Wigan Album

I can remember watching a rugby match in o1948 on a pitch between the pit and Beech Hill estate, involving Giants Hall rugby team with a certain Brian McTigue playing for them at centre, This was before he joinsd Wigan ,at that time he was a local amateur boxer

Excellent photo, Stew. The railway line from John pit can clearly be seen making its way to Gidlow Lane level crossing.
Centre right, the small building with the white roof between the two lines was the Weighbridge. The remains of it can still be seen.

It's such a shame that not only the pit has gone, but also the previously farmed fields that are now overgrown wastelands.

Stew. Would you, or anybody, have the names of the roads that can be seen on the Beech Hill Estate? I presume, at the present time, the estate has expanded more towards were the colliery was located.

If you look on Google Earth you can see that this part of the estate is much as it was laid out then - the road cutting off a segment in the bottom corner is Acacia Crescent.

Hmm...I seem to recognise this pic!

Albert, the road running through this shot north to south is Acacia Crescent and running off it from top to bottom are Bluebell Ave (left and right), Sycamore Ave (left and right), Yates Grove (cul de sac) and Wellfield Rd (the part of it to the left of Acacia Crescent. Bluebell Ave was extended in the early sixties to the rear of Acacia Crescent.

Thank you, each one of you, for the detailed comments. Having looked at Google earth, I conclude that the lower part of the beech hill estate was built at a later time. Lingfield Road, Paddock Rise, the Beech Tree Pub, and the houses in that particular area, and the area north of it is generally the same as what it was when this photograph was taken?

Bluebell is on here but the "new estate" isn't. This was an extension of Bluebell leading to Tulip and then down to Forest Ave.

Also where it forks off at the bottom of Bluebell Ave, only the left path exists although a horrendous council fence has spoilt it somewhat but this path still passes behind the houses. The right path cannot be made out although a more direct one leading to the "Bomb Hole" was etched out over the generations of adventure seekers and was used by myself 2 Sunday's ago.

Did you know that Beech Hill Estate was the first Council Estate to be built in England and there was well at the top of the hill where one religion used to be baptised before it was built.

Interesting Ann, the well being Wellfield?! Interesting also about relgion, very little is known or held in records about the area the copies I have of the time have gaps in the years and so its scattered. If it was the first to be built, nothing is made of it nor is there a good archive available.

I can give some information about the development of the council estate shown in the picture, in that the streets shown in the bottom right hand corner of the picture, are Bluebell Avenue, branching off from Acacia Crescent and this picture ties in and confirms what an old gent told me about five years ago and that is that the bit of Bluebell Avenue shown in the picture and that part of the estate, was built pre-war and the rest of the Beech Hill estate was built post-war and that can be seen now, in that if you turn into Bluebell Avenue from Acacia Crescent, going down to what is known as the 'valley' side of Bluebell Avenue, the first six semi detached houses, on each side of the road, are of a different design, to the rest of Bluebell Avenue, which goes down towards the valley and branches off into Tulip drive.

The council estate recognised as being the first in the UK is the Boundary Estate in London's east end. It was funded by London County council and construction started in 1890.

Our family moved to the section of Bluebell Ave between Rose Ave and Acacia Crescent in the 1950s. Our then new next door neighbours had lived in their property and told us that it had been built in 1929. Prior to that we had moved into a council property at the end of Rose Ave nearest to Beech Hill Ave in 1946, which was not a new house then. I think the Rose Ave houses were certainly newer than those in Bluebell Ave since the area street lights were electric whilst the rest of the estate's street lighting was by gas and stayed that way until the late 50s.

My dad's family moved into 67, Acacia Crescent in Beech Hill in 1929. They were Charlie Holland, Mary Holland and their son, Leslie. Leslie was my late father. I, Brian Holland, was born in 1949 and regularly visited my grandparents at this address in Beech Hill. From the upstairs bedroom window I recall a railway line and crossing and from time to time saw trains pulling coal trucks from Giant's Hall pit. As I got older, I remember walking down a track that went passed some garages that led up to that rail crossing beyond which was Giant's Hall Farm, the maim building of which still stands. I have very happy memories of Acacia Crescent and Beech Hill as I grew up in another part of Wigan in the 1950s and early 60s. Mary Holland, my grandmother, had worked at the ROF arms factory during WW2 in Beech Hill but later transferred to Exton near Chorley. My granddad had worked as a train driver up until the 1960s but forced to retire due to deafness; he worked at Eckersley's Mill until he retired. He died in 1971 and around that time my grandmother, Mary, moved to a retirement flat at Greenfield sited very near her old ROF factory. Has anyone else got memories of Acacia Crescent in the period? Does anyone remember Mary or Charlie Holland or me?!

Giants Hall colliery has been abducted by Sir Roger Gill, now calls his estate GIANTS HALL FARM INDUSTRIAL EST. He also owns all of the adjoining public footpaths to use for his 40ft H G VS to deliver hazardous goods. I would like to know how anyone can do this ? He told me personally he owns all the land in and around this whole area, EH

When i was at Gidlow school Mrs Gill of Gills farm was my teecher,. does anyone know how Gills farm became Giants Hall G M B H