Horwich Stocks given new lease of life with refurbishment

The Horwich Stocks on Chorley Old Road have recently been refurbished by Horwich Heritage, with help from local businesses and the council.

The refurbishment ended up being a three-month job, with the timber and foundations being replaced in their entirety.

Roy Davies, Deputy Chairman of Horwich Heritage, was involved hands-on in the refurbishment job.

He said: “With the stocks, someone wrote to us saying have you seen the state of the old stocks, so we decided to take it on ourselves to see what we can do about it.

The foundations and the timber of the stocks have both been replaced

“Jobs can take any time from a few weeks to three months, which it took in this case. The timescale was because the wood on the old stocks had rotted dramatically, especially the bits in the ground, it was beyond repair, so we stripped it down to the original concrete poles.

“We bought new hardwood and had it machined, but when I looked at the foundation it sort of let it down.

“The foundation, which was very old flags we ripped it out and we put cobbles in there.”

The heritage of the stocks can be traced back to 1750, making them over 270 years old at the very least.

Roy added: “We can trace the stocks back to 1750, they could be earlier but we can’t prove that. They’re mentioned in a document that we have at the heritage, from a book called Thomas Hanson’s History of Horwich.

The site of the stocks halfway through the work, with the foundations having been taken up and the old timber gone

“We know in 1805 it was last used, and that they weren’t even in this position, they were in Fleet Street in Horwich.

“They were there I think it was 1983, Horwich Urban District Council had to have it moved, it was in disarray and local lads moved them from there to where it is now.

“The council cut out the grass verge on Chorley Old Road and between them and the local lads, they rebuilt the stocks. They’ve been there ever since, with a nice bench to sit on.”

Everyone has heard of people being put in the stocks, but there is actually a common misconception about them.

How the stocks looked before the work

Roy explained: “Back in those days they weren’t made with a bench though, you had to sit on the floor. But what had been done in Horwich was they made a bench.

“It’s a common misconception if you look up the definition of a pillory and compare, you’ll see a massive difference – in the pillory, head and arms are through, while in the stocks your legs are through it.

“This was very involved because a number of various different people were needed. We needed someone with wood experience, people who could load cobbles, steelworkers.

“Treatment of the timber, purchasing of the cobbles, which were made by a local quarry, Armstrongs, all that had to come together and look right at the end of the day.”

He continued: “We had various problems, one of the biggest problems was the cost.

“This budget was blown out of the water when we realised we wanted to do the foundation, which doubled the original budget.

“But the people of Horwich got together. I found a few friends and we used their talents, some for nothing, some for very little money at all. Horwich Council gave us a grant of £500.”

Armstrongs Architectural Stone kindly supplied the cobbles at a much-reduced cost, with the wood machining done for nothing by Dennis Foy. Travis Perkins supplied the groundwork material for free, while Dickinson's Skip Hire supplied the skip at no cost. Paul Eccles laid the cobbles and Phil Bunting did all the wood preservation treatment.

“You don’t see many of these in towns, very few, certainly not one of this standard," Roy added.

The stocks will be officially opened on Thursday morning (August 18) at 10am by the newly elected Mayor of Horwich, Steven Chadwick.