Wigan Album

Remember going to a wedding here in the late Fifties. Not sure when the new church opened?

I was confirmed in this church by Cannon Carney in 1965 but by the time of my first communion in 1966, new church was built and open.

As far as I know, the last 'tin tabernacle' in Wigan to be used for worship was St Luke's CofE at Stubshaw Cross, which went at the end of the 1990s. I think the small hall behind the Good Shepherd in Bamfurlong was once clad in corrugated iron, but I've yet to see a photo of it. Many parishes, Anglican and Roman Catholic, had such 'temporary' buildings as their first place of worship.
I've not seen a surviving example of the magnificent structures which a number of RC Parishes had, but there a couple of the more modest 'Mission Churches' still standing nearby - at Burscough and Scarisbrick - both built to serve the families who worked on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The tin church used at Holy Family, Platt Bridge was, I believe, second-hand, and was brought from its original site in Liverpool by canal to Bamfurlong.

The parish history of St. Cuthbert's published some years ago reports that there had been a commemorative plaque Roll of Honour naming those who died which was subscribed to by
the parishioners. The book also says that it appears to have been lost when the old church was demolished. How sad.

I neglected to say that the Roll of Honour was commemorating
those who fell in the First World War.

I remember this old church being dem,olsihed in the 60s, used to pass it every time we went to Wigan as children.

The Tin Church was built because a stone church could not have stood on the site due to the weakened sub-strata. It was completed and opened by the Bishop of Liverpool on Feb 13th 1887.

The new church on Sherwood Drive / Larch Avenue was opened in 1967. The first mass was said on Sunday 19th February.
I was amongst the last year to make their first communion at the Tin Church. April 1966. It snowed on that day. My wellies leaked so I had to put a plastic bag on my foot to stop my brand new white socks getting marked as we walked to church. There is a photo of the class in the schools section - St. Cuthberts.

What was the coordinates of this church? My Grammy and papa were married here.

when was there a fire at st cuthberts new church on norley hall wigan