[Haggis316]

No seriously your are right - there is a connection.

Its near the old Blaguegate Colliery.

It was part of the Lathom Estates which were owned by the Stanley Family (Earls of Derby) until they sold them to Sir Thomas Bootle in 1714. Hence the name Stanley.

The Stanleys had by now moved to Knowsley (Coley's area) but later became big friends of the Peels who owned half of Accrington. As the Peels developed Accrington one of the new streets was named Stanley Street in their friends' honour and that's where Accrington Stanley was formed.

The Stanleys backed the Tudors at Bosworth Field and thereby won the War of the Roses for Lancashire.

If you ever see a pub called the Eagle and Child its named after the Stanley crest - they are all over the place - even Oxford.

Tragically Lathom House, one of the best commissions of the Venetian Palladian Architect Leoni was mostly demolished in 1924 - my grandmother who is 99 next month is probably the last person alive to have been round it. Only the west wing now remains.