We've all been beavering away on the theory that Barlick may have had a Roman fort or at least a way station for overnight camps while on the march. Remember what I have always said, research changes our view of history and so always test new ideas, they can be very seductive and sometimes wrong!
However, having issued that warning I am feeling more confident about the concept that there was a fortlet on the land between Cobden Street and Park Road bound on the other sides by Park Avenue and Chapel Street. One factor that attracts me is that on the early maps, what is now Park Avenue and Park Road was known as Blue Pot Lane and is the course through Barlick of the Bronze Age track that comes over the Weets, down Folly Lane, across Causeway Carr and along Forty Steps and Longfield Lane. I have always been puzzled by the fact that it makes a ninety degree left turn down what we now know as Park Road. Further on I knew it was heading for Kildwick and the Aire Gap, the lowest northerly crossing of the Pennine Range, but couldn't see any trace of it going forward to the East from where it hit what is now Park Road. The dog leg down the side of the fort solves this problem because it taps straight into the other ancient route along Philip Street (Back Lane as was) and forward down to Rain Hall. Indeed, it would make sense if the Northern boundary wasn't Chapel Street but Philip Street which is a far older route.
Looking at the Cobden Street boundary, apart from the fact it follows the steep drop into what is now Manchester Road (Barnoldswick Lane), a natural defensive feature, if you project the line southwards it follows the old track up onto Letcliffe at the back of Hill Top farm. I can remember when there was a right of way from the junction of Cobden Street and Park Avenue straight up the hill but this was extinguished when new property was built there.
It may be that some light is shed on another of my Barlick puzzles. When Serlo the monk was giving his evidence about the founding of the monastery in Barlick in the 12th century he said that there was already an 'ancient church' later demolished by the Cistercians. How old is 'ancient'? Nicene Christianity became the state church of the Roman Empire with the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 CE, when Emperor Theodosius I made it the empire's sole authorised religion. Could it be that the presence of the Romans was the catalyst that brought Christianity to Barlick?
We have plenty of evidence that we live in a very ancient town and the modern technology of LIDAR could be filling in some of the gaps in our story. This is not kite-flying, it's a rational interpretation of the new information and what I particularly like about it is that the new results fit perfectly in my old jigsaw puzzle.
An early map of the location of the fort.