Late morning drove to Stocks Reservoir to the excavation of St James's Church near Dalehead.
During the 1920s and 30s the valley of Dalehead was flooded with a dam to construct Stocks Reservoir. The reservoir was needed to supply water to the rapidly expanding town of Blackpool on the Lancashire coast. The flooding required the demolition and flooding of the village of Stocks-in-Bowland which vanished under the water in 1932. The community church was St James’s which although not flooded was demolished in 1933 and rebuilt further to the east in 1938. The site of the original church was eventually made into a car park. Now, with the help of Oxford Archaeology (North) based in Lancaster and many local volunteers the church foundations are being excavated, stabilised and made into a countryside feature.
Today demonstrated the enthusiasm of amateur volunteers as they worked through a day of pouring rain.

Enthusiastic amateurs work in the pouring rain

Excavating the old boiler room

The Church before demolition

On my way home this morning I saw the old boundary stone between Chorley and Whittle-le-Woods had been broken in two during the recent road resurfacing works. This is disgraceful vandalism of our heritage.

This morning in Chorley to photograph some members of Chorley Historical and Archaeological Society by the replica stone cross that used to be on Cheapside / Gillibrand Walks, Chorley. The original was a roadside or 'weeping' cross where funeral processions halted that prayers might be said for the departed soul.

One advantage of cycling is that if something catches my eye I can stop straight away and investigate. That’s what happened this morning when I stopped to take a photo of a scarecrow in Brinscall St John's Primary School garden

If you don’t know Chorley, the ‘Chorley Guardian’ office can be hard to find. It’s down a narrow alley off Market Street by the Yorkshire Bank. The post of Editor is being merged with the Preston Office as the newspaper comes under the control of The Lancashire Evening Post. I suspect the Chorley office may not be here much longer (I hope I’m wrong) so I called in to take a few pictures.

The alley off Market Street

The Chorley Guardian - hidden away

Moses Cocker's Farm in the rain

View of Moses Cocker's SW wall

Door lintel and the 1693 date stone

This evening cycled to Brindle Historical Society for a talk by Dr Ian Saunders of Lancaster University on Early Maps in Lancashire. The presentation was a treat but then as I set off for the cycle home there was another treat, the view of Venus above the crescent Moon in the west.

Venus top left & Moon middle centre.

Early surveyors with their measuring wheel.

Lancashire in 1607

All that's left of the seat this evening

the seat when new 17 Feb 2003

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kathleen Ferrier, CBE (22 April 1912 – 8 October 1953)
She was an English contralto singer who achieved international fame.

She was a good friend of Florence Wilson of Withnell Fold, Lancashire and married Flo's brother Bert in 1935. Before she became a world famous singer she was a pianist and often played at concerts and various events in the Reading Room at Withnell Fold.

Kathleen Ferrier

Withnell Fold Reading Room - now a private residence. In the 1930s Kathleen used to play the piano here.

The best Steak Pies I've ever tasted, from Wallace Bros, Moffat

Wallace Bros butchers in Moffat

Linlithgow Palace south entrance

The room where Mary was born in 1542

Linlithgow Palace showing the original east entrance

Mary Stuart

In 1558, she married Francis, Dauphin of France.

Francis ascended the French throne as King Francis II in 1559, and Mary became queen consort of France until she was widowed on 5 December 1560. Mary then returned to Scotland, arriving in Leith on 19 August 1561

Stirling Railway Station

It was raining and gloomy when I set off for an early evening local walk. However, it was very atmospheric with subtle light. Nobody else was out walking.

Wall and tree on Copthurst Lane

Flower display on Waterhouse Green

Parbold Beacon is shown on the map as a small dot (lat/long: 53.589323, -2.748293). It can’t be seen from the main road (A5209) so as I’d never seen it before I thought I’d investigate. I was on my bike so parking wasn’t a problem. Through a gate is a path that leads to the monument which is one of the strangest shapes I’ve seen. It is a vertical column set in a large dome of local grit stone. Because of its shape it is known as The Parbold Bottle.
An inscription on the side says:
REFORM ACT
1832
COLUMN RESTORED
1958
The column on the top looks original but I’m sure the base is part of the 1958 restoration.
The 1832 Reform Act was also known as Representation of the People Act and was a move to give more voting power to working people and more Parliamentary representation to cities that had sprung up during the Industrial Revolution. It took away seats from the "rotten boroughs" - those with very small populations.
It increased the number of people eligible to vote by about 60%

Parbold Beacon or
The Parbold Bottle

REFORM ACT 1832
COLUMN RESTORED 1958

The 1958 restoration

The front tyre on my bike wasn’t worn out but was in a bad state because of some damage that had penetrated through the tread and into the fabric. At high pressure the tyre was bulging, indicating a new tyre was needed as soon as possible. It was a 700*23c Eda Tre Grinta which is now difficult to get hold of. I cycled to Broadgate Cycle stores in Penwortham but they didn’t have one. Then on to Ribble Cycles in Preston but I was shocked to see the shop had closed and looked a mess as the door and window frames were rotting under accumulated dirt. I’d been buying cycling stuff from there since I started working in Preston in 1965. Then it was run by Hughie Sandiford, who died a few years ago.

Ribble Cycles on Walton Summit

Ribble Cycles warehouse showroom

 A notice on the window said they were now operating out of a Mail Order Warehouse on Walton Summit Business Park.  So I turned round and cycled back the way I’d come back to Walton Summit where I found them. The warehouse had a shop front which they called a showroom. I showed them the tyre and yes they were in stock. ‘Can I buy one’ I asked. Not without an order number I was told. That meant I had to cycle home, go on-line to buy the tyre, then return with a printed order confirmation. Fortunately it was a cool sunny afternoon so quite nice to cycle a few extra miles. As it turned out buying 2 tyres saved me over £8 so the second tyre was effectively almost half price. Treating myself to new tyres front and rear was my treat to myself.

A treat, new treads front and rear

In the woods above Brinscall someone had
planted flowers in the ruins of Marsden's Farm

Comparing the Goit outlet, now and then

= = = morning cycle ride below = = =

Ashurst's Beacon is in Dalton, to the NE of Skelmersdale, Lancs. The site was originally part of a nationwide beacon system set up during the Spanish conflicts of the 1580s.
The current structure dates from around 1800, when local landowner Sir William Ashurst decided that a more permanent beacon was needed for the oncoming Napoleonic Wars.
 

Ashurst's Beacon

This windmill in Parbold dates from 1794 and took advantage of the adjacent canal to transport the corn. The canal was opened in 1781. The windmill was superseded by Ainscough's steam corn mill in the mid 1800s, milling imported corn from America. The steam mill burnt down in 1951, was re-built, and finally demolished in the 1980s. This windmill building remains.

It was a windless sunny morning so I decided to have a look at Ashurst’s Beacon as I’d never visited it before. In the way I cycled through Astley Park, Chorley to see how the statue of Benjamin Disraeli was getting on. The graffiti I saw the last time had now been cleaned off. For such a nice morning there were few people about.
 

Benjamin Disraeli in the walled
garden, Astley Hall, Chorley

Astley Hall and lake from the dam