Wigan Album
Skitters Wood Ashton-in-Makerfield
6 CommentsPhoto: Karin
Item #: 15749
This weir is no longer there, I don't know wherebouts it was in Skitters. Any WW readers know?
I believe that this is circa 1915. My mum said there was a lake in Skitters with an island at the middle with a swans nest on it. Lake has also gone now too, just Millingford Brook remains
You are close Karin with 1915, I have this postcard as well, mine was posted in April 1914. Another reason it is 1914 or earlier is this dunns of Ashton postcard was printed by a firm called photo printing & publishing of Croydon which was owned by a German, a mr bender. When WW1 started in 1914 all property of German nationals was sized by the government hence photo printing & publishing ceased to exist.
the photo says skitters grove which was closer to Low Bank Rd it wasn't in the wood
Skitters Grove is the original Low Bank Road, renamed when the M6 was constructed and the course of the road was changed. Where the motorway crosses Low Bank Road it wasn’t all excavated, there was a natural valley that the M6 was built through. I remember I used to cycle down Low Bank Road into the valley and up again, it was quite steep, similar to Liverpool Road where Old Hall Drive is, even steeper if I remember rightly.
I don’t think this has any bearing as to where the weir was, I imagine the council renamed the dead end ‘Skitters Grove’ because it’s where part of The Skitters used to be.
When he retired my granddad used to take me to the lake to feed the swans. In winter he would take a pickaxe with him to break the ice for them. I think it was a sizable lake, as a child it seemed massive to me.