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Photos of Wigan
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Wigan Album

Wigan Lane

10 Comments

WIGAN LANE
WIGAN LANE
Photo: RON HUNT
Views: 3,911
Item #: 31360
PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN LOOKING TOWARDS STANDISH FROM JUST PAST THE CHERRY GARDENS.

Comment by: Graham P on 22nd July 2019 at 19:27

Would that be Woodfield on the right? The entrance in the photo is the one I used when I went to Woodfield Primary School in the 50's!!

Comment by: Cyril on 23rd July 2019 at 13:13

Though the school what is there goes under the name of Woodfield it wasn't always that name, the original Woodfield School was further down Wigan Lane, more or less opposite the entrance to The Elms. (this is now a housing estate) The original name for the school on this land until around the late 1980s was Brock Mill J&I.

Comment by: Philip Cunliffe on 24th July 2019 at 23:14

Cyril. Did the original Woodfield bulilding have any connection with the Hollies that I think stood somewhere in that area?

Comment by: Cyril on 26th July 2019 at 17:32

Philip, it seems that Woodfield and The Hollies were schools in the same area of Marylebone, both having been former mansion houses, descriptions of both schools are of them being built of stone. The area is now the housing estate of The Woodlands and The Hollies.

There is a photo of Woodfield at Marylebone in the 1950s on the Album, http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?
opt=2&id=23979&gallery=Woodfield+School&offset=0

And one of The Hollies when still a house. http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?
opt=5&id=23554&gallery=THE+HOLLIES&offset=0

The council over the years have allowed the destruction of some beautiful ancient buildings around town, some a lot better than in tourist towns.

Comment by: Philip Cunliffe on 26th July 2019 at 19:19

Thank you Cyril for your reply. I started at Woodfield in 1960. I would have said that your facts re an earlier site were wrong. However I have seen the photograph showing " the last year at Marylebonne" and reference to a room near the Plantation gates. I could not see a date on the photograph.
I am thinking that the photograph was pre 1947 and that this school moved into the new site.

Comment by: Cyril on 27th July 2019 at 15:52

Philip, having read the comments concerning both schools I'm under the impression that they may well have been the same building with both having comments about tennis courts and a large conker tree, perhaps the convent began to use the house when Woodfield vacated and moved upto Brock Mill, the school did have an early fifties look. I would visit the school when working at the council in the 1980s and we would call it Brock Mill J&I school, it could well have had the name Woodfield, though I can't remember, I do remember the huge 3D effect compass mural that was set into the corridor floor below what I think was a domed roof window, I thought it looked great.

In the early 1970s when I was working at Potter's Herbal Supplies I was cleaning out a large drum which had contained Chilli Paste, an arthritis ointment made from chilli extracts, this consisted of filling the drum with cold water and introducing live steam to bring it up to boiling, I later learned that it had caused a right palaver at the school with children taken in from the field which was just above the valley from Potter's, with emergency services being called out fearing a chemical spill on Wigan Lane as residents had complained too, and all along it was the red hot chilli fumes from the boiling ointment that had caused the stinging eyes and burning throats, it didn't affect me as the hot steamy fumes were rising straight up through the vent in the steam room roof. Sshh don't tell them.

Comment by: Graham Parkinson on 28th July 2019 at 10:39

To continue the conversation........Woodfield, according to other sources, was, until 1919, the prep department and an integral part of the then Wigan High School. It was remodelled and reopened on 12th January 1920 when older pupils progressed to either Wigan High School or Wigan Grammar School. Following the 1944 education act the school ended as part of the High School and became Woodfield County Primary School. As far as Marylebone School is concerned I suspect that it was a long established purpose built school serving the local community around the area. As others have said, both Woodfield and the Hollies were former private residences both of which have no way been demolished. As a former Woodfield pupil from the 50s I remember very clearly my classrooms in the old house. The Hollies was also known as Notre Dame Prep School by some but I have never heard it being connected to Woodfield.

Comment by: John Barbour on 31st March 2020 at 20:56

I attended the Woodfield School on the corner of Brock Mill Lane in about 1946...it was always known to me and my friends as that name,folk

Comment by: Simon on 17th July 2023 at 16:29

Great photo this. The gentleman is standing at the drive of what is now 285, Wigan Lane, net door to the white 1960s house on the corner of Brock Mill.

Comment by: Rich on 18th July 2023 at 19:25

Agreed its a great photo.
But I can't see anyone standing in the photo?

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