THE final brick in the wall has been fitted - almost 10 years after the Lancashire Telegraph first set out on the quest!

The wall in question is one that readers know as the ;spite wall', and thought to be made of all kinds of rubbish, in Ribchester Road, Wilpshire.

Back in 1998 Looking Back set out to find its origins - and this week the record was finally set straight by Carl Haythornthwaite, whose great grandfather Alfred Hitchon owned Clayton Manor at the end of the 19th century.

He was prompted to put pen to paper after seeing our old story, which questioned if the edifice was built to stop people peering into the manor, during a recent family discussion about ancestors.

Writing from his home in Grange, Carl said his grandfather, who was chairman and managing director of Howard and Bullough at the time, also owned land across from the manor, on either side of what is Somerset Avenue.

"When a developer started building houses in Somerset Avenue Mr Hitchon demanded 'ancient lights' rights, but was refused.

As he had had to pay this tax to the owners of Clayton Grange when he built his stable block, Mr Hitchon was naturally rather cross and typically, being the man he was, frustrated the developer by building a high wall along the north east edge of his kitchen garden.

"The line of the wall would have been along what is now The Hawthorns.

"The material was a slightly higher standard than suggested, as he was also involved with Shaw Glazed Brick Company in Accrington, and so he used whatever materials they had in stock.

It did have railway lines to reinforce it, though, and I do have to admit it included a kitchen sink!"

Without the ivy that grew later, the wall was definitely a visitor attraction and Carl remembers coaches stopping to view it after the Second World War.

He believes the edifice was built before the first war, however, as, in 1910, Mr Hitchon gave Clayton Manor to his son-in-law OH Haythornthwaite, who had married his only daughter Mary Emma three years previously, and moved to Ribble Hydro at Grindleton.

OH. was Carl's grandfather and a director of E&G Hindle at Bastwell Mill.

He made Clayton Manor the Haythornthwaite family home for the next two generations before they left it in 1961.

The wall was demolished by developers some time after that.