Church Lane about 1930

At this time it was often called Long Lane and indeed did seem a very long lane. There were no houses from Mickletown Road to the Railway Bridge. The Lane was tree-lined, with hedges bordering the cornfields and a narrow, flagged footpath on the right (north) side. There was a public seat on the left.

The young boy in the foreground is Master Raymond Barker, whose family lived in the Wesleyan Chapel Yard, Main Street (5 houses in theyard next to the Wesleyan Chapel, which were demolished early 1960). Raymond in his Sunday outfit is on his way to St Oswald’s Church one Sunday morning, where he was a chorister.

Beyond Raymond are other people, two groups of 2, also, most probably, on their way to the Sunday morning service at St. Oswald’s. They are walking in the road, indicating how little traffic there was at that time. In the background is the LMS Railway Bridge and railway embankments.

The Bridge is sometimes called Uttley Bridge, for the old name for Church Lane was Uttley Lane; some old people still use this name. On old maps the road is named Churchfield Lane or Churchfield Road, the Church (St Oswald’s) owning the Church Fields to the left (south) of the road.