Wigan History
On this page you wll find
Historical Wigan
facts 20th Century Wigan
Clogs in Wigan Wigan Quiz
| HISTORICAL
WIGAN FACTS
Wigan is
one of the four oldest boroughs in Lancashire, receiving a charter from
Henry III in 1246. It is believed to have started life as the Roman
garrison town of Coccium. Some of the town's charters are on
display in Wigan History Shop, a former Victorian library designed by
Alfred Waterhouse, the celebrated architect of Manchester town hall and
the Natural History Museum. Famous
Wigan food products include Heinz baked beans, Pataks Indian foods,
Potters herbal remedies, Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls, and De Roma ice
cream. Other well
known Wigan firms include Girobank, the Tote, JJB Sports, US glass fibre
manufacturers PPG, and carpet firm Milliken. Wigan is also the home of
the North West Tourist Board and the Tidy Britain Group. Wigan was
a key battle ground during the Civil War in the 17th century, and
Cromwell’s troops passed through the town twice. The town stayed loyal
to the king, and was later rewarded with a ceremonial sword. Until local
government reorganisation its motto was ‘Ancient and Loyal’. The Verve,
whose split was announced recently became Wigan’s most famous musical
export since ... George Formby! The band were all from the Wigan area
and met while at Winstanley College, a sixth form centre on the
outskirts of town. Other
notable Wigan bands include the Railway Children and folk-rockers the
Tansads. Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra is known the world over, while Andy
Prior - dubbed the new Sinatra - owes his success to his formative years
with WYJO. Nearby Leigh - part of the borough of Wigan - is the
birthplace of Georgie Fame. In the
1960s and 70s, Wigan Casino was the spiritual home of ‘Northern
Soul’ music, attracting thousands to its famous all-nighters. The
casino burnt down in the early 1980s. In the 90s the town gained a
reputation as a centre for jazz and now hosts an international jazz
festival every summer. Well-known Wigan-born
figures include entertainers George Formby, Roy Kinnear, Ted Ray and
Frank Randle; miners’ leader Joe Gormley; and former Chief Constable
of Greater Manchester Sir James Anderton. Actor Sir Ian McKellen grew up
in the town in a house opposite Mesnes Park. Contemporary Wiganers of
note include Kay Burley of Sky News; DJ, journalist and TV film critic
Stuart Maconie; former Hollyoaks actress Davinia Murphy (who played Jude
Cuningham), and Coronation Street’s Georgia Taylor (Toyah Battersby)
and Eva Pope (barmaid Tanya Pooley). Local MP Ian McCartney is currently
a high flier in Tony Blair’s New Labour government as Trade Minister. Wigan Rugby League FC are
the UK’s top club side. In 1990/91 they won all the major trophies,
and hold the record for the number of successive cup and league wins. In
soccer, 2nd division Wigan Athletic are about to move into a new 25,000
seat stadium at the town's Robin Park, which they will share with the
Wigan Warriors rugby club. It has been paid for by... Wigan Athletic’s
multi-millionaire chairman Dave Whelan, the boss of JJB Sports, whose
phenomenally successful chain of sportswear stores is one of the UK’s
retailing success stories. Literary links include
George Orwell, whose unflattering portrait of the town at the height of
the depression in the 1930s, The Road to Wigan Pier, angered many, and
American thriller writer Martin Cruz Smith, whose 1996 novel Rose was
set in Victorian Wigan. For a town with an
industrial image, Wigan’s countryside is a constant source of
amazement to visitors. The borough has three country parks (including
Haigh), more Sites of Special Scientific Interest than anywhere else in
the region, and a wealth of wildlife and rare plants.
The name is thought to have
first been used by George Formby Senior, a popular local entertainer in
his own right. It described not a seaside pier but a small jetty,
projecting over the side of the Leeds-Liverpool canal, which was used
for tipping coal from railway trucks into barges. Thomas Beecham first
manufactured his famous pills in Wigan. Marks and Spencer was born in
Wigan when Michael Marks joined forces with Thomas Spencer in 1894. For
three years the town was the firm’s headquarters. In 1698 travel writer Celia
Fiennes described Wigan as a ‘pretty market town built of stone and
brick.’ Almost three hundred years later the American travel writer
Bill Bryson wrote: "Such is Wigan’s perennially poor reputation
that I was truly astounded to find it has a handsome and well-maintained
town centre". Wigan is twinned with the
French city of Angers, in the Loire Valley. The two councils exchange
‘ambassadresses’ every year. Wigan Metropolitan Borough
is the 9th largest Metropolitan district in the country covering 77
square miles. In population terms the Borough is the 12th biggest in the
country at around 310,000. Wigan itself has around 90,000 residents. Wigan is the most westerly
borough in the county of Greater Manchester, lying halfway between
Liverpool and Manchester - although most residents still think of
themselves as Lancastrians. Haigh Hall is the ancestral home of the Lindsay family, Earls of Crawford and Balcarres. The present hall was built between 1827 and 1840. Haigh woodlands were laid
out in the 1860s, giving work to unemployed Wiganers during the cotton
famine caused by the American civil war. In 1947 the hall and its
grounds were bought by the then Wigan Corporation and it is now run by
Wigan Council’s leisure services department. Wigan has one of the
country’s most famous swimming clubs - the Wigan Wasps - responsible
for training scores of top swimmers, like former Olympic medallist June
Croft And finally.... what's the link between an old-style red telephone box and Wigan's war memorial in the grounds of the Parish Church? The answer is that they were both designed by the same architect, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (who was also responsible for Liverpool Cathedral). |
