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Builders Find Farmhouse Ruins in Fulwood, Preston

BUILDERS FIND FARMHOUSE RUINS


Builders Find Farmhouse Ruins in Victoria Road, Fulwood, Preston
Builders Find Farmhouse Ruins in Victoria Road, Fulwood, Preston


A newspaper cutting from 1959 that I found on the Preston Digital Archive documents the discovery of an Ancient Farmhouse in Fulwood.


Builders Find Farmhouse Ruins in Victoria Road, Fulwood, Preston, Newspaper-Article
Builders Find Farmhouse Ruins in Fulwood, Newspaper-Article


BUILDERS FIND FARMHOUSE RUINS

A relic of old Fulwood

By A " POST " REPORTER


BUILDERS levelling waste land in Victoria-road, Fulwood, for a block of flats have unearthed the brick remains of a farm-house dating back nearly 200 years.

But the sunken building, I with its 2ft. thick walls, Longridge-stone steps, and narrow doorways, will soon vanish again beneath a 6ft. layer of concrete. The historic find came to light this week when men from William Jackson (Preston) Ltd.. building contractors of Douglas Road North, Fulwood, began work on preparing the site for the two-storey flats and garages.


PLOUGHED DEEP

Bulldozers and an excavator ploughed deep into the ground to uncover a bit of old Fulwood that flourished in the days when Watling Street-road was its nearest highway and the nearby barracks a race track. The farmhouse, which is marked on a map of the district printed in 1809, is thought to have covered an extensive area, and more remains probably exist beneath Victoria-road. Mr. Frank Mitchell, of Garstang Road, managing director of the contracting firm, visited the site yesterday and watched a porch and doorway of the old farmhouse dis-appear beneath the concrete. “The flats cover an area of 1.100 square feet and will fit exactly over the remains of the farmhouse," he said. Mr. Mitchell, who has a big collection of historic maps of Lancashire, hastily consulted his records when the discovery was made, and found the farmhouse marked on a 151-year-old map of the locality.

"I remember my father-in-law pulling down a mansion adjacent to the waste land about 40 years ago," he added. " The farmhouse had been buried many years before."

Now, it seems, the old farm will be sealed forever, swallowed up by the 20th century demand for housing accommodation.


Map of where Builders found the Farmhouse Ruins in Fulwood, Preston
Map of where Builders found the Farmhouse Ruins in Fulwood, Preston

MARKED by a cross on the old map of the Preston area, these farmhouse ruins, unearthed by 20th - century builders, date back 200 years, to the time when the Fulwood Barracks site was a racecourse and Watling Street-road Just a highway for coaches.

Source (Preston Digital Archive):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/5212927628


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If you look at the first Ordnance Survey (Six Inch) map of the area, the marked location would suggest that the farm in question is Horrocks' Farm in Fulwood.


The first Ordnance Survey (Six Inch to One Mile) map of the area shows Horrocks' Farm in Fulwood.
The first Ordnance Survey (Six Inch to One Mile) map of the area


National Library of Scotland:

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16.3&lat=53.77727&lon=-2.70287&layers=257&right=ESRIWorld

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I thought the reference map on the article, for the 'REMAINS FOUND HERE' marker, was the Hennet & Bingley map from 1828. However, whilst very similar, it in not the same one.

The Hennet & Bingley map from 1828 can be found here:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/220113211


On closer inspection, it turned out to be the 'Map of the County Palatine of Lancaster from an actual survey made in the year 1818' that was created by Greenwood, C., Creighton, R. and Fowler, W.

The Map of the County Palatine of Lancaster from an actual survey made in the year 1818 can be found here:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/220113088



That's Christopher Greenwood, Richard Creighton and William Fowler.

Greenwood, C. — Christopher Greenwood

It's definitely Christopher Greenwood (c.1780–1834).

  • One half of the Greenwood brothers (Christopher & John).

  • Based in Yorkshire.

  • Best known for producing large-scale county maps “from actual survey” between about 1817 and the mid-1820s.

  • These were among the last great English county surveys carried out before Ordnance Survey mapping became dominant.

  • Lancashire (1818) was one of their flagship productions.

Christopher is normally named first because he seems to have been the senior partner and public face of the firm.

Creighton, R. — Richard Creighton

Almost certainly Richard Creighton, a land surveyor.

  • Creighton appears alongside Greenwood on several county maps of this period.

  • He wasn’t a publisher or engraver — his role was field surveying and measurement.

  • Think of him as one of the professional surveyors feeding raw data into the Greenwood operation.

  • These projects were huge undertakings, and the Greenwoods relied on trusted surveyors to cover ground efficiently.

He doesn’t have much of a public profile because surveyors were often credited only on the map itself.

Fowler, W. — William Fowler

This one causes the most head-scratching, but the consensus is:

  • William Fowler, another surveyor, not the famous engraver of the same name.

  • Again, involved in on-the-ground survey work, triangulation, distance measurement, and local detail.

  • His name crops up on Greenwood maps but not as an engraver or publisher, which helps rule out the better-known artistic William Fowler (1770–1837).

So: same name, different trade.







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Location: Victoria Rd, Fulwood, Preston PR2, UK

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