Places   (Help with places, streets and buildings in Wigan.)

Bentlegs, you mention a Fred Lowe of Spindle Hillock and his engineering factory.
I had a friend, a lot older than me, called Arthur Lowe. I'm sure he was from around the Garswood area, as he said he used to knock about with Les Cunliffe and they were both motorcyclists. Les was brought up in the house just inside the golf club gates.
Anyroadup, Arthur (nickname "Nobby") had a lad called David Lowe, who took up racing like me. He was pretty good on the 125s, winning the 125 British Championship and coming 11th in the British World Championship round at Silvertone.
Well, their Dave got some sponsorship off a company, based in Haydock, called TLV Engineering. It turned out that the chairman / owner of TLV was Arthur's uncle, or something, and his name was Tommy Lowe. The company's name, TLV, stood for Tommy Lowe Vertical, which was a machine which Tommy Lowe had invented and it was a multi-punching machine, used for manufacturing hinges.

I wondered, after you mentioned 'Lowe' and 'Cromptons' and 'hinges', if Tommy Lowe and his TLV machine was developed from Fred Lowe's factory. Do you know any of these names? They're all well old, like you, so you might know them!