Wigan Album

Very poignant Derek, as we visited here last year and still regularly wander the estate with the resident at the nearby bungalow. Everything's overgrown now, and in a long lasting legal wrangle in which the council should be chastised and scrutinised like never before.

Can joe public walk through the estate now ? Is the figure eight pond still up there?

Nothing to do with the pet's burial plot..but what a sad little place it is. Mr Belshaw are you related to a Bradshaw family at Pemberton? Does your family have connections with a shop in Pemberton ? My cousin Fred Foster says he thinks you do.

John, can't help you with your questions as I live a few thousand miles away! You never asked permission to go into Winstanley Estate anyway. It was just a question of avoiding the gamekeeper. I presume figure8 is still there.

Has there ever been a petition to the Council to do something to save the Hall? It is disgraceful.

I'm so mad about this shameful neglect of...one of only 3 Tudor buildings in Wigan. I've said it somewhere else on WW that the building is an Ancient Scheduled Monument, Grade 2 Listed & the Winstanley's had been Lords of the Manor since about 1252. I understand the later owners lived at the Hall till about the 60's, then sold it as they couldn't afford the up keep. I believe Dobcrest Homes own it (?) & Wigan Council have consistently refused planning permission to convert the place into flats...wouldn't that have been better than letting it get into such an appalling state ? What a total waste of an important bit of history of the area. I am a volunteer at a a NT property near where I live, it was built about the same time as Winstanley Hall & the difference between the two today beggars belief. The Vision of Planners....what vision ?? Are they letting it get so bad that they will be able to get a demolition order....sounds like Wigan Planners to me.

Something should be done to advertise the way that the Council is letting this building collapse. Most Wiganers don't even know it is there. I for one would be willing to lend my support to any campaign to save it. I don't know how much land is still attached but surely it should be accessible to the public at a time when such recreation areas are in short supply throughout the Borough.

something should be done to keep some history of wigan. my son is doing about local history at school and finds winstanley hall so interesting. just a pitty we cant look at it up close.

Helen,
Fred is correct, i am the grandson of Lily Bradshaw who owned the off licence and the son of her daughter Martha.