry to his own design. (Now Victoria’s India Restaurant) He also space you are looking at! The 1892 Ordnance survey map shows LONGRIDGE 1798. On your right is Broomhill, a mill designed and built the Congregational Church across the this area as Old Quarry. Once the railway was dismantled the area Quarry owner’s house dating from the late HIGHER ROAD road. The Anglican St Paul’s Church dominates was used as a landfill before being landscaped into today’s park. nineteenth century and on the left is crane Church Street and was built to supplement St CHAIGLEY ROAD base former 12. Follow the pathway downhill; it roughly follows the line of Square Fold believed to have been farm quarry Millennium Lawrence’s (see Trail 2). It was built, on land CHAIGLEY ROAD the original railway. After about 175 metres (just after the St Wilfrid’s igher Road 11 Cross H workers’ cottages. R.C.Church St Paul’s donated by Robert Smith, between 1886 tunnel second of two ancillary paths which join the main path) look Former Church Club Row Railway Berry Lane and 1890, however the Tower was 10 to right and you will see a bridge. Station Dilworth Lane RIDGE COURT ce not added until 1937. Prior to This carried a second railway line up to Lords Quarry – named after la CHAIGLEY ROAD 9 School & P WHEATLEY DRIVE t Churches e the church being built, the the Earl of Derby who owned the land – and the bridge provided k r Kestor Lane a site of M street was known as access to Willows Farm, which can be seen beyond the trees. Victoria Mill Stonebridge Lower Lane Queens Mill on Chatburn Road (now occupied by Jones Queens Mill Calder Street and it 13. At the end of the path turn left to rejoin Chaigley Road, turn right Mill was intended to build Heathcote’s Stroud) with the railway running close by, c.1947. Royal Mail N Restaurant and then left at the bottom and right again into Wheatley Drive. houses up the hill to Quarry LUNE STREET Sorting 8 On your right you will see through the fencing the Royal Mail St Paul’s Church. Hanging sign on Office BOWLAND CLOSE Preston Rd St Lawrence’s meet with Green Lane. WHEATLEY DRIVE i l l Sorting Office, which is built entirely within the old reservoir of l H Trail 1 the White Bull. The New e Church p 4. Continue up Berry Lane to Market Place. 13 former a Trail 2 Victoria Mill. The mill was located beyond the reservoir where new Town h Crown building dates C On your left is The Limes – a building with a varied history. It Hotel from about 1871 houses now stand. It was built in 1862 by Robert Smith of A SMALL COUNTRY TOWN Alston Reservoirs was probably built in the 1880s and the first reference to it is in EDEN GARDENS GREEN LANE and was built as a Dilworth House and originally housed 360 looms. It specialised in 1889 when James Kay junior, a cotton trader, lived there. It HIGHER ROAD 14 hotel. It became the high quality fancy cloth for the home market. An extension of the By the middle of the 20th century, however, the remained a private house until the Longridge Urban District By the 1840s, there was a great demand for Longridge Beacon Café in the 1930s and factory wall was built so close to the railway that drain pipes had to railway had been superseded by road transport and the Council bought it for offices in 1947. So it remained until the Cut Thorn be inset in the walls. In 1925 there were almost 700 looms Fell stone in the rapidly growing towns of Lancashire was later used as a youth hostel. mills had succumbed to overseas competition. and large quarries were developed. A gravity-powered 1974 local government reorganisation, after which it housed GREEN LANE It is now Beacon Villas. Next is the operating in the mill, but 10 years later, in 1935, it was closed. solicitors and accountants before the change to its current use as a The Cabin Longridge has, nevertheless, continued to grow. The railway was completed in 1840 to take the stone to the Paul Heathcote’s Longridge 14. At the end of Wheatley Drive turn right into Green Lane and nursery. The Library was built in the grounds in 1964. It replaced PARLICK AVENUE population has in fact almost doubled since 1950 as main railway network in Preston. In 1848 this was Square 7 Restaurant – note the date stone with its almost immediately left into Mersey Street. people have moved into what is now a pleasant small the original building at the junction of Berry Lane with Market Fold converted to steam power. Masonic symbols. Look straight down Mersey Street towards the Co-operative Hall, country town. It serves as a centre for the surrounding Place, which was demolished to widen the road. Until about 1871 it was which dominates the skyline. (see Trail 2 for more about the Co-op). area and offers easy access to the attractive countryside 5.