of Bolton, "the prisoners were carried along with them, being tied two and two together and forced over Liverpoole Watter at Hales ford when it was too deep almost for horses to go. They must wade over either in their clothes or putting them off carry them upon their necks. Now the prisoners had special care one of another, keeping close together to support one another if any were weak and in danger in the watter, so that through God's power they all got through with less danger than the horsemen" (p. 52). Again, it is stated (p. 54) that Rupert after Marston Moor fled "into Lancashire about Hornebie and so to Liverpool Watter through Hailes ford or the Ferry, and to Chester he went." And again (p. 58) that Sir John Meldrum fell upon the enemy at Ormskirk, "that they fled in a most confused manner towards Liverpool and Hailles ford.” In his notes Mr. Beamont quotes from a letter to Prince Rupert, "the rebels have this evening attempted the passage at Haleford," and adds, "The river, then so fordable, cannot be forded now, although in the recollection of some persons still living there was still one place where people on foot or in vehicles might pass over the river from Hale on the Lancashire side to Weston or Ince on the Cheshire shore." Our member, Mr. John Owen, crossed about thirty years ago from Weston Point when the tide was out, but had to strip entirely when crossing the main stream, and in returning got out of his depth.

HOLLINFARE on the Mersey. Here troops are stated to have crossed during the Civil War.*

BARTON-ON-IRWELL. - Mr. Thompson Watkin, in Roman Lancashire, p. 48, states that the site of the old

*Discourse of the Warr, p. 31.

ford at Barton is about four hundred yards down stream from the present bridge.

AGECROFT BRIDGE is mentioned by Leland as “a Bridge veri hy, and great, of Timbre.”

The MILNE BRIDGE, at Wheat Milne, in Manchester, and "twoe bridges neere adjoininge to the same," were taken down for military purposes during the Civil War in the seventeenth century, and were repaired by John Hartley, Esq., high sheriff, at the cost of £22, which was repaid to him in 1649.*

MILES PLATTING, Manchester, appears to owe its name to the fact that the road there crossed a brook by a platting an arrangement of hurdles interlaced or platted with bushes for the use of foot passengers. The platting was one mile or thereabouts from the Market Cross, at Manchester.t

The RIBBLE FORDS, across the sands from the Naze to Hesketh Bank, are frequently mentioned in the Discourse of the Warr in Lancashire as having been used by the troops (pp. 24, 37, 39, 57, 58, 71). On one occasion the Royalists were delayed at Freckleton waiting till the tide permitted them to cross, Sir John Meldrum and his forces being in close pursuit. "It was thought if Sir John's army had been one hour sooner they would most of them have been drowned to avoid fighting" (p. 57).

PRESTON. In the year 1400 the bridge over the Ribble was so broken by floods in the river and the high tides which washed the floating masses of ice about in the winter that there was "no crossing or access" without danger to person or property. A new stone bridge

* Manchester Weekly Times, Notes and Queries, No. 344.

+ Manchester City News, Notes and Queries, March 12th, 1881.

was built in consequence, but (apparently for financial reasons) was not finished in 1407.*

SANKEY BROOK.-Mr. Sibson, in a paper in the Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society (second series, vol. ii., p. 326), stated that two piers of a bridge remained at a point where Townfield Lane, an old British way between Haydock and Lowton, crosses the Sankey Brook.

* Wylie, England under Henry IV., i. 78, ii. 472 n.