Forton
Forton is a very ancient township whose name means "fore enclosure" or "fenced-in-place". In the Doomsday Book it was mentioned as "Fortune". The wealthy families or the Abbot of Cockersand owned most of the land. But most of it was sold to tenant farmers in the mid-seventeenth century. In the 1790's a canal was built, then in 1822 the new high road for coaches appeared, soon to be followed by the railway in 1840. Forton had to wait over a 120 years for the next big civil engineering operation, the construction of the M6 in the mid 1960's. Millions of travellers have since stopped at the service station in Forton with its distinctive mushroom-shaped tower.
