Wigan Album

I played Fives in the court just off to the right of the photo and also had one of the proudest moments of my Grammar school life when I won the Baker cup for junior champion athlete at the annual school sports day. Great times!

Another iconic building I remember well. I hope it still stands. A very English scene DTease.

Graham. I also remember the Fives court well although it was becoming a bit the worse for wear in the 1960s. Lots of cricket and hockey memories on that field es o equally neat practice. PS is that you in the photo of 1967 prefects on this page or did you have a brother?

Loved playing cricket on this field many years ago.

The Walker Cup, The Ryder Cup and The Baker Cup all sound pretty impressive to me, Graham. And I remember the first time I came across the game of Fives; It was given as Fives (Eton) in my giant encyclopaedia of Sport. The book (which I still have) gives winners up to and including 1959 and has umpteen drawings and photos of personalities with names that continue to ring a very loud bell; Moss, Bannister, Sullivan, … . Its few coloured pages are of Club badges, and for Sailing clubs 'burgees' are given. Very good photo, DTease.

This building built in the 1930s was originally Wigan Grammar school for boys only, (the girls school is now Mab's Cross primary school). It became Mesnes High School about 1970 and closed about 1987. Then it was part of Wigan College, and now since about 2000 it is the Thomas Linacre health centre. There were plans for buildings on the playing fields but it never happened, except for the new Wigan Youth Centre that occupies nearly half of the site. I used to remember Ribble buses on the routes from Chorley, Preston and Blackburn coming down Mesnes Park Terrace past the school to get to the old bus station on the market square. Just out of the picture to the left were the Civic Buildings where the gas showrooms were for many years and a driving school possibly BSM.

Reminds me of a poem which was one of Mr Hilton’s favourites, at the school I attended in the 1940s, ‘Vitai Lampada.’, by Sir Henry Newbolt. The essence was on the game of cricket. ‘Play up, play up, and play the game’ Heard as a rallying cry, in a Middle East’s battle, in the desert sands, involving British troops, in the middle to the late eighteenth century.

Remember meeting my cricket hero there Geoffrey boycott, maybe 30 years ago.

I seem to remember going to a wedding reception here about 20 years ago...I had forgotten about it until I saw the photo.
Yes the ghostly sounds can be heard, of respectful clapping and cheering as the leather ball thuds against willow... On a sunny afternoon..

I inadvertently in my comment, I stated the eighteenth century. I should have written the late nineteenth century . The Gatling gun only came into use in 1872.

Albert, Veronica An even more appropriate poem is the wonderful "At Lords" by Francis Thompson. Despite the title it's actually by a Lancastrian looking back wistfully at his childhood heroes. The best known verse is

It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk,

Though my own red roses there may blow;

It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk,

Though the red roses crest the caps, I know.

For the field is full of shades as I near a shadowy coast,

And a ghostly batsman plays to the bowling of a ghost,

And I look through my tears on a soundless-clapping host

As the run stealers flicker to and fro,

To and fro:

O my Hornby and my Barlow long ago !


The poem is often requested on the radio as a reading and a an exile from Lancashire it usually brings a lump to my throat.

It has just registered with me, looking at the date relating to the Gatling gun. My grandmother, Mary Short, she lived in Raven Street, Higher Ince, was born in 1863, She died in 1950, aged 87 years.

It is amazing Carolean, the views, especially the views of the past, that do stir ones memories. Smells sometimes have the same effect.

There are quite a few poems about cricket that are thought of as bad poetry..but I think they are lovely Carolean. It's the emptiness of the field that made me think of ghostly applause and cheering,.... It also made me think of the Dad's Army cricket competition episode. ;o)

Carolaen. I'm afraid that's not me in the photo . I left in 1966. I don't know when the Grammar school and the Tommy Linacre came together and I wonder if this was the Thomas Linacre school prefects even though the photo is titled Wigan Grammar Schools. There's one person I sort of recognise on the back row about four in from the right and that's Dave Kenny, if I have the right person that is!

Just discovered after doing some reading that the two schools amalgamated in 1963 under the then headmaster Mr Merriman. The only fly in my ointment now is that I thought Dave Kenny was in my year and I definitely left in 1966. How sure are you that this is 1967?

The two school" combined" or should I say the TLS was COMPLETELY taken over by the Grammar school in 1963 The TLS lost all its identity. It's ironic that now the Grammar School is called the LINACRE CENTRE.
Thanks to Ron Hunt and Steve Smith, who wrote a book about the school a couple of years ago the memory of the old ALMA MATER will live on for posterity.

Carolean,
O my Hornby refers to AN Hornby, captain of Lancashire CCC.
He played both Rugby and Cricket for England.
In addition, he brought the AN Hornby X1 to Bull Hey to mark the opening of the Wigan Cricket Club ground in 1898

Albert my history teacher at school also liked to recite Sir Henry Newbolt's poems but beside Vitai Lampada his favourite was Admirals All. I can only remember the first verse.Effingham Grenville Raleigh Drake Here's to the bold and free!Benbow,Collingwood,Byron,Blake,Hail to theKings of the Sea! Admirals all, for England's sake,Honour,be yours and fame! And honours longs waves shall break.To Nelson's peerless name.jj

Dave. In our formative years a number of people, other than our parents’ had a significant impact on our lives, one such group were the ones that taught us in our school years.
I only went to a secondary modern, all boys’ school, at Spring View, and the majority of the time teachers’ were at a premium, especially men. They were otherwise engaged kicking Hitler’s backside.
Two teachers, that I remember with a degree of affection, were a Mr Hilton, he had been too old to be conscripted, and the other was Mr Grange, he only taught me for two, or three years, as he only came back to the school at the end of the war.
Mr Grange would read a story to the class, and his tone of voice, and his deliberation of sentences, transported you into the book that he was reading. Two that I remember well, were, Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, and Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan.
Mr Hilton would read poetry, in such a way that you we’re engrossed in the poem’s enthralment. Three such poems’ were. The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Abu Ben Adhem, by Leigh Hunt, and Gunga Din, by Rudyard Kipling.

PF. I knew about AN Hornby as the famous Lancashire and England captain and batsman (he also captained the England Rugby Union team and played football for Blackburn Rovers) but I did not know about him bringing a team to Bully Hey.

Dick Barlow was his famous Lancashire and England batting partner Barlow was also a very good bowler. He had very working class origins and played as a professional unlike Hornby who was the son of a mill owner and MP who went to harrow and was a Gentleman or Amateur.

Incidentally WGS used to play quite a few games on Bull hey as well as the one in the photo. One further thought. Wasn't the Driving Test Centre just up at the top right hand corner of this field beyond the line of trees ?

I went to the Thomas Linacre in the 50's and remember having the athletics here.

Played Cricket and Fives for the WGS here loads of times (Left in 1963 when the school merged with the Linacre). Once hit a cricket ball over the road by the Fives Court which went through the showroom window of Mabs Cross Motors, (where Docs Symposium is now!) Happy days!

Carolaen, were you in class 1B in 1963?