Drive and Stroll, with Ron Freethy

THE more I explore East Lancashire the more the area amazes me.

This week I found examples of Victorian Lancashire's philosophy of "waste nowt."

Next time you drive on the road from Blackburn to Preston, just before the Windmill Inn at Mellor, look out for the gateposts on each side of the road.

They seem to be purpose-built unless you look at them carefully and know something of the industrial archeology of the period.

These days we all use North Sea Gas and nearly all the Lancashire coal mines have closed.

At one time, however, coal was burned in large iron retorts in order to produce gas and leave behind coke.

When they had started to burn through, these retorts were scrapped.

Some clever businessmen noticed, however, that the retorts looked like gateposts.

No doubt they said: "They need nobbut a coat of paint."

It is interesting to see that these old retort posts have survived, while the coal miner and smelly old gas works have vanished into history.

I would think that these retorts have been used in other areas as well as Mellor.

Does any reader know of other unusual gateposts in the area? Still on the subject of gas, I wonder if there are good examples of gas lamps still standing? Did you know that a huge multi-headed gas lamp was known as a "gormless."

It "stood still and did nowt" - which is no doubt why we use the word gormless as an insult.

Not far away from the gateposts at Mellor is the old Windmill Inn and there actually was a windmill on the site at one time.

There was another close to the canal at Eanam Wharf. I wonder if readers have other records of where windmills once stood in East Lancashire.

The nearer we get to the Millennium the more we will think of the past.

It is the whereabouts of the unusual features of East Lancashire which we need to discover and catalogue.

If you can help why not write to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and share your knowledge with us?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.