Last year I was looking at the Turnpike Road that came to Walton le Dale from the east. It was known as the ‘Balderston to Burscough Bridge Turnpike Trust’. It was outlined in an Act of Parliament, for making and maintaining a Road from Balderston to Burscough Bridge in Walton-in-le-Dale, in the County Palatine of Lancaster. The whole article is here:
I had arrived at this point whilst investigating why the route to Preston from Moon’s Mill, now known as Higher Walton, required people to travel up Knot Lane and then down Church Brow. That will be another article in the future, which will specifically explore this topic but, in short, there wasn’t a road at the lower level, past what is now the recreation ground, due to local land ownership or land rights.
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Burscough Bridge
Documents belonging to Sir Cuthbert de Hoghton were printed in the book “Hoghton Deeds and Papers” by the Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. This publication was looked at by Frank Coupe when he was writing his book about the history of Walton le Dale. He stated that it had provided him with some remarkable and interesting material relevant to the village of Walton le Dale over the past seven hundred years. However he claimed that much of this matter is extremely complex, referring in many cases to the transference of lands and property. A quitclaim meant that the former owner quitted all claims to the property.
Within those papers was a section that refers to a Peeter Burscough gent.
Repairing of the highways. 1621 June 7. Whereas Peeter Burscough gent. late of W. bequeathed £40 for maintaining the highways within the lordship of Walton in le Dale (the Coppe betw. Darwen Bridge and Ribble Bridge only Excepted) to be spent at the discretion of Thos. Osbaldeston, Ric. Woodcocke, John Jackson, Thos. Banester, Will. Jackson, and Evan Cattrell, these have met and provided that a rental of £3 from lands wh. they have bought shall be divided into eight parts to maintain sections of the road, namely, betw. Tardie Yate and the towne of Walton 6s. 8d.; Lemon House and the towne of Walton 6s. 8d.; Cleton grine and the towne bancke 20s.; Brindle Yate and Osbaldeston crosse 7s.; Brindle stups and the many brook 3s.; Meare Yate by Popes and Can Bridg 6s. 8d.; Smithie Crosse and The High gate lene 6s. 8d.; Curdall and Atkinson Yate 3s. 4d. Witn. (torn). Hakehead, John Breres, Geo. Darwen. Leonard Sergent.
Also in Frank Coupe’s ‘Walton le Dale – A History of the Village’ book, he has a section that discusses the Roads and Bridges of Walton le Dale. The following passage describes the beginnings of the ‘Turnpike Trusts’ and specifically, later, the Burscough Bridge and Balderstone Turnpike Trust:
In 1663 an Act of Parliament came into force whereby permission was given to a trust for the construction of a road through Hertford. Cambridge and Huntingdon; this would appear to have been the inception of the Turnpike Act, for powers were granted for tolls to be collected on this particular road. Other Acts of a similar kind followed very quickly throughout the country. The Burscough Bridge and Balderstone Turnpike Trust took control of the road that passed through Walton le Dale, Cuerdale, Samlesbury, to Balderstone. Several toll gates controlled this length of road, one being near Cooper Hill Gate, in Church Brow, Walton, another at the Five Barred Gate, from which the name is derived.
This cause me some confusion initially. The statement sad that the ‘Burscough Bridge and Balderstone Turnpike Trust‘ took control of the road that passed through Walton le Dale, Cuerdale, Samlesbury, to Balderstone. Seeing the name Burscough lead to me thinking that the town and civil parish in the West Lancashire was somehow involved. However, this was very odd. The place names of Walton le Dale, Cuerdale, Samlesbury, and Balderstone, are the principle ones on that route. If the road were to go all the way to west Lancashire, surely there would be mentions of places on the way, such as , Lostock Hall, Farrington, Bretherton, Croston, Rufford, etc.
I asked local historian and author of the Preston History website, Peter Smith, if he knew anything about it. He sent me a section from book about the history of ‘The Hundred of Blackburn’, which Walton le Dale is within. This confirmed that Burscough Bridge was indeed a bridge in Walton le Dale. It is no longer there, but it would have been at the western end of Cuerdale Lane, at the bottom of Church Brow. That answered the question about the termination of the Turnpike Road, but it created another thing that was a mystery. Why would a bridge be required in that location?
The answer is that there was a Goyt (Goit) that passed through the village. A goyt (or goit) is a noun primarily used in Northern English dialects (specifically Yorkshire and Lancashire) to describe a small, artificial channel of water. This one came from the River Darwen and discharged into the River Ribble. It been used to provide a source of power for a number of water mills that appear to have once been in the village. There is no real evidence of it now, and not much on the mid eighteenth century map that were created by the Ordnance Survey. There are some stronger clues on two older maps though.
