History of Wigan   (Help with ancient and recent history.)

Hello Susan, Wigan was a centre of metal working long before the Industrial Revolution. So perhaps you are going to find your people associated with it for a long way back.

I recognise the names which you list as local, so hopefully you will find people associated with them.

Our next door neighbours were 'Orrells' in Bryn when I was a child, and one of my childhood neighbours had a boyfriend who was a 'Bithell'. So the names were certainly about, and I think most Wiganers would have known of the sports shop: Oliver Somers.