Swampy Ground

Someone has commented on a Photo-a-day relating to the new bus station being constructed in Wigan that the land there was swampy at one time. Does anyone know anything about this? I was under the impression Top Croft and Bottom Croft used to be there.

A lot of buildings were on the site of the bus station which can be seen on this photo - link below.

aerial photo of Wigan town centre

So I don't know when Ken remembers that area being 'swampy', unless he means over the way off Newmarket Street where the springs of water used to bubble up, the parish community centre building was on the same patch of land.

There were once ideas in the offing for a new bus station to be built on the site of the old railway goods yard at the back of King Street, where MFI once was, so it would have been a one stop hub for road and rail travel like how Bolton is - though like how many good ideas go this never came to fruition.

I should have thought that there was too much of a slope for the area to get swampy, perhaps down the bottom towards Frog Lane, maybe that's where the name came from?

1849 map shows it as the national blue coat school so was developed as early as that. 1897 map shows the market place that was and housing on the site of the bus station

(Comment removed because it broke the rules)