We were very privileged to welcome Geoff Timmins, Emeritus Professor from UCLan, to be our speaker yesterday evening.  Geoff educated and entertained us with an illustrated talk on the development of towns and villages built during the 19^th century to house the rapidly growing number of people who had come to work in the factories here in the Northwest.

One such village, Barrow Bridge, near Bolton, is still a thriving community and Geoff described in detail the differences in the types of houses built.  Constructed in a series of rows on a hillside overlooking Dean Mills the houses vary in size from one bedroomed back to back to quite palatial 5 bedroomed properties.  Some were through houses and others ‘back to end’.

We look forward to exploring Barrow Bridge for ourselves on our evening walk on May 31^st.