Wigan Album

Walt where abouts would this have been.

Cindy, awfully sorry but I haven't got the slightest idea where it was other than Cale Lane. Perhaps someone will have a thought as to where.

Thanks anyway walt

Name: Mary Molyneux
Age: 69
Estimated birth year: 1792
Relation: Head
Gender: Female
Where born: Parbold, Lancashire, England
Civil Parish: Aspull
Ecclesiastical parish: Haigh
County/Island: Lancashire
Country: England Household Members:
Name Age
Mary Molyneux 69 Schoolmistress
Henry Molyneux 24 Stone Mason
Mary Molyneux 20 Cotton Weaver
Sophia Molyneux 21 Teacher
Hannah Hitchen 7

I’m not sure how relevant this is, but my Great Auntie Elsie lived in a house which bore a remarkable resemblance to this building, with her husband Harry Gould, and her brother Albert Foot. The house was always referred to as the “Old Home”, and as a boy in the 1950’s I was told it used to be a school, or Sunday school. I have to say I always found this hard to imagine. There is much in this photograph which chimes with my memory, unreliable as it is; two chimney stacks, a bullnose pain of glass, and the same proportions. By the late 50’s the front door porch had become a pantry, with the outside aperture having been bricked up. The front door as I knew it was to the left, on the gable end. The house stood down a short track just south of where Ash Lane meets Cale Lane. Looking on Google Street View the track is still present. The site of the Old Home now appears to be occupied by a large detached house.

That's all correct, Keith. I remember it was officially called Old Mill House, despite it being the school house back in the 1800s. I also remember that door being bricked up, and that making a tiny pantry for Aunty Elsie and Uncle Harry Gould.
Just before it was demolished in summer 1978, I remember my Grandad James Foot - who had had notice that it was going to be flattened - decided to take the ancient electric water geyser off the wall of that pantry, to weigh it in for scrap. Never one for the gentle touch, to get through the 30 amp cable that fed it, he put a large screwdriver against the cable as a chisel, and gave it a good thwack. The ensuing electrical explosion deafened me, my dad and Grandad for some minutes...

Further to the above - I recently found out that my family moved into this house sometime between 1911 and 1919 - James Foot, his wife Sarah (my great-grandparents), and their children James Henry (my grandad), Lily, Elsie, Alice, and Albert. Elsie left to go into residential care in 1978 - so, my family lived there for around sixty years. If anyone has any memories of my family I'd be delighted to hear from you.