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29 
I have obtained the loan of tracings from a series of plans con- 
stituting a survey of the estates of Richard ‘Townley, in 1661, 
made by James Hamilton. 
Comparing the roads shown on these plans with the turnpike 
roads of to-day, we see that in the main there is a close corre- 
spondence, the turnpike trustees having afterwards in most 
eases followed the old roads. If you add to the comparison the 
ordnance maps, you will see that those tortuous narrow ways 
which are shown by the ordnance maps to still run side by side 
in so many places with new turnpikes, are the old roads shown 
in these maps of 1661. Take the road to Manchester. Our 
Townley plans and the ordnance maps, show that from Burnley 
the principal road to Manchester went by Govdham Hill, Sandy 
Gate, Coal Clough Lane, Cog Lane, Wholaw, and Nutshaw to 
Dunnockshaw, and so through Goodshaw Fold and Rawtenstall 
to Edenfield. The present Manchester Road, as we all know, 
was entirely new for a considerable way out of Burnley, and 
even from Wholaw and Nutshaw the old road runs parallel with 
the new one. At Wholaw and Nutshaw the line of the old road 
went ‘as can still be seen) towards Hameldon, and a road from 
this Manchester Road left it at Bridgely Bank and went on to 
Hameldon, where it was joined by the road from Padiham and 
Hapton, and went over the hill to Haslingden, being in its course 
a part of the terrible road from Clitheroe to Haslingden, to which 
I shall have to refer. 
The Blackburn road to Burnley, Colne, and Yorkshire, lay 
through Rishton and Clayton-le-Moors to Altham, and crossing 
the river there it came by Padiham to Burnley, following 
generally the line of the present road, but from Burnley to Colne 
it was widely different. The road followed Hebrew Road and 
Burnley Lane Head where it divided into two roads, one of which 
went through Marsden Chapel, Reedyford, Barrowford, and 
Blackko to Gisburn, and the other went eastward by Haggate 
and Castorcliffe down to Colne Waterside. We must also refer 
to the road which ran in those days by Sandygate, Barracks 
Road, Gannow, and Rose Grove, to Bentley Wood Green, 
whence one branch, skirting the Green on the south side, went 
up to Hapton, and the other on the north side of the Green 
joined the road over Stanmore Common down to Padiham. 
Accrington Road was not made until long afterwards. Our 
Towneley plans also show the old roads to Halifax. From 
Burnley Town End the road is shown up Gunsmith Lane to 
Fulledge Lane End, whence the roads branched as now, the one 
by Brunshaw, Mereclough, and Heptonstall to Halifax, and the 
other by Fulledge, following the line of the present road as far 
as Nanheys, the bottom of Huffling Lane; but from this point 
the old road has gone in the bottom closely past the houses now 
