Smithy Brow Ashton in Makerfield

Does anyone know the whereabouts of 'Smithy Brow Ashton in Makerfield?
The name has totally disappeared now but some of my relatives lived there in the late 1800s. For some reason I think it was near Old Road.

If Frank Walford reads this he will know, or Tonker will,

Tumtingle, Why we can't remember Smithy Brow I don't know as I remember the name so well , I'm thinking of the Billinge area for some reason

What was the name of the brow at the side of the old police station in Old Road?

It was called the Steam Engine Peter

Smithy Brow, Newburgh, Wigan, Greater Manchester, WN8

Brian, he asked for Smithy Brow Ashton in makerfeild

Think it's Billinge running between 2 mile stretch and Billinge

as far as i know there is NO smithy brow in ashton bentlegs ? .

Whups there is reference to Smithy Brow Ash-in-Mak on search but does not tell where it is.

iv,e yet to see it & if it doesnt give any reference to it then it cant exist . not in todays world .

It's at Billinge between 2 mile stretch and Billinge hospital

Sammy I phoned a friend a few days ago that lives across the road from where it comes out on Billinge road thinking he may know but he said that he had never hard anyone call it that,
there's only a few old house's along that road right at the end there could have been a Smithy in one of the houses to shoe the farmers horses, and the locals just called it Smithy Brow

I know there's a place in the area we always called SMITHY BROW that's old age for you

It must be the narrow road from the Hare and Hounds to the 2 mile stretch.

On an old map of goose green there is a smithy brook on side of little lane, there is also a smithy brook flour mill at rear of bulls head,and on other side is a smithy brook brow.

it seems there,s a smithy brook everywhere .

Certainly does Bri, mind you back in the day smithys where very popular as all transport then was horses, so I suppose every farmer or horsemen had one.

Certainly does Bri, mind you back in the day smithys where very popular as all transport then was horses, so I suppose every farmer or horsemen had one.

Some one must have an old map of the Ashton area

There is a map on our thread peterp but I can't find a smithy brow in Ashton perhaps it was called that by the locals, but had another name.

I found baptism cert for Smithy Brow, Ashton in 1867. The family were confirmed living in Brynn St in 1871, specifically 15 Bryn St 1881, 1891 & 1901. I found a A map showing ‘Smithy’ in this exact area where until at least 1891 Bryn Street stopped dead at No.27 and there were no more houses. Perhaps Smithy Brow means top part of Smithy as brow is old word for top of a hill i.e. it's an area and not name of a street? It would have more resembled a hill back then with no houses and No.15 is elevated.

Can't make out anything on the map, I remember in princes Ashton about where Aldi is now there was a Smithy where the farmers took the horse to be re-shoed in the 40s , you can see the land from Princes Road to the top of Hilton Street is much higher, could that have been a brow up to the Smithy at one time.

Must be people on here older than me that must remember it across from the White City, you got to it from round the back

Dougie, look again, The word Smithy is on the map exactly where Brynn street is, in the area of the council offices (now dr's?) and the boutique 23 dentist. This map was made in 1891. I find reference to a Smithy Brow on historical records from the 1820's to late 1800's. I don't think anyone referred to Smithy Brow as late as the 1940's. I have scanned old street maps of Ashton when there weren't that many streets. I find no streets so named............ but i may of course be wrong, i'm guessing as much as anyone!

There was also a smithy off Downall Green Road, close to Bryn cross. On a hill: not the top, but then, neither is the one on Bryn street.

Not all addresses referred to named roads or streets, the records of Park Lane Chapel contain addresses such as Skelton Well. Smithy Brow maybe indicated a location prior to street layouts that subsequently came into being, and which later became superseded by a street name.

I've spent hundreds of hours scanning family history documents primarily census and church records. The original poster is trying to piece together info from the same sources. Here is the family i mentioned before, a church baptism record stating abode as being "Smithy Brow". A church never recorded a child's abode as being a business location i.e. a Smithy / today a blacksmith's. They noted the baptism book as being the street name but more commonly a local parocial area e.g. 'Ashton town' as can be seen in the records below that of Smithy Brow. There is similarly no street named Ashton Town, it's an area.

Just a bit of local information, Ther was a smithy in Downallgreen, it was where Milingford Engineering was owned by Fred Lowe,

I've seen that on the map bentlegs, very interesting as I wondered when Millingford was established also on map is old cromptons hinge & lock factory quite a busy village back then.

Re Pewfall’s post.

The 1861 and 1871 census entries show Joseph Mitchell living in Bryn Street( written as Brynn Street).
Was Bryn Street Smithy Brow in those days?

You can take what's written in those old church records with a pinch of salt, as they only used terminology known to the locals.

1841 England Census, Lancashire, Winwick, Ashton in Makerfield, District 7 quotes an area "All that part of Ashton comprising of Smithy Brow, all the Town Green, Gillacre, Wallis Nook and part of Long Lane as far as the town division extends". There are 36 inhabited dwellings in Smithy Brow. Long Lane today is Bryn Road and poss also Bryn Road south. I've found all these places on a map except Smithy Brow. I give up!

Pewfall.

The church entry you posted showedJoseph Mitchell living at Smithy Brow. At the same time the census entries show him living in Bryn Street. Thus Smithy Brow and Bryn Street were the same place.

What was that Rd called in front of where Betty Lowe lived of rectory Rd

What was that Rd called in front of where Betty Lowe lived of rectory Rd

There's no Lodge Lane in Ashton.
And I don't think Bryn Street was there in the 1860's, so Smithy Brow might've been changed to Bryn Street when the road was opened onto Wigan Road.
Although, I think I've been told there was a blacksmith's shop behind Johnny Moggies, end of Foy Street, by the brook.
J.W. might've told me, Dougie!

Long Lane, 1849 Ordnance Survey

Yes, Bryn Road used to be Long Lane. After all, it IS long. I wouldn't walk it with a stone in my shoe!
It never was 'Lodge Lane', though, like it says on the church record.

Ok. Tonker I get you.

Tonker , the Long Lane I refer to is quoted on the 1841 census and referenced on the map above. I didn't even look at Lodge lane on the church record. I don't think the church record has made a mistake mistaking Long Lane for Lodge Lane. There was / is a Lodge Lane today where Warrington Road changes into it past the Bay Horse. I suspect it has just crossed into the township of Haydock though and isn't Ashton. Father William Cottam is recorded again 3 years later as "Lodge Lane Ashton" with another child. I can't see the church making the same typo error twice and writing Lodge instead of Long. They just considered at that time Lodge Lane was Ashton, not Haydock. In any event it aint far away.



Anyroad, this is off topic.

100% there was a Smithy for horses as you turned into Princes Road across from the white city that was still working in the 40s, I've been there with the farmer they must have been everywhere at one time

Tumtigle , I remember the smithy you reference to , trying to think of the Blacksmiths name, I use,t to walk walk to the smithy with Tommy Haydock when he took the horses for shooing,

I use't to ride on the horses back and the farmer walking the horse, no cars on the road them days