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Would personally have preferred to see the test track better utilized as something that brought people to the area and to create jobs and not solely those for a brief construction period.
Narrow thinking once again and judging by the numbers of properties on the market completely unnecessary.
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Slowly filling in all the green areas. Rather sad. Homes are now being built on Centurion Way opposite the old BTR playing field.
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After 43 years away, apart from the occasional visit, I was amazed, when looking on Google Earth the other day, to see how much residential property has been constructed in and around Leyland alone.
When we left, the only streets around the intersection of Lancaster Lane and Wigan Road were the few that (I think) my cousin's first husband, Jim Rowley, built. He and Christine lived in one of them. There were maybe 40 houses on three streets to the south of the pub and east of Wigan Road.
I don't think any of the area where Noel lives, between the railway and Croston Road were there. When we left, the resident population of Leyland was around 17,000. What is it now? It sure doesn't look like the smallish industrial towne we lived in!
Of course, when all the LML workers cam to work the population more than doubled. I was always impressed by how many of the workers had bought retired double-decker buses and were ferrying 50 or so of their neighbors to work. I once tried to explain to a Boeing colleague that there was a parking lot at the Leyland plant for about 75 employee-owned double-decker buses. He couldn't grasp the concept as even car-pooling to work in the US was almost non-existent in the late 1960s.
As a matter of interest, where do all the people work? Is train service to Manchester or Liverpool so good that they can commute? I do remember a neighbour in Kenilworth who used to commute to London every day back around 1966. It was just after the 100 mph electric trains were introduced. He reckoned that his commute, driving from Kenilworth to Coventry station, taking the "business breakfast" express to Euston and then walking the 10 minutes to his office, was actually quicker than the trip for his secretary who lived in Bexleyheath.
Frank
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
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Our estate was built in 1987-89 Frank. Prior to that we had lived further along Croston Road in Riverside Avenue, built 1970 then Bispham Avenue built 1974. The whole nature of the area has changed due to house building. Lostock Lane was a lovely little lane to walk down, along Wigan Road then back over the fields into the back of Bristol Avenue. Now the lane is a dual carriage way with a huge roundabout feeding the M6, business parks built off it. The fields are the M6 and Lever House Estate which was built also around 1970. Some call it progress. Work? Paccar Trucks employ around 900, the pizza place is the next major employer then the business parks have lots of small businesses. Council, doctors dentists and associated workers supermarkets, shops, banks. Very little manufacturing, I thought that was how money was made, by manufacturing things. Everything non food seems to be made in China. My son has to travel over 22 miles to get to work, with petrol at around £6 a gallon, a very expensive journey.
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Also I see homes to be built down to Altcar Lane, extending further the western boundary of Leyland.
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I hope they have factored in all the extra services that will be needed for all these extra residents in South Ribble
Martin ~
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