THE ROMAN ROAD  BLACKSTONE EDGE  ROAD FROM LANCASHIRE  TO  YORKSHIRE.

This is one of the highest green lanes in the UK at 1500ft.

 And one of the best preserved sections of  Roman Road.

It leaves the A58 Halifax road at 962168 in Lancashire to join the Rochdale Road A58  in Yorkshire at Fairy Hill at 990184 about 3 miles long.     It runs north  of the M62 Motor way the highest motorway in the UK at 1115 ft.

Its a classic lost trail and sadly  of course its not a Byway or a UCR,  so you cannot legally use  it by trail  bike. But if you are interested in old roads  then this is the one !

Legally its part bridleway(5ft) and part footpath(3ft) despite the average width of 18ft and paved in parts in order to break the Pennine bogs. 

It is a double packhorse width and without doubt it was used by carts and carriages up to 1821 when the present A58 was built,so it should be Byway if the true status applies.   

Dare I mention that neither the  ACU,the BMF(who were very active on green lane issues in the 1960s and 70s),or  TRF  groups in Lancashire  or Yorkshire  bothered to claim  it as a  Byway during the easy years from l968  to 2005.      A lost opportunity ,but do read and note the last paragraph before giving up!

Or better still  kick ME  for failing to claim it during the years 1975  to l989 when I was TRF national RoW Officer working night and day in my spare time !  

I did manage about 150  claims  from 1975 to 1985 and 20 more from 2004 to 2005, so my conscience is clear !

Anyway get yourself a mountain bike or an exciting electric bike which can use bridleways legally!

About 2 brake horsepower plus pedal power and  very quiet !

The best section of  the  paved Roman Road is on the Lancashire side 2 miles east of Littleborough and its very steep as its strides up to the summit of Blackstone Edge on the county border.

Its got a great history of continuous use for 1800 years.

William Cobbett in "Rural Rides " published in 1832 wrote ,"This part of England is the most interesting that I have ever seen"  Haworth and the Bronte country is nearby.

And Daniel Defoe rode over Blackstone Edge Road t in 1724 in a snowstorm and nearly lost his life !

Celia Fiennes rode a pony over Blackstone Edge in 1698, who also got very wet and wrote saying that  the road over Blackstone Edge Moors has the highest rainfall in England.

Its marked on the OS map as a "old packhorse road" but its much more than that. 

So you Lancashire and Ribble Valley  group and West Yorkshire group  TRF members, have a good look at this magnificent old  road  and admire the Roman engineers who laid a cobbled road in this bleak spot nearly 2000 years ago which is still in good repair ! 

And the TRF should investigate pre l930 user as an exemption to  Section 67, NERC  2006 closures, so the door is never really closed to vehicular use is it !  Theres got to be lots of evidence around in both Yorkshire and Lancashire archives as this was a major vehicular route, so there is a chance ?

BRIAN THOMPSON  31 JULY 08