Oh, dear - one of my mistakes has been noticed (and it wasn't even a deliberate one!).

Mr George Brown, of Barncroft Road, Farnworth, a keen fan of this column, wrote to say that on October 18, the 125 Years Ago column puzzled him. It read: "The toll bars at Moses Gate and Kearsley will cease to exist within the present month. The fates etc. are advertised to be sold on Friday next."

Mr Brown went on: "I was not aware that 'fate' could be bought and sold, and wondered if the word had a different meaning in the past, then concluded that it must have been a misprint - rare but possible even in the BEN." You are right, Mr Brown, the word should have been "gate", and I must have typed "fate" into the computer by mistake.

Mr Brown continues: "Then I wondered again. Toll bars were not 'gates'. Possibly there were gates for pedestrians, horses, cattle, sheep, etc., and toll bars for traffic.

"I also wonder if anyone knows exactly where the Kearsley toll bar was. One has to consider the nature of the local land in those days. Farnworth was both moorland and moss land. Farnworth station, when I was a lad, bore the signs ' Farnworth and Halshaw Moor'. The first church in Farnworth was the Moorhall in Church Street, later to become a school, and later still Blighty's night club, now gone; but the oldest gravestones in Farnworth remain on the devastated site. Old local people used to say they were 'Going up't moor when going up Market Street, towards Kearsley.

"Moses Gate was obviously the gates to the mosses. The dictionary definition of a 'causeway' is a raised road through moss land. In the distant past, the road from Manchester to Bolton did not pass through Moses Gate. The main route turned left along Longcauseway, down Nan Lane (later renamed Albert Road), up Plodder Lane, past Marsh Lane before turning left to Bolton. If someone had come to the trouble of building a raised road through the marshes, it would only be fair to charge the users of the causeway. I rather fancy that Kearsley toll bridge would be at the entry of the Longcauseway. Does anyone know?"

If anyone can answer Mr Brown's queries, please write to me. And it would no doubt be "fate" for me to have made another spelling mistake in this story . . .