Spanish road signs in Tarleton warning lorry drivers not to pass through narrow country lanes are to be removed by Lancashire County Council.
The authority said the signs were unauthorised, though who put them up remains unknown.
The blue signs on Carr Lane in Tarleton warn of a dead-end ahead. Below the standard UK sign showing a red and white T-shaped symbol, a second sign reads “Camiones No Pasar”, Spanish for “trucks do not pass”.
Locals said the signs had been effective at preventing lorries from becoming stuck on the village’s narrow roads. Hayden Latham, a Tarleton parish councillor, said: “It’s amazing how many HGVs come through this village. To my knowledge, these signs have been up for quite a number of years and they do a very good job at stopping HGVs going down little windy country lanes.”
He added that a number of vehicles had previously ended up in ditches. “Quite a few of them have ended up in ditches – and so, as well as saving the lives of villagers, it’s also saving the heavy goods vehicles,” he said. Mr Latham also noted that many of the drivers passing through Tarleton are international.
Local residents said they were unsure who installed the Spanish road signs in Tarleton. Margaret Carter, a member of Tarleton Bowling Club, told the BBC: “We don’t know where they came from. But we get so many HGV wagon drivers who come from Spain because of the vegetable farming here. Maybe one of the wagon people thought they didn’t want to lose another driver in a ditch, so they organised to put the signs up.”
Barbara Wilson, president of the bowling club, said the signs had helped the local farming industry. “We think maybe it is to stop wagons getting stranded on narrow roads around the village – but also we have lots of local growers who travel off of the main road to go to the greenhouses.”
Ms Wilson, 79, who has lived in Tarleton for 56 years, said many villagers thought the council had installed the signs. “We also thought we might have had people in the village who were Spanish,” she said.
Lancashire County Council said it had been made aware of the unauthorised signage and confirmed that it would be removed. A spokesperson for the council stated: “We have been made aware of some unauthorised Spanish road signage stating that there are restrictions on access for HGVs on Carr Lane in Tarleton. The signage has not been authorised by us, and is not permitted under UK legislation. There are no current restrictions on access for HGVs here. As such, our highway maintenance officers will be removing it.”
Tarleton is a village and civil parish in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, approximately 19 miles north-east of Liverpool and 9 miles south-west of Preston. It includes the village of Mere Brow and the hamlets of Sollom and Holmes. The parish, an agricultural area, had a population of 5,959 at the 2021 Census. Tarleton, Holmes, and nearby Hesketh Bank and Becconsall form a single built-up area with a population of 8,755.
The village contains 18 listed buildings, including barns, houses, farmhouses and St Mary’s Church. The Grade II listed Bank Bridge carries the A59 road over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and River Douglas. Holmeswood Hall, built in 1568 as a hunting or fishing lodge by the Hesketh family of Rufford, is also Grade II listed.
The Spanish road signs in Tarleton also drew interest because of their wording. “No pasarán”, meaning “They shall not pass”, became a slogan for the 35,000 volunteers of the International Brigades who fought for the Spanish Republic against Franco’s forces. The same expression was later used by the fictional wizard Gandalf in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Lancashire County Council has not given a timeline for the removal of the Spanish road signs in Tarleton, but confirmed that the signs will not be replaced. The mystery of who erected them remains unsolved.
