TODAY we take a stroll back in time around the Salford area of Blackburn.

It's been central to the town's history and commercial growth over two centuries - here was once the hump bridge over the torrents of the Blakewater river, which was culverted for the first time during the Industrial Revolution that led to Blackburn's rise as a major cotton town and again in the sixties, when it was modified during the remodelling of the town centre.

The work, which created a huge crater, forever creeping onward as work progressed, caused immense interest among townsfolk and shoppers, as tramlines, water mains and water pipes were exposed.

As well as the bridge, there's been a distinctive drinking fountain topped by a gas lamp and then a roundabout, lit of electric street lamps, at its junction with Church Street and Railway Road.

Readers will remember a host of pubs and hotels and a myriad of shops and businesses along its route through different decades and you may see them again here in our nostalgic walk through its history.