Mesnes park,street etc?

Can anyone tell me about the title "Mesnes" which is so prominent in Wigan?
MegP

A church house used to be called a Manse, could this be anything to do with it?

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As getwom said. Demesne lands were lands witheld by 'the crown' when they distributed all the land to 'titles' and it is all listed in the domesday book. Wigan wasn't mentioned in the domesday book because it was part of Newton and there's a Mesnes Park in Newton too. When the lands were given to the general public, for the use of, (common land) it was reffered to as 'mesnes'. Probably.

The word mesnes means estate as in Worsely Mesnes so it used to be the estate of the Worsely family from many years ago.

I still remember a BBC news presenter calling it Worsley Mes- Nes.

Mesnes , a mesne lord, that is, a lord who holds land of a superior, but grants a part of it to another person, in which case he is a tenant to the superior, but lord or superior to the second grantee, and hence is called the mesne lord

Have a read through this ...... http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=41381&strquery=worsley%20mesnes

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I wouldn't believe anything the council says. Including that. They don't know their arse from their elbow!