Wigan Album

Pam, I suspect it was Moss Hall Farm, at one time owned by Moss Hall Coal Company Ltd. I think any farmers would have been tenant farmers.

Hi Pam,the buildings in the background belonged to Mellings Farm, they were the hey barns,spent many a happy hour playing in there when I was a kid,this picture will bring back memories for old Platt Bridgers, biggest part of Platt Bridge kids used to play in the barns,by the way great bonnet.

Thanks for the replies. Will look up names. Mum takes credit for the bonnet :)

It was also the site of a ruined moat house Lowe Hall.The moat was still there when we were kids, teeming with fish. Mr Bullen was the tenant farmer then.

Melling's, (Moss Hall), Farm was on the Ince/Hindley border, now Seaman's Way. Did some of the outbuildings stand as far as Platt Bridge?

I dont think so Irene,for that to be the case Mellings farm would have had to be bigger than Southfork,probably a relation I would think, or the names are just a coincidence.

Pam, I see you are guarded by a black Labrador. Wonderful photo

Irene,there might be some truth in what you say,looking at the structure of the building its primary function was a farm house,not a barn,I cant ever remember the farm being occupied, but only being used as a storage facility, so the farmer could quite easily have relocated to Ince,but still retained the barns, I have on occasions seen the farmer loading the barns up with bales of hey,so you may well be right.

Different branches of the Melling family had farms in the general locality, as Irene states, there was a a Melling's farm over towards Hindley/Higher Ince border. They also had a farm in Spring View, it was situated a few hundred yards beyond Marlborough Avenue. I have a feelings it is still there as a listed building.

I remember the Melling's Farm on what is now Seamans Way well. It was a regular Sunday afternoon walk for my parents and myself when I was a little girl. There was Melling's Flash there too, with men fishing. For anyone who knows Ince, we would walk down Ince Green Lane to the viaducts area, (which we pronounced "viredocks"), under a railway bridge to the "white gates", up past the Devil's Tunnel to the "three bridges". Once under the bridges, you came to Melling's Flash and Melling's Farm which were on the right as you walked down Seaman's Way,(just a dirt path then), to the ManchesterRoad/ Wigan Road border. Turn left, under the railway bridge that spans the road, and Ince Park was then on your left. My parents DID used to talk about a farm at the bottom of Marlborough Avenue, Spring View, but they always referred to it as Bushell's Farm.

Quite right Irene , when the estate was built in the 70's it was known as Bushells estate