Wigan Album

What a great photo.

I have a copy of a booklet 'Higher Ince Urban Trail', produced by TRR Ryding and KE Lowe for Ince CofE School. Unfortunately it isn't dated, but seems to be from about 1980. It consists of descriptions of three loops of walks around Higher Ince - one of which covers the area where Viaduct Row once was, and describes a disater which occurred there in 1883: "There was a sudden spate of subsidence. One of the houses had been built upon an arch which crossed an old pit shaft. Suddenly, out of the blue, a heavy noise was heard. The arch had given way and the front portion of a house fell down the shaft along with a young man who was killed. Other people had narrow escapes." Doubtless more details will be in newspapers of the time.
The booklet is illustrated, with many 'Then & Now' scenes - but, unfortunately, old duplicators didn't reproduce photos very well, so they're not very good images at all. That's a pity - but maybe the originals still exist somewhere....

What a great photo. A real time capsule.

My great Uncle was born at 23 Viaduct Lane, Ince Hall in 1892. Maybe the "Lane" was dropped in later years.

It is a wonderful photo, the girl holding the baby looks as though she has just finished her shift on the pit brow, with her brat all covered in coal dust.

this photo has so much detail in it , look and you will see something different every time i love old pics of wigan and famlies, my famliy lived in leeds st off wallgate, number 13 next door but one to nellie davies chip shop and belchambers across the rd

This is what Wigan World is all about. If you go down Pinewood Crescent, just before Ince Parish Church Bridge, then turn into Maple Avenue and walk to the end of it, you come to a railway bridge. Walk under it and Viaduct Row stood just on your right. The area known as The Viaducts was Raven Street, Farmer Street and part of Ince Green Lane near the Church Bridge. On a foggy Winter's night it was almost Dickensian! I remember a big family named Hartley from the area in the 50s and 60s before the streets were demolished.

A really interesting photo.Looks to me like the poor lass is pregnant as well as having a babe in arms. What a life.

Strangely, although the two rows are plainly there on the 1929 map, there is no entry for them in the 1925-6 Ince Directory. They are not the only houses in Ince not to appear in that Directory - Kay's Houses at Little Westwood are also absent. What they have in common is that they were both isolated from adjacent roads - and accessed through tunnels under railways. Perhaps the compilers were frit of walking through 'Devil's Bridge'....

The younger generations of today need a taste of how hard life was back then..just maybe they would learn something....

Amazing photo!! I love to photo's like this....

dk, I put the story of the man that fell into the shaft at Viaduct Row on one of the Communicate sections but I can't find it now. Can't remember the fellas name either.

I was brought up not far from there,and I can remember the water from the canal in front of the houses in the Viaducts.
Has any body any idea what the structure is on the left hand side of the doorway in the distance.
Could it be Parks forge?

this is sutch a lovely photo ,but i bet it wernt lovely for them,just look at the older ladys cardigan full of holes cause she probably only had that one, and the young girl with the baby you can just imagin how hard it was for them but they dont look sad as i suppose that was their lot, notice the baby is spotless, lovely pic.

forgot to say, take a look at the wallpaper dead modern today.

Long time no see Bill. I think this is looking due north and taking no 1 as the left hand end of the row the map shows a pen behind the fence. I think that the upper left corner background, after the washing line, is the embankment of the railway line with the chimney stacks of the houses of Farmer Street a bit more distant still. But there are doubts. The telegraph pole - if that is what it is - seems out of proportion although its stays and buckles can be seen.
Keep well.

The pole probably carried a basic electricity supply, but knowing what these terraced houses were like in Ince, even up until the 1950's, the Family shown here had only gas mantles. I bet they could leave their front (and back) door open all day thoug !!!!

we used to playin the viaducts fishin for minnows and tadpoles i remember skating on the iceone christmas evewhen the ice broke i went completely under i shot out like arocket very scareythere was something magical about that little area as a child especially when the mist settld over the water and bulrushesit was only 50 yards from my home in farmer st