Halton consists primarily of modern housing, amongst which can be found a number of 17th- and 18th-century buildings. It has a primary school and there is a post office and other local amenities including a very successful community centre. The village is on the edge of the new
Heysham to M6 Link Road.
Halton railway station was on the opposite bank of the river from the village, linked by a narrow toll bridge. The station closed in 1966, but the station building and part of one platform survive as the Lancaster University boat house, that sits beside the cycle path that was once the now disused
"little" North Western Railway.
History Halton was the centre of an important Anglo-Saxon manor held by
Earl Tostig, the brother of
King Harold before the
Norman Conquest. The 19th-century
textile mills once harnessed the power of the Lune. Earthworks on Castle Hill show evidence of an 11th-century Norman
motte and bailey castle. In the churchyard of
St Wilfrid's Church stands the
Halton Cross believed to have been carved by
Norsemen over 1,000 years ago. Halton Castle was situated within the village of Halton. It is likely that a
motte and bailey castle was constructed on the site in the late 11th century. However Halton's prominence was lost in the 12th century when favour shifted to
Lancaster, and Halton Castle was abandoned. Only earthworks now remain and it is privately owned with no public right of way.
Halton Hall was part of the Manor of Halton and stood for several centuries on the banks of the
River Lune before being demolished in the 1930s.
Industry In 1752 a charcoal blast furnace was erected on the Cote Beck, where the
M6 motorway crosses Foundry Lane, and by 1755 the Halton Furnace Company ran it with those at Leighton and
Caton Forge. The furnaces produced
pig iron. The chamber was charged with
charcoal,
limestone, and
ore and a blast of air was blown into the base using water driven bellows. The molten iron (1530 C) ran down the furnace and was intermittently released in to the 'pig bed' of sand. It could produce 20 tons of pig iron a week- working for several weeks at a time. The 3-5% carbon pig iron was then
decarburised in
forges and purified in a
finery forge to remove
carbon and
silicon in a process that used a
trip hammer. In the
chafery the metal was reheated and shaped with a trip hammer into a malleable iron bar. There were two forges on the river in Halton- the upper forge had six water-wheels, two fineries and two chaferies, the lower forge had a tilt and lift hammer.
Coke furnaces had displaced most charcoal furnaces by 1800, though Halton hung on until 1845 servicing local need. Nothing remains to be seen. There was intensive industrial activity on the river bank in the 18th century with the forges and the construction of two water powered cotton mills: Forse Bank mill (1744) and Low Mill. Little to nothing now remain. Forse Bank mill whose name morphed into Forge Bank Mill was upstream. Water was taken from above the weir and two parallel leets powered all the buildings. The mills have separate origins but eventually merged. Forse bank started spinning flax, in 1821 it was spinning cotton but in 1826 it was flax. Other buildings, including a forge were acquired and converted. After the
Lancashire Cotton Famine in 1861, the spinning stopped - but in 1862 it was producing oilcloth, thus weaving. Eventually it was purchased by Williamson, who moved
linoleum and
oilcloth manufacture to Lancaster. Cotton weaving stopped in 1941. Part of the site has been developed with eco-housing, which have proved to be very popular and sell quickly. Further development is currently underway. on the other bank of the Lune, primarily to serve the forge. During construction it was linked to Halton village by a ferry. Eight people died when this capsized. In December 1849, the railway company built a toll bridge. It was washed away replaced in 1869 and replaced for the second time in 1913. When the railway closed in 1966, the bridge fell into disrepair, it has been restored and is now free and open to small cars, pedestrians and cycles. The original timber station was destroyed by fire on 3 April 1907. A spark from the engine of a passing
Heysham– boat train set fire to a wagon of oil drums by the goods shed. The fire brigade were unable to cross the narrow bridge and it was left to a special trainload of railway workers from
Lancaster to pass buckets of water from the river. The station was rebuilt in brick and timber and the building survives to this day, used as storage by
Lancaster University Rowing Club, with a public car park occupying the former track bed. The bridge is on
National Cycle Network Route 90, and the trackbed on Route 69. == Transport ==