Photo-a-Day  (Saturday, 13th March, 2021)

Not the village I lived in.

People need places to live so we will keep on needing more and more houses, and its better to build on these little pockets of land in already built up areas.
A bit more to the right and you would be able to see our house.

Lovely scenery Dennis good photo.

I worked in Standish 1970 to 1973 and it seemed such a small, homely place. On the occasions we drive through High Street it doesn't seem all that different except the shop names have changed but it does seem to be rapidly spreading.

Lovely place Standish, Wigan has a lot to offer. Where was the photo taken from, Dennis.

Nor me Linma

It's happening all over - the roads are choked where I live they won't and can't support all the new housing. Future generations will just start emigrating more and more. Who can blame them... ? If I was young I think I would.

It is sad that land is being swallowed up but we are desperately short of housing and building them in remote areas creates a whole new set of difficulties. Lets not also overlook the fact that everybody's house is built on what was at some point in the past an open space.

I was told that the church was named after the English character actor, Wilfrid Hyde-White.
Something tells me that's not true, as he only died in the 1990's and the church has been here a lot longer than that. Maybe he was named after the church? Or maybe his dad was from Standish? Or his mum?
Probably someone can confirm this?

Well sad MikeW, some people do have extraordinary short memories

Taken from School Lane, Haigh Garry.

That was Jonty's farmland . There , was a fishing hole we called the Mill pond , surrounded by wheat . Jonty hated us kids making tracks in his crop to get to the pond . Years later, he sold up and the land became a golf course . I played a round there when it first opened . As we walked down the fairway , we came across the Mill pond once again . It had become a mere water hazard . I saw myself as a boy again casting a line to the big carp we called the Mill pond monster . It was just about where the white tanks are in the photograph .

The church was obviously named after St. Wilfrid himself. as most churches are named after a Saint.

What you say is true MikeW, people do need somewhere to live and houses have to be built, but I feel the sadness that Poet speaks of. The sadness of knowing that no future generation of kids will ever have the joy of throwing a line in that pond,
will never have the hope of being the one who finally defeats that monster carp, never tramp across that field of wheat with a backward glance and a careful eye out for that irate farmer.
People must have houses, but there's a sadness to it, yes indeed there is.

Indeed Irene, a lot are, but Wigan parish church is named after all of them.

This is a lovely church, and a good photo Dennis.But like everyone says every bit of land is being built on, the children don't seem to have anywhere to just room these days, like we did.Its a sad sign of changing times.

Very moving Poet .
You are 100% correct Mike and it is impossible to argue as change is the essence of Nature itself . Saying that, we humans are made up of emotions, and memories are a huge part of that.
This generation are building their own
memories now , but ours also remain very much intact and so , it is hard not to get upset when, as Poet so perfectly describes , a place you knew and loved has been changed .
The place I played as a child and treasured is now massive warehouses, which provide much needed jobs , but it always breaks my heart to look at it .
Yes Mike , much needed housing , but with many memories underneath , that are alive for many as they have always been .

St Wilfrid’s Church was rebuilt in 1584 and is the only Grade 1 listed building in Wigan or what was the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. Safe to assume therefore that it was not named after Wilfrid Hyde-White.

It certainly has changed in the best part of 80 years that i've known it, definitely for the worse unfortunately. The houses pictured are just a small percentage of the houses being built at the moment, in what used to be a village. I'm certainly not anti progress, but there's a limit.

DavidH, I'm sure you'll find Wigan council's area of control is still a metropolitan borough. It was when I last looked. Unless the Leythers have had a referendum and have absconded. That would be a Leixit.

Hi again Bruce. Further to the previous, I’ve just googled Wigan Council and it brings up the titles Wigan Council and Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council on the same web-site. I don’t know any more.

Certainly younger generations wont have the same memories of childhood that we and previous generations enjoyed. We were free to roam, they aren't. We could play outside in the streets we lived in, they can't there is too much traffic for one thing. They wont have the same experiences we had - going to the picture houses we went to, playing in the fields and parks without parental supervision the way we did.
The pleasure in play we shared didn't cost anything. Nowadays it's all about how much it costs for them to be happy. I remember taking my grandchildren to a 'Play Warehouse' on an industrial estate it cost £5 each just so they could rough and tumble for 3 hours in a safe atmosphere. I doubt they will remember those treats, because it wasn't something that could be done everyday. I don't think children are too bothered about 'playing out' anyway even if they could these days. Too many sophisticated 'toys' for one thing. When they get to their teenage inbetween years it's still unsafe, not to mention gang and drug crimes.
Those carefree times have gone forever.

The Leythers voted Boris... isn't that absconding...?

They've seen the light Reverend . They've seen the light !

If Boris is the light then we’re all doomed, doomed a tell ye!

The Mill Pond is still there Poet, albeit a shadow of it's former self. I think all the fish were netted some years ago. There's a wooden safety rail ( ? ) all around it now. I wonder what owd Jonty would have made of that. A few years ago, after planning was granted, I rode over to the pond to see if was still there. I took my camera and took a complete 360 panorama snapshot from the side of the pond. I plan to do the same photos when the estate is finished. Did you know you can now drive from the bottom of Grove Lane and come out on Rectory Lane ?

WN1, very soon you will be able to drive from the Preston Road end of Pepper Lane through two freshly built massive estates and come out on Almond Brook Road opposite The Charnley Arms, a rat run if ever i saw one.

A safety rail WN1 . Says it all doesn't it .

Heard once the wafting rods ,
The spidery line curling out in the sun .
Jonty's pond drowsed in birdsong .

Then, Splaadoosh ! A chainmailed carp
Jumps in rings of ripples
'Til the pond flattens out again .

Quickly now , the quill as gone !
The rod is alive with electricity ,
As in a splashing star he's reeled in .

Sorry , I suddenly needed some solace. I wonder if the Grove / Rectory Lane connection will become a sort of bypass . I have visions of huge queues at the Horseshoe junction .

The sad thing Roy and WN1 is that these estates can hardly be described as much needed affordable housing . The council encourage development in Standish because of the high rateable value . We are their cash cow .

Don't know if it's right Poet/Roy, but I remember reading somewhere that a feasability study had been carried out to assess the practicality of installing a roundabout/ traffic lights at the top of Grove lane at the side of the old Horseshoe pub, predicting traffic issues and buildback. Considering the parking problems on Grove Lane I can see major issues ahead. They may end up putting bollards across the bottom of Grove Lane .