ford still in use, for so recently as November, 1895, the Garstang District Council, I am informed, ordered it to be repaved. It is on the road from Bleasdale to Cockerham. Above Shireshead we reach the point of intersection of the other Roman road, that leading from Ribchester to Lancaster. The ordnance map (six inch) shows the existing "Wyer or Street Bridge," and just below it "Site of a bridge" with dotted lines on each side, marked “Track of Roman road." Of this bridge only the south abutment remains. There is little recorded about it, but it is apparently the "Penistrete" mentioned by Tyldesley in his Diary (p. 58). When it was superseded, and when the existing bridge just above was erected, there is nothing to show. Dolphinholme Bridge past, we find ourselves drawing nearer to the source of our river, which now divides itself into two branches. Following the "Tarnbrook Wyre," we come to Stoops Bridge at Abbeystead, the successor of an ancient one which was washed down in 1791. Nearly a mile higher up is Lee Bridge, which carries across the stream the old road from Lancaster through the Trough of Bolland, and, after leaving this, we must say good-bye to the main stream of the Wyre. But the Wyre is not without tributaries. For she, As down to seaward she her course doth ply, The Calder, the Little Calder, the Brock, Woodplumpton Brook, and Barton Brook run in almost parallel courses, east and west, and each is therefore crossed by the old road from Preston to Lancaster and its predecessor, the Roman road from Walton-le-Dale to Lancaster. In the case of the Calder, the crossing is stated to have been near to Sturzacre House, where there would be a ford,* and nearer its source it would also be crossed by the Roman road from Ribchester, near the present Oakenclough Bridge. In the case of Woodplumpton Brook, a bridge at Broughton is mentioned by Ogilby. Near this brook is Catforth Hall, evidently named from the ford now superseded by Catforth Hall Bridge. On BARTON BROOK is Hollowforth Bridge. It is to be noticed that in these parts ford becomes "forth." Thistleton BROOK, another tributary of the Wyre, is crossed by Thistleton Bridge, the approach to which is diverted as if from the line of a pre-existing ford. Seeing on the map how all these branches of the Wyre converge towards St. Michaels, one is led to wonder why the Roman road and its successor were not diverted more to the west to make one single crossing suffice instead of half a dozen. Possibly in ancient times the land was too flat and swampy, but the more westward route does appear to have been taken, for a careful inspection of the map will enable us to trace a series of lanes by Catforth and St. Michaels, skirting the rivers, and providing together a not indirect through route northwards. Probably this route is of later date. The SKIPPON (called “Skipton" by Drayton) is a small stream which downe doth crawle To entertaine this Wyre attained to her fall. It flows through Poulton-le-Fylde, and at its confluence with the Wyre forms a little pool or bay, to which the name Skip-pool is given. The road from Poulton to Thornton crosses the stream at Skip-pool Bridge, which * Local paper, March, 1884. was in 1702 found to be "very ruinous, and in greate decaye for want of repaires." The sum of £25 was accordingly allowed by the justices for the repair of the bridge, and levied by a rate upon the several towns and places in the hundred of Amounderness.* PILLING WATER AND THE RIVER Cocker. These are two streams which claim independent notice since they both flow directly into the sea. Both, however, are of insignificant dimensions, and neither has any crossings of importance. On Pilling Water is Carr Bridge, which is no doubt the "Pilling Bridge" where Tyldesley spent twopence on September 27th, 1712.† On the Cocker are Cocker Bridge and Crookey Bridge (the latter on the highway from Cockerham to Garstang). Leland mentions riding over "Goker" on his way from Garstang, and passing over the river once or twice again upon the sands. THE LUNE. And now we come to the "stony, shallow Lune," which we will take up at the point where old Drayton bids farewell, And Conder coming in conducts her by the hand, The long promontory which terminates in Sunderland Point, and is severed from the mainland by the Lune, is supplied with communication not far from the mouth of the river in the Bazil Ferry, from near Overton to Glasson. Here on the last day of 1806 a farmer, drunk * Fishwick's Poulton, 199. ↑ Diary, p. 54. in his cart, was surprised to find his horse swimming across where it was accustomed to ford at low water. Across the sands of the bay, between Overton and Sunderland, there is a passage on which is the small Lades Bridge, of comparatively recent construction. The inhabitants of Overton complained in 1650 to the Parliamentary Commissioners that they were six miles distant from their parish church of Lancaster, and so surrounded by the flowing sea twice in twenty-four hours that they could not pass to their parish church, and therefore prayed to be made a parish of themselves. Nearer Lancaster we have Snatchem's Ferry, and close to the town Scale Ford, at which point it is believed the Roman road from Walton-le-Dale and on to Cartmel crossed the river. Mr. Thompson Watkin* considered it almost certain that a Roman bridge must have existed across the Lune at Lancaster, though no vestiges of it are known to remain. That the Romans would rely upon a ford solely was in his opinion unlikely. Whether this be so or not a bridge seems to have existed in the early middle ages. It has been supposed that one existed in Danish times, but this appears to rest on insufficient evidence. We are on more certain ground when we come to the reign of King John; at which time it would appear that the abbot of Furness was in part liable in respect of his fisheries in the river at Lancaster for the repair of the bridge, and the king directed that he should have timber for the purpose from the forest of Lancaster. From this we may infer that the then existing bridge was of wood. In the nineteenth year of Edward III. (A.D. 1345), and at subsequent dates, letters patent were issued for the pontage of the bridge. At what * Roman Lancashire, 192. † Croston's Baines, v. 443 G time it was constructed of stone there is no information. Leland alludes to Lune Bridge, and it is shown in the Elizabethan maps of the county. Ogilby, in 1675, refers to it as a "fair stone bridge." When the Pretender's forces advanced on Lancaster from the north, in 1745. Colonel Charteris, of Hornby Castle, and another officer then in the town would have destroyed the bridge to hinder their advance, but the townspeople pointed out that there would be no hindrance, because the river at low water was passable by horse or foot. Parts of the battlements at the north-east end were thrown down and never built up again, many accidents being thereby occasioned. In July, 1743, the corporation resolved that no more liveries be given or allowed to the farmers of the tolls. In 1782 the bridge, being dangerous, was indicted at quarter sessions, and an Act of Parliament was obtained for the erection of a new bridge at Skerton Cross. The latter, which was of five arches, was opened in 1788. The old bridge then became both useless and ruinous, as well as an obstruction to navigation. One of its four arches was taken down in 1802 to allow the passage of a new ship full rigged from the shipyard near the present baths and washhouses. The second arch. from the Skerton side fell down in 1807, another arch was taken down in 1814, and on the 29th December, 1845, the remaining arch fell. Now only the merest fragment of foundation remains. Close by the new bridge was the upper ford, on the line of the Roman road to Natland. Some signs of this ford were, it is said, found when building the bridge. At Halton, just above the modern bridge, was a ford. Mr. Slinger, of Lancaster, to whom I am indebted for much information about the Lune and its tributaries, tells me that an old man, Thomas Mason, who died in |