Also, the same book that answered the ‘Burscough Bridge’ question (The Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire) had another passage that mentioned the ‘Goit’. The specific section is:
THE HUNDRED BRIDGES OF THE HUNDRED OF BLACKBURN IN THE 17th CENTURY By A. Langshaw, J.P. Read 25th May 1946. The passage states the following:
The bridges over the Darwen were Darwen Bridge, Cann Bridge and Bannister Bridge, with Burscough Bridge over the Mill Goit leading in the road from Mellor Brook.
Evidence on the Maps
The first map was published in 1786 by map makers Thomas Billinge and William Yates. The detail can be seen on the centre south west sheet of the ‘County Palatine of Lancaster’ map they made.
The map can be viewed on the National Library of Scotland website, here:
https://maps.nls.uk/view/220113070
I have marked the course of the goyt in blue to emphasise it. There appears to be two water wheels marked on the section south of Church Brow and one to the north. Whilst none of this is to scale, it does illustrate that there was a water course at the bottom of the hill. The mills to the south remained in some form afterwards, and indeed the area is occupied by a businesses that has descended from those mills. However, the one to the north disappeared completely. As did the need for a bridge. The goyt was later filled in, and there is no trace of it now at the bottom of Church Brow. The future mills still took water from the River Darwen, but they used a mill pond (or reservoir) to maintain a more reliable all year round supply of water and the discharge went back into the River Darwen.
The second map that shows evidence of the goyt is the survey that was done by the Lancaster Canal company in 1795. They were planning a route for their canal from Kendal to Wigan. The line of the canal was to pass to the west of Preston and then on to Whittle-le-Woods through Lostock Hall, so Walton le Dale was only included on the map as a nearby point of reference. At that time, Walton le Dale would have been one of the more significant places in what is now know as South Ribble. Whilst there is not enough detail to see the water mills this time, there was still clearly marked a second ‘stream’ from the River Darwen that connected to the River Ribble at a different location to the normal confluence.
I have traced over the the routes of the road leading into Walton le Dale, marking them in different colours. I have also marked the River Darwen and River Ribble. You can clearly see the River Darwen as we know it today crossing Chorley Road, but you can also see a second stream crossing Cuerdale Lane (Church Brow). The area that the surveyors have marked as Walton le Dale on their map appears more likely to be Pear Tree, School Lane and Brindle Road.
As previously mentioned, all traces of the former Burscough Bridge have gone. There is also no Goyt anymore. Although, there is some evidence of its course still visible today. When the water supply for the mill, now the site of Massy Feeds, but once Ley’s, was reengineered in the nineteenth century, some of the filled in Goyt was just left and trees have grown there. This runs along the western edge of the Recreation Ground. This tree line, on the Goyt remains at Walton Mill in Walton le Dale, can be seen on the Ordnance Survey map from 1848.
The whole map sheet, which is Lancashire Sheet LXI, surveyed from 1844 to 1847, and published in 1849, can be viewed on the National Library of Scotland website:
https://maps.nls.uk/view/102343946
The map can also be compared to a modern satellite image using the side-by-side georeferenced maps feature on the National Library of Scotland website:
Goyt
Goyt (also spelled goit or gote) is a Northern English dialect term for a small artificial channel or watercourse, typically constructed to feed a watermill.
I have varied the spelling in this article. I tend to favour using the term ‘Goyt’, as that appears to be the correct or prevalent one. Where I have found other references, I have left the original author’s spelling.
Other Evidence of Burscough Bridge
There is other evidence of Burscough Bridge. David Hunt mentions it in his History Walton le Dale and Bamber Bridge book. He writes about ‘The Blackburn Hundred Bridge Book (1803–1805)’. However, he talks about it in the context of the LRO (Lancashire Records Office) and give a reference related to that. The information has been reorganised since then (1997), so the reference is different in what is now known as the Lancashire Archives at Bow Lane in Preston.
The Blackburn Hundred Bridge Book (1803–1805)
- It’s one of a set of Bridge Books created by the county justices in Lancashire.
- Each Hundred (administrative subdivision) had responsibility for bridges “of the county charge” — i.e. bridges the county, not the parish or township, had to maintain.
- Around 1803–05, a systematic survey was carried out, listing bridges in the Blackburn Hundred (which included Walton-le-Dale, Samlesbury, Balderstone, etc.).
- These volumes typically record the name of each bridge, its location, who was responsible for repairs, and sometimes notes on structure/condition.
- The “Bridge Books” survive in Lancashire Archives, usually catalogued under Quarter Sessions or county administration records.
David Hunt wasn’t referring to a published commercial book, but to one of these official manuscript volumes.
I have yet to visit the Lancashire Archive to review this information for myself, but it can be identified on LANCAT (the online catalogue for Lancashire Archives), as follows:
https://archivecat.lancashire.gov.uk/calmview/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=Q%2fA%2fR%2f6
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I will revisit this again, once I have seen the information at the Lancashire Archives with my own eyes.
In conclusion, the Burscough Bridge existed and appears to have take it’s name from Peeter Burscough gent (gentleman).
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