THERE is plenty going on in Prescot lately from new restaurants to the fantastic Shakespeare North Playhouse set to open in the next few years, but did you know that the historic town is home to the UK's second narrowest street?

Stone Street, which can just be seen between 23 and 25 Eccleston Street, is one of the tightest streets in the country, measuring 28inches.

It just misses out of the title of narrowest street, which is held by Parliament Street in Exeter which is 25 inches.

Stone Street is part of the medieval street layout of Prescot which probably took its present shape after the town was granted a market charter in 1333 and would have originally been little more than pathway between two largely open areas of land, but as these areas of land were built upon and subdivided over time this pathway became a street serving the cottages and other premises along it.

Before being re-named Stone Street in the nineteenth century, the lower half of the street was called Cross Street and the higher part was Stone Street.

Although it is too narrow for road vehicles and people can only fit through it in single file, it is still technically a public highway.

On one side of Stone Street is the building of 23 Eccleston Street which has been repaired and restored by the Heritage Lottery Fund supported Prescot Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) as along with 21 Eccleston Street, it is the oldest building in Prescot after Prescot Parish Church.

Its oak frame is made of trees that were cut down in the late sixteenth century, with part of this visible from Stone Street and gives an idea of how the buildings would have looked before 1600.

Stone Street is home to a new red plaque as part of a new heritage trail in Prescot.

For more information on the heritage trail go to knowsleynews.co.uk/red-plaques-mark-a-new-heritage-trail-in-prescot.