RIBCHESTER is rightly known for its Roman connections but the Roman Empire also left its mark on many other areas of East Lancashire.

In Blackburn, the most obvious connection is the name Roman Road which is familiar today.

Back in 1984 physical proof of what had been the ‘motorway’ of its day was unearthed during renovations at a popular old pub.

Building Tony Burke and his team were working in the yard at the Blackamoor Inn at Lower Darwen when they started to unearth stonework which had clearly been worked by hand.

As they dug down through the modern floor they arrived at neat cobblestones and other larger stones which bore the tracks of wheelmarks from numerous carts which had passed over them.

Experts were called in to the pub at the crossroads of Roman Road and Stopes Brow and they agreed that Tony had discovered part of the original Roman road.

The road was a hugely important thoroughfare in Roman time for both military and commercial traffic linking the garrison at Ribchester with a fort in Manchester, probably sited around today’s Deansgate.