Why does the Stag face the way it does?

Tealeaf · 18-10-2004, 18:21

Well, I've asked the question.......who's going to jump in with the first answer?

WillowTheWhisp · 18-10-2004, 18:35

Because the front of it faces the street as it once was, which now is little more than an inlet from Henry St.

Doug · 18-10-2004, 18:37

It’s a former coaching house and would have been a lined along the now disappeared coaching road or turn pike?

WillowTheWhisp · 18-10-2004, 18:39

He said it better than I did.

Doug · 18-10-2004, 18:51

Don't be to quick Willow, I'm just as likely to get it all so very wrong!!!.

WillowTheWhisp · 18-10-2004, 18:56

Well it makes sense to me. Henry Street is the major road there now and it looks as if The Stag was built sideways on, but the front did face the original major road.

K.S.H · 18-10-2004, 18:57

is it because that used to be the main road, it used to go past the clock and end up at the commercial

Darby · 19-10-2004, 07:41

I think the original road went a different direction. From Church Kirk to Antley..via what became known as the Tanpits. All this must have been in the late 1700's. When I read about the farm known as Ponthalgh it seemed to indicate that there was a road from there to Dunkenhalgh / Altham and a road towards Blackburn, and one to the Antley via Church Kirk. The latter would probably have run down York St., past the Stag, down the Tanpits. The coaches would stop outside the Stag in the direction of the road,to enable people like Tealeaf to partake of refreshments!

Acrylic-bob · 19-10-2004, 15:15

Would an 1845 map help?

Tealeaf · 19-10-2004, 17:15

Cheers A-B....the maps a big help. What it does show is that, with the exception of what was then the 20 year old Blackburn & Whalley Turnpike Road (Blackburn Road today), there is a splattering of roads & lanes which appear to defy the normal logic of a straight line being the quickest route from A to B. However, for now I wish to say no more about that, other than it's a clue.

What I would like to comment upon is the obsession with Stagecoaches that everyone appears to have. Maybe it's with Christmas coming up that people have been out buying their greetings cards, as usual containing a fair selection of Victorian images of Georgian top-hatted men thrashing their coach through a white winter scene......well, you may have that on the brain, but it's no good here. While the Stag may well once have been a Coaching Inn, that is not the answer to the question above. As I'm sure you know, Stagecoach services (private, fee paying passengers and mail) only evolved after the Civil War and the Restoration. This is some 60 years after the first recorded meeting in the Stag! While it is common now for a building to be designed to allow for technological change, I doubt very much if 15th/16th builders would have had this as their prime consideration.

Given that we've got the map now, I'll give a second clue, and that lies on the far left of the map at a point directly east of the junction Church Lane and Maden street. So, have a good think. Forensic history can be so much fun, what?

staggeringman · 19-10-2004, 17:28

which side of the pub is the original?when i was a little un the door was on henry st.we have two postcodes,

the old beaten tracks from accy to rishton,and from blackburnshire to huncoat crossed close by to the stag so hazarding a guess id say it was built that way so you could see whom was travelling where.

..........just a guess.......

Tealeaf · 19-10-2004, 17:30

Oh dear.....don't give it away yet.....Hey, I think there's a bunch of Accy Webbers downstairs....

Acrylic-bob · 19-10-2004, 18:35

The only thing that I can identify at the junction is a well. The buildings are unidentified. Drat! I wish I knew more!

WillowTheWhisp · 19-10-2004, 19:49

Was it facing a village green or something like that?

Darby · 20-10-2004, 05:29

Thanks for the Map A-Bob, it's very good, but the stag was built before the canal, and that affects (or affected) the highways.
But what I was really aiming at was, that the Stag was obviously built for travellers as an Inn. And that means a major thoroughfare was there on the spot. A crossroads would seem very likely, and there was an existing (or old) road from Church Kirk to Antley.

Haven't got much time to-day, but will have a look at Tealeaf's clue if I can!