This was a project proposed quite a while ago, which never got off the ground but a national initiative known as the HSHAZ (High Street Heritage Action Zone) has renewed interest in it. The initiative is supported by a £1.27m grant from Historic England and King Street in Wigan happens to have attracted HSHAZ status. We have been invited to join with the Wigan Local History & Heritage Society to study this area, which has suffered badly over recent years with high vacancy levels and unsympathetic development. The study is intended to identify all buildings of historic merit, record the features and find out the history of these sites and the people involved. This information will be used to help secure the future of these buildings by making people aware of the area's rich heritage. Hopefully it will encourage investment in daytime commerce to match the areas renown night-time business (visit WLHHS website for more information). Already the Royal Court Theatre has been bought by the people who run The Old Courts Arts Centre behind the Parish Church. Their intention is to bring it back to its former glory as a 1500-2000 seater theatre.
Our contribution has been to set up a database (similar to our River Project) for storing all the information gathered. Jim Meehan and I have already populated it with information from the Historic Environment Record and Historic England's listed buildings register. Other information is also being gathered and for other buildings that are not listed but deserve recognition and fascinating stories are already beginning to emerge. The Meeks Building for instance in Rowbottom Square, now rented offices, was previously a clothing factory. In fact the whole complex of buildings was once owned by the Meek family drapery business which started trading in 1831. Their shop on Wallgate is now Little Fifteens, the pub where until recently, we held our monthly meetings. By map regression (a technique of overlaying old maps) we can see that before the Meeks rebuild, this site was originally a long row of back to back terraced houses, fronting north-side onto Bears Paw Yard and south onto Rowbottom Square. The Wigan Directory of 1825 reveals that the Bears Paw fronted on Wallgate. The maps show that whole line of buildings follows the plan of a typical Medieval burgage plot i.e. a long narrow plot of land fronting onto the main road - examples are found all over Wigan (details are on our database here).
Another focus of interest is Grimes Arcade which is now unfortunately vacant and blocked to prevent vandalism. Many people remember it as Dawson's music shop but it was originally built for Solicitors Richard Leigh and the Manchester and County Bank (their monograms are carved in the roundels above the two entrance doors). It's a fine example of Gothic revival architecture and is possibly the earliest arcade in Wigan. It would be great to see it occupied and reopened again.
Another strange (and amusing) tale that has come to light is the story of the Battle of Faggy Lane.. Old maps show this lane ran from King Street next to the old County Cinema, diagonally across Faggy Field, coming out onto Chapel Lane (there is still a street behind the old Citroen Garage with that name). It seems to have been the forerunner of Kings Street and may have continued all the way into the town centre. The battle occurred over several days in 1867 - not between military aggressors but workmen employed by the two great rival railway companies the LNWR and the L&YR. The LNWR already had their station in Wallgate and the L&YR were building theirs further up. Their lines cut off Faggy Lane and the L&YR were obliged to build a bridge across them for people wanting access to Chapel Lane. However it was also being used as a short cut to the LNWR station. When the L&YR blocked the route the battle lines were drawn and the workmen fought over blockage, one to remove it and the other to retain it (full story here).
There is plenty research still to be done so if you want to help please let us know.
Wigan Little Theatre
Work is still continuing on our Douglas River Project and one of the mills recently researched is the Wigan Forge which originated in the 18th century (and was a corn mill before that). It was situated on the west bank of the Douglas where Crompton Street crosses it. The site is now occupied by Wigan Little Theatre, a building that started life as the Alliance Hall in 1893, a Salvation Army citadel (later to become Canada Pictures). As it happens Ron Hunt recently gave a very entertaining talk on the history of the theatre to the WLHHS. Fortunately for us this is now available on their website here.
WLHHS Next Meeting
No meetings for us yet but this meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday 8th March at 7.00pm. The subject is a talk by Derek Winstanley on the Origin and History of Wigan Pier which he gave to us quite a few years ago. If you missed it, or want to catch up on latest developments you can book your place by contacting Clare Kenyon on MarieClareC@msn.com.
Keep safe - BA
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