WHEN I printed a picture of Church Street, Blackrod, on Monday of last week, Mr Colin Owens, of Newbrook Road, Over Hulton, rang to tell me that it wasn't in fact Church Street.

He says it was Black Horse Street (in fact the main road through the centre of Blackrod changes its name from Chorley Road to Black Horse Street, Church Street, New Street and Manchester Road as it goes through the village; so the picture was of the same road as Church Street, but slightly further down).

The photograph brought back memories to Mr Owens because his grandparents Robert and Ann Fitten lived in Black Horse Street, and were such good friends of the Close's, who had the Shoulder of Mutton pub on the same street, that when the Closes died and were buried in Blackrod Cemetery, Robert and Ann bought a grave plot back to back with them so that they could eventually be together in death as in life!

Mr Owens also tells me that some of the cottages shown on the picture, were "barn top". What does that mean, I hear you cry?

He explains that there was no ceiling in them, no attic, and they were open to the point of the roof. Even downstairs, the walls were the original brickwork, simply whitewashed. And they stayed like that until being demolished in the 1960s!