[JohnW]

Sorry to say that Baxenden has basicly gone the same way. I was born there in 1943 and lived there until I was ten. Manchester Road was almost the whole village then. There was always Hollins Lane (no school) leading down towards the Woodnook area and there was Hill Street with about 20 or 30 houses. The only other road running parrallel to Manchester Road was Ashworth Street. I remember them building the "Old folks bungalows" on Ashworth Street and my maternal grandparents were the first to move in. "The Laund" was my favourite place where I had my own tree to swing on etc but that is all built out now. North of what is now Southwood Drive and east of Back Lane was nothing but fields and was in fact a farm owned by the Marshall family. I went to school with their daughter Olwyn. I remember a terrible fire at the farm outbuildings around about 1951 or 1952 when all their pigs died caught in the fire. On the other side of Manchester Road there was Whitecroft View, but their front doors opened on to Whitecroft Farm's fields, there was no roadway and there were no other houses at all. It is totally changed and, I'm afraid, spoiled for me. I used to love the openness of the area. Sadly, Britain has become a very overcrowded little island now.