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The 20th Century 1900 Foundation stone laid of Electric Light and Power Station 1900 Foundation stone laid of Wigan Technical College 1900 Turning on of electric current in Wigan 1901 Wigan Corporation Tramways opened for traffic 1902 Tramways purchased by the Corporation 1903 Wigan Mining Technical College opened 1903 Opening of the public Bowling Greens in Mesnes Park 1905 Opening of new tramways office in the Market Place 1906 General Booth visits Wigan 1907 Opening of Carnegie Library, Pemberton 1910 Sir Francis Sharp Powell Statue unveiled in Mesnes Park 1911 Opening of Parish Church grounds to public 1914 Territorial battalion, Manchester Regiment mobilised at Wigan Drill Hall 1915 Foundation stone of Wigan Girls High School laid 1917 Workshops for blind opened in Millgate 1919 Mabs Cross removed from its site during widening of Standishgate 1921 Re-erection of Mabs Cross in the grounds of Wigan Girls High School 1922 Opening of Wigan YMCA 1924 Mesnes Road opened for traffic 1925 Wigan War Memorial unveiled 1930 First Robot traffic signal in Wigan operated at Stadishgate and Mesnes Street crossing 1930 Opening of Wigan Corporation new petrol bus service between Wigan and Ashton 1933 Opening of Wigan,s automatic telephone exchange 1933 Thunderbolt struck house in New Market Street 1934 The King opened the East Lancashire Road 1935 First Belisha Beacon road crossing installed in Wigan 1935 Foundation stone laid of new Grammar School 1936 Broadcast of new Parish Church bells by the BBC 1937 Wigan Christopher Home officially opened 1942 Wigans first British Restaurant opened 1945 King and Queen visit Pagefield Ironworks and the war time nursery at Wigan Rectory 1947 Wigan Corporation bought Haigh Hall/plantations from the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres for £18,000 1952 Wigans first mobile library carrying 2,500 books operated for the first time 1954 Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburugh visited Wigan and officially opened John McCurdy Hall 1956 The Mayor opened the new £46,000 Wigan Water Works 1958 Parbold Bottle destroyed by a gale in 1942 unvielled after restoration by public funds 1964 Wigan Central Station closed 1966 Wigans new Public baths opened 1974 Wigan Metropolitan Borough formed from a union with 14 smaller local authorities 1978 Three Sisters Recreation area opened at Bryn 1979 Ten men killed in an explosion at Gollborne Colliery 1980 Wigan Casino Closed 1980 St Georges Church Wigan gutted by fire 1983 Wigan Hospice accepted its first patients 1984 Wigan Woolworths closed 1986 HM The Queen opened Wigan Pier 1988 Wigan Officially twinned with Angers in France 1989 Westwood Power Station and cooling towers demolished 1989 Gollborne Colliery closed 1991 Princess Diana officially opened The Galleries 1992 Bickershaw Colliery, British Coals last deep mine in Wigan,closed 1993 Amalgamation of the staffs of Observer and Wigan Reporter 1994 Wigan Rugby League win RL Challenge Cup for 7th successive year
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CLOGS Little lads no longer make their clog irons spark because they do not wear them any more. Walter Hurst is the last of the Wigan Clog makers. A the rear of his shop in the centre of Hindley, Walter the third generation of the business is the first to admit that clog making is a dying art. A quarter of a century ago there was hundreds of clog makers in the North West. One by one the shops closed as the demand fell away. Walter still makes clogs but the request for working clogs is no more. The ones he makes now are for abroad and dancers. There was an upsurge in business when the medical profession announced that clogs were good for children’s feet. The Hurst cloggers was started by Walters grandfather in 1898. After is grandfather started his business in Wigan he moved back to Hindley setting up a small shop opposite to the pub called The Wiganer, witch was a minutes walk from the present one at 4 Wigan Road, Hindley, which was opened 7 years after the end of the first world war. The main business was clog making were clogs was the essential footwear in industrial Lancashire. In the 1920’s and 30’s Hurst’s employed six men making and mending clogs. In those days Hindley had six cotton mills and 16 coal mines so demand was very high. They made four types of clogs. There were four types of clogs. The pit clogs. These were clasp fasteners for easy release. These could be easily be slipped of in case the wearer got his foot trapped under a fall of rocks. The slipper clogs. These were worn by women in the cotton mills. They had a strap and button fastener. Third was the Gibson or laced clog, popular with housewives which were useful when worn in the kitchen or washhouse Lastly there was the derby or laced clog which lorry drivers bus drivers and farmers wore. The main protection for clog soles in the early days was clog irons, which were nailed to the wooden soles. Today they can still have irons fitted but usually they will be rubber. After the Second World War clog making went into decline, partly due to the stigma of clogs being for poor people and employers insisting that the work force wore steel toe capped boots. In the 1960’s clogs began to crawl there way back due to the medical announcement that they were good for the feet. In the 1970’s Morris dancing emerged on the public front which again called for the small scale manufacture of clogs. As clog wearing took hold again, orders from abroad arrived at the Hindley shop and soon dancing clogs found there way to America, Canada, South America and other countries. Some of the dancers wanted fancy clogs with pointed toes and long tongues and brass eyelets on which bells are hung. Also miniature souvenier clogs were sold which came in many different colours, five inches long and are exact replicas of adult clogs. Sadly the days of working clogs have long gone and
will never return. Since writing this, Walter Hurst as ceased trading. No more clogs for sale at Hindley.
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WIGAN QUIZ
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