Drive and Stroll, with Ron Freethy - this week in ORMSKIRK

I LIKE Ormskirk but it always seems to be a town at odds with itself. Is it an historic market town or a modern suburb of Liverpool? Even the church has a split personality having both a spire and a tower!

There is no doubt that Ormskirk stands on an ancient site, probably earlier than Roman times. It was certainly used by the Romans as a road passed through it.

Was it founded, as legend suggests, by a Viking called Orm with a church (or kirk) built when he became Christian? This is probably half true as a look at the history of the parish church may suggest.

There are Saxon stones in the church fabric, which suggests that Orm may already have found a church on the site when he rampaged around with his band of Vikings after landing on the west coast.

The church is unusual in having a spire and a tower and the local legend suggests that this was because two rich sisters could not decide which to build. Neither would give way and so they built both.

A better and even more romantic suggestion, and probably the true explanation, is that the spire was built around the middle of the 15th century and the tower is of a later date, probably around 1540.

This latter date is very suggestive, as the nearby Burscough Priory was dissolved was dissolved by order of Henry VIII in 1537 and the bells from this were obtained by the parish church. The tower was built to hold these bells.

Inside the church are the tombs of the famous Stanley family who became the Lords Derby and who owned much of the land hereabouts.

In the centre of the town is a clock tower, built in 1876 to replace the ancient market cross.

The Eagle and Child pub in the town was named because it is the heraldic sign of the Stanley family. Although Ormskirk has been modernised and pedestrianised its centre still gives the distinct impression of its heyday when it lay upon the coaching road between Preston and Liverpool.

But what of Burscough Priory? Can anything of it still be found?

Burscough was founded by the Augustinian monks in the 12th century and until 1286 one of its brethren looked after the services at the parish church in Ormskirk. After this date the church was powerful enough to appointing its own vicar.

I have read several times that the ruins of Burscough Priory are almost impossible to find. This is not so. All you have to do is to follow the A59 towards Burscough and Preston as far as the Bull and Dog hotel, which is on the left of the road.

Immediately opposite is Abbey Lane, where there is plenty of parking near a recycling centre.

There is a very pleasant stroll down Abbey Lane which bears to the right and crosses a still-used single track railway line before continuing towards a farm.

Across to the left, set among farm buildings and a white house are a couple of stout high walls -- all that remains of a once prominent monastic institution.

I enjoyed my picnic lunch here looking out over the fields in which lapwings and golden plover fed on earthworms. These had been flushed out of their burrows by one of the many heavy showers of rain and sleet which throughout the morning had been interspersed with shafts of pale but surprisingly warm sunshine.

This is pleasant walking country in which is set a piece of forgotten Lancashire. Here the bells now in Ormskirk Church may once have echoed over the fields and called the faithful brethren to prayer.

How to get there: From East Lancashire, Ormskirk is reached via the M6 and turning off at Junction 27. Follow the A5209 via Burscough. This is an ideal winter walk but it is part town, part country and is packed full of history.