Lancashire's richly diverse landscapes and railways
compared and contrasted over time

The latest addition to an innovative series
This attractive and informative volume, the 43rd, is the latest in a respected and well-established series which has been running for some twenty years now. (Looking at the much earlier volume 2, relating to my home area, I notice that the publishers were once based on Hawk Street in Carnforth!) As the title describes, it focuses on a wide sweep of the county from Barrow to Wennington in the north, our own Lancaster-Heysham-Morecambe ‘triangle', Blackburn, Preston and the Fylde, southwards towards (but not including) Liverpool and Manchester, and across eastwards to the Clitheroe area, to beyond Burnley and almost into Skipton.

‘Now' versus ‘then'
The book's take on the railways of the area is distinctive and fascinating, because it presents views from the past and juxtaposes pictures made at the present time. The comparisons sometimes appear minimal, as in the case of the extremely well-preserved Lancaster (Castle) Station (pp 6 and 7); sometimes reveal interesting changes in the town- or cityscape, as in the two shots of the Greyhound Bridge (pp 98 and 99); sometimes show a complete return to nature like the views in and around Garstang (pp 91 to 93); and sometimes simply infuriate, as witness the cataclysms shown at Squire's Gate (p 78) and, spectacularly, in the two views taken of the former Blackpool Central Station and its approaches from the top of the Tower (pp 82 and 83).

It would be naïf to play the Luddite and write off all progress, but there are some pleasing signs of contemporary care and concern for historical structures, as the views of Halton (p 109), Grange-Over-Sands (p 112) and Morecambe Promenade (p 101) clearly show.

Lancashire's different landscapes
The area selected covers urban, industrial, and rural environments as well as seaside resorts, harbours and ports. (Heysham is arguably Lancashire's only remaining 21st-century seaport.) The railways which served these diverse places ‘then' and those which remain to serve them ‘now' have certainly undergone many changes, and there is plenty of ammunition here for the environmentalists.

The compilers have gone to considerable trouble to replicate the locations and angles of the original photographs, but in some cases the overgrowth, new vegetation or recent housing and commercial developments have made this difficult. Occasionally they admit to using large-scale maps to pinpoint their locations where all traces of the railway have totally disappeared.

Some of the ‘then' shots were taken in the latter heydays of steam operations in the 1950s and 1960s which were so beloved of devotees of that magnificence of mechanical engineering. Others date even further back to as far as the early years of the last century and before. The ‘now' photographs all seem to have been take over the last 18 months, so are bang up-to-date.

But a slight slip concerning our immediate locality cannot get past these respected columns, so the claim on page 100 that "Bare Lane Station was opened as ‘Poulton-le-Sands' in 1848,' should actually read 8 August 1864. The station was built at the time when the resort was burgeoning fast from a tiny fishing village into a fashionable Victorian resort and changing its ancient name of Poulton-le-Sands to the curious hybrid form ‘Morecambe'. This station was quickly renamed ‘Bare Lane' on 31 October in the same year.

"A welcome addition'
My ever-watchful proof-reader also tells me that there are some very long sentences in this review. But then Lancashire is likewise a big, complex and diverse county. This book captures that splendid variety very well indeed: all the more so, because it ingeniously shows off that richness in an added dimension, that is to say, in the context of time. Thus it will make a welcome addition to the ever-growing wealth of resources on the county and its continuing developments, and how our own area has been a significant part of that change.

If you are buying Christmas presents already (Heaven forbid!), then this handsome 128-page paperback volume, reasonably priced too, will do nicely. If not, you will enjoy it whether you wear the much and unnecessarily-reviled ‘anorak' or not.

Copyright © 1 September 2004 Michael Nunn