IN an echo of last week's tale of the "Baby House Towers" landmark at Whalley, blown up by the Army in 1948 when they became unsafe, local history sleuth June Huntingdon, of Accrington, digs out a different purpose for them from that of summer houses which the old Northern Daily Telegraph reported was what James Whalley, the occupant of Clerk Hill, had had them built for some 200 years before.

On old book that June has on Lancashire identifies the two curious structures - originally there were three - as Clerk Hill or "Baby" Towers and reports that there was much speculation on their origin which, as Looking Back said, included a belief that they were look-out posts erected in Norman times to give warning of an enemy's approach.

But her book says that the towers had been adapted by the owners of Clerk Hill for hunting and shooting purposes, although their actual origin was much earlier. The towers had long narrow slits in their walls, through which anyone inside them could shoot at passing deer. "They are described on a plan of old Lancashire beacons," adds June.

"From early times, this prominent site was occupied by a beacon or signalling station.

During the Roman occupation, Clerk Hill was an outpost or watch station overlooking their important fort at Ribchester.

"We must remember that the large trees around the towers when they were demolished would not have existed then and so, in Roman times, the beacon would have easily been seen."

According to her book, James Whalley inherited the estate when his uncle Thomas Whalley, an attorney-at-law, died in 1734 and it eventually became part of the Portfield and Bramley Meade estates.

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