Roads and artifacts: Turton Tower Pill box

Milestones, Boundary Markers, Historical Artifacts, Street Furniture, lost roads and buildings.

There are many traces of our ancestors scattered around our landscape. Mile Markers and Boundary stones are there too. The Milestone Society believes that there are approximately 9000 left in the United Kingdom. Some are cherished but others are hidden in hedgerows, some have been unwittingly destroyed by crashes, road equipment or even stolen. Roads have been straightened to make them safer. There are old gateposts still left in place, old buildings, and place names that declare an evocative past. The aim is to capture some of this information at least photographically before it disappears.

Although the Fylde Coast does not have ancient history, the Romans apparently struggled to Kirkham. There have been huge changes in the last two centuries from literally a a few fishermans' and agricultural dwellings, to a full blown tourist and light engineering industry.

More historical information can be found here about the Fylde coast.

It also seems that time has marched on and left what appears to be some very respectable buildings... which just should be used, but seem to have no worth.

Links from this Blog

Nearly-Midnight The genealogy website relating to the family. A tangled web of people all related to one another, explore!
Memorials Website dedicated to War Memorials - The majority in the North of England. Visits to churches, but also memorials in out of the way places.
Robert Clark The Father of Henry Martyn-Clark - A missionary out in the North-West Frontier of India. One of the first Europeans to set foot in Afganistan
Affetside Census A small village north of Bury, Lancashire, I can trace many of my immediate ancesters from there. On the Roman Road, Watling Street
Andrew Martyn-Clark My Father and his part in my World. Also my mother and his parents too.
Henry Martyn-Clark My Great Grandfather, his roots and his achievements. Discusses malaria but also his confrontations with Islam.

Monday, 24 March 2014

Turton Tower Pill box

Slap bang on the Two Crosses route is the Turton Tower Pillbox. It is difficult to see what it protected, or even how effective they have been. However it has stood the march of time and remains quite spooky in the half light and early in the morning. I've been past it several times. It remains quite graffiti free and seems quite uncared for. World War II Pillbox near Turton Tower on Chapeltown Road, near Edgworth. This Pillbox is of type FW3/24. During World War II, these bunkers were used for the defense of the United Kingdom against a possible enemy invasion, and there are examples all over the country. They were built in 1940 and into 1941.
The map references are 53° 37′ 58.16″ N 2° 24′ 14.90″ W

53.63282 -2.40414

Approaching from the reservoir and heading towards Hoghton tower.
There is a railway line in the dip at Hoghton Tower.
The Chapeltown road is behind the pillbox.