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31 
Mr. Watkin is right in saying that the name Windy Harbour isa 
sure sign of a Roman road, we may probably have in this an old 
Roman road, for on the shoulder of Hameldon we have a place 
on this road marked Windy Harbour in the ordnance map ; 
anyhow, like a true Roman road, it goes straight over hill and 
dale with no attempt to seek the easier gradients of the valleys. 
John Wesley went as near to a commination of this road in 
1788, as could be expected from such a worthy divine, denouncing 
it as one of the worst he had ever travelled. 
At a time when the best roads in England were the subject of 
loud and frequent complaints of travellers from the great towns 
to the metropolis, we can readily understand that the bye-ways 
of Lancashire must have been bad almost beyond description, 
and as such we find them described in the accounts of antiquaries, 
such as Thoresby and Young. But in the middle of the 18th 
century, a great movement caused by the development of trade 
led to that extensive system of turnpiking which was as great a 
revolution in its day as the railways of later times. Lancashire 
was rather behind the times. The first Turnpike Act was passed 
in the twelfth year of Charles the Second, being an Act for 
turnpiking a portion of the great north road in the eastern 
counties. In the early part of the 18th century, several Acts were 
passed with reference to the southern roads. Between 1750 and 
1800 the movement was general throughout Lancashire and the 
West Riding. In 1754, the Act for the Blackburn and Adding- 
ham Road through Padiham, Burnley, and Colne, was obtained, 
and as part of this road our present Colne Road was made, cross- 
ing the old road at Duke Bar. In the same year the Act for the 
Rochdale and Burnley Road through Bacup was passed. In 
1759 we have the Halifax and Burnley Act for the road through 
Todmorden, Holme, Cliviger, and by the Long Causeway and 
Brunshaw to Burnley. In 1795, we have the Burnley and 
Edenfield Act, which brought into existence the present Man- 
chester Road. In 1817 the Halifax trustees obtained an Act 
whereby a diversion and a piece of new road were made from 
near Holmes Chapel by Walk Mill to the Rochdale and Burnley 
road above Boggart Brig, so creating the line of communication 
by Burnley Wood to Todmorden, which practically superseded 
the earlier road by Brunshaw. And, lastly, the Blackburn and 
Addingham trustees obtained in 1827 an Act for making the new 
road from Accrington through Huncoat and Hapton to Burnley. 
Let me pause here for a moment to mention a fact which 
must have even so soon been generally forgotten. . From the 
Angel Inn the new Accrington road had a proposed branch along 
Sandygate, which it left at the Hole-in-the-Wall, and thence by 
Nelson House, above Healey Wood Road, on the higher side of 
