Local Poetry

On Your Horse  By John Clays

They've changing the junction, at The Saddle;
the three routes out of town, south and west
have been there for some time; so much so
A 49 on a Roman alignment, with Ormskirk
and St Helens coming later
All change

If you can picture Wigan in an earlier age,
bring to mind medieval street plan, as in principle,
it is today; you would see that after going down
Wallgate and Crossing the Douglas
the three branches fan out
All change

Such arteries had in mind animal traffic
Come the Industrial Revolution, petrol engine,
twentieth century advancement for the second time
In a short space of 40 years necessitated
improvement of the carriageways
All change

Lancahire and Yorkshire railway line, from Wigan Wallgate,
crossed Ormskirk Road after 1848. Subsequently Newtown
mushroomed up the slopes included The Saddle Inn, which
by the turn of the century, at the funnel section
had left its eponymic epitaph
All change

Altered and upgraded in 1960 to a roundabout'
dispensed with point duty policeman and widened
Adam Bridge. Yet a duplicate bridge was planned
and an elongated Gyratory that would speed traffic
around and around
All Change

If the Romans returned today they would comment
and make discreet enquiries as to why the road under
the railway bridge has not been brought into account. Fresh
routes and brand new Robin Park water crossings
but future Saddle traffic still slow
No Change