Wigan Album

I HAD ANCESTORS NAMED WILLGOOSE FROM ASPULL{I THINK} NOT A COMMON NAME DO YOU THINK THERES ANY CONNECTION TO WILLGOOSE LANE DOES ANYONE KNOW?.

Nt sure where this is. Was it just off Wallgate?

hi steven , i would imagine that bus has just come up wallgate and is just about to go under bridge leading into wigan nr train stations . im in wiqan tomorrow and i think ill take a look see whats still there an take a few pics .

willgoose lane wasright next to wallgate bridge until recently there was a plate on the wall to the right of the picture with willgoose lane on it wonder were it went

This is wilgoose lane,it was locally known as the ropewalk.I grew up in wallgate down swan street and went to St.Joseph's school in the 1960's

Yes Willgoose Lane was the Passageway that ran at the back of Great George Street into Wallgate came out at the Railway Bridge which carried the Trains from London to Scotland,Yes it was commonly known as the Ropewalk Because in the 1930s A rope Manufacture was based in the Building at the Bottom of Willgoose Lane and when a order for long Ropes came in the job of two men was to measure the lenghts required and the ropes where laid out sometimes stretching a fair way up the passageway then one man would walk the length get the measurement required then roll up same and that was delivered to the customer,Hence the nickname ropewalk.The firm closed down and later became Hewitts who made suitcases and leather goods

Used Willgoose Lane regularly in the 1940's, to get to the A.B.C.minors on a Sat. morning, from my home in York St. East. If you view the section, pubs in Wigan in the 1840's,on Wigan World, it mentions a pub in Wallgate named The Bears Paw, and the landlords' name was William Willgoose. Coincidence, or was it named after him? Re the nameplate, this was in situe up to 2or 3 years ago, and was removed, the same time that the lane was blocked off by the company who presently occupy the building, namely, Tudor Heating.

BEARS PAW I remember the pub being in Chapel Lane I did not know one was in Wallgate.I at one time in the 50s had a garage in the ropewalk.

I remember reading that a family called Wilgoose owned land in the area sometime way back in the 1800s.