THE LETTER from Geoff Pollitt printed on Saturday, February 11, was mainly concerned with the location of Deane, but it included the suggestion that Middlebrook Retail is miles away from the original Middle Brook, which is a part of the Croal, a mile or two to the east.

I instinctively disagreed with this based on my wanderings around this area of Horwich as a boy in the 1920sz and 30s. At that time, and especially before 1930, there was no building south of Chorley New Road to the east of Sefton Lane, apart from the farmhouses belonging to the three dairy farms that covered the area down to the railway line between Blackrod and Lostock.

About 50 or 60 yards down Sefton Lane however, there was an old, well worn public footpath going off to the left in the direction of Wingates. For part of its length at least, it was lined with hawthorns and contained a stream, which I reasoned must have been the original Middle Brook, because the path was known as Middle Lane. This path and stream were well to the north of Sefton Fold farmhouse.

Discussing this with a friend, he offered to lend me an old map, and an examination of this map has proved both Mr Pollitt and me wrong.

The map in question is one based on the 1843 Ordnance Survey with one or two later modifications. The only major one is the inclusion of later built railway lines, which turns out to be beneficial in exactly fixing locations. It clearly shows a Middle Brook running from north-west to south-east alongside Red Moss below Sefton Fold farmhouse, and reaching the railway line well to the west of the junction of the Preston and Wigan lines at Lostock. It shows, in fact, that whoever chose the name Middlebrook made no mistake.

Cyril Williams

Oakfield Close

Horwich, Bolton