Whitelees to Doghills

The Turnpike Trust of 1759 was empowered to link the Blackstone Edge Turnpike to Halifax via Walsden and Todmorden etc. At Doghills (now known as Dean Head) it would connect with the Reddyshore Scout Gate Packhorse Road. The route included absorbing an existing track from Townhouse. The Reddyshore Packhorse Road climbed up and over the hillside to avoid the Summit Gap which at the time was both waterlogged and presumed less safe. The road was certainly in operation in 1786 but it was very likely to have been in use much earlier. Between Handle Hall and Doghills it went via Higher Calderbrook. During the 1790s, a committee was formed to seek improvements which resulted in the current, lower road via Smithy Nook and Salley St. This route was finished in 1799. The Todmorden Act of 1800 restricted the placing of toll bars which meant that there would only be a gate at Doghills but this reference may well refer to a small relocation of the toll bar following the opening of the 1799 changes.  The power of the Trust appeared to have lapsed after the Steanor Bottom to Littleborough Turnpike Toll Road was finished. See sketch map above.

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Features along the Turnpike

It has been suggested that there was a toll bar at The Dog and Partridge (which became the Caldermoor Pub and is now a hairdressers etc). This would be logical as Shore Road in those days led to Wardle and Whitworth but documentary evidence advises this was not permitted. Beyond the junction, Calderbrook Road continues to the bottom of Clough Road where it commences the steep climb to Calderbrook passing the cottages of Lower and Middle Newgate and once over the top, Handle Hall. The hall was built in 1610 and was originally called named ‘Warcock Hill’ but became the Queen Ann Inn with an early reference being in 1818 when Thomas Bamford was the licensee. It ceased being an inn during the 1930s and reverted to being Handle Hall. Beyond St James's Church is a area called Lighthouse. Whether this was connected to the turnpike is not known. The 1800 Turnpike Act mentions ‘A certain dwelling house now used as a public house at Doghills’. In 1818 the landlord was James Lord, Victualler and Butcher. This pub, known as the Bull and Butchers, was later pulled down and the materials used to construct the Summit Inn (see later)

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