Railway Electrification Works at Ince

Meeting - Thu 1st June, 9.30am till 11am
Christ Church, Ince

The meeting is regarding the work due to be carried out by Network Rail, which will involve replacing the bridge over the railway on Ince Green Lane, as well as the station footbridge. (Planning App: A/23/95460/18PDA)



Cllr Maureen O’Bern will be attending the meeting and has offered to ask questions on residents’ behalf if they can’t make it themselves - Contact. (FB discussion )

This old sandstone arch may be replaced by a ‘new concrete arch with stone slip cladding & coper’ (possibly re-using the existing stone), when the bridge is modified.

It’s the community info drop-in tomorrow, Thu 1st June, 9.30am - 11am. The church’s food pantry will also be open

Will you be in attendance Joanne? Keep us up to date wont you.

Unfortunately, I can’t make the drop-in today, First Mate.

You drop-out !

What a dump that station and area looks like ! G.B.

Golden Bear

I cannot speak about the station, apart from the fact that it is going to be upgraded with the line, but as regards your description of the area, I would say that your comments are a bit harsh, that part of Ince, which is on the border between Higher Ince and Lower Ince, with the old Ince Town Hall, a few yards away from the station, is no better or worse than many other areas around Wigan.
Years ago when the wagon works was in full swing, the area to the east of the station would have been heavily industrialised, but those areas are slowly but surely being taken over for new housing.

Golden Bear

Yoo can be a very rude man

I know TOMMY i can't help it ,there is something inside of me which has to tell the truth so be it ,amen!G.B.

Golden Bear

But I don't agree with your version of the truth, I could tell you of areas within Hawkley Hall which are a dump, for instance behind the shops on Carr Lane, areas within Worsley Mesnes, Lamberhead Green, Beech Hill, Swinley, Central Wigan, all areas have their 'dumps' but yoo are picking on Ince because of stereotypes, but that part of Ince around the station is not a dump.

Is it, like beauty, a quality which resides within the eye of the beholder?

No, it's bloody not, it's not a dump.

Preparations are underway for the bridge’s demolition - I think the closure of the road bridge will be from 22nd April.

Provisional information (link)

I wonder if the new bridge will be wider than the old bridge, which will do away with the need for those traffic lights.
I remember the bridge being a two way bridge with no traffic control, but it was a bit narrow, so you had to watch what you were doing when driving along it, a bit like you have to be careful with the oncoming traffic, when driving under skew bridge on Warrington Road at Newtown

Never understood why traffic lights have never been installed at Skew Bridge when the opening is not big enough to accomodate two HGV's going in opposite directions.

I’ve just checked the Ince plans, TTS, and on this document - Link it says:

“The road is to remain a single lane carriageway controlled by traffic lights.”

Sadly, the stone arched bridge pictured - formerly a canal bridge over the filled-in Ince Hall Branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal - is to be lost. The Rev. Long commented somewhere that had the canal bridge been listed, it would’ve been spared.

A thread about the canal branch - WW Album

Jo Anne

According to the plans the old stone canal arch is to remain, the road through that arch is the vehicular access to those houses down below at the side of the bridge approach, the access is via The Grove to the old Conq and I am sure as an Incer you will know what the Conq was

And then the road at the side of the old Conq to the stone arch is actually called Canal Street, it is only the section which crosses the railway lines which is being replaced, the only other thing being that the gap in the wall and steps down to Canal Street on the Higher Ince side of the bridge are being removed.

Phew, that’s great news, TTS, very happy to stand corrected!

LINK

My wife lived in Canal Street as a little girl from 1966 until the houses were demolished in the early 1980's The road that runs from the site of the Old Conq to the old canal bridge is incorrectly referred to on modern maps and by some locals as Canal Street. Canal Street only ever had 6 houses in total. They all had even numbers 2 to 12 without any odd numbered houses being referenced or recorded on historic census entries or land surveys. They ran parallel to the canal itself on the piece of land you can see today between The Grove and the entrance to Foster's Playing Fields. This is clearly shown on older maps of the area. The houses that once stood on the road from the Old Conq pub to the canal bridge/Fosters playing fields were more than likely on Ince Green Lane even though down the side of the bridge but they were definitely not in Canal Street.

See old map here: Map link

JTM

Looking at this map from 1914 LINK I can see what you mean about Canal Street running parallel to the canal behind the old Conq Pub (Conquering Hero)

Thank you Tommy. I have posted photos etc showing Canal Street elsewhere on Wigan World here:

Canal Street

If you look at the photo of the canal bridge arch showing the wooden stump in front of the red car, I have used the old side by side mapping archives to deduce that this stump is more than likely a remnant of the footbridge that crossed the canal leading to an old inn called The Railway Inn which is shown on your map link.

Interestingly originally there were only five houses on Canal Street, numbers 2 -10 as can be seen at the older side by side map here.

Map link

My wife and her family lived at number 12 which was added to the terrace row sometime between 1891 and 1901 If you look at the photo in my own postings, you can clearly see the different coloured bricks of their house and that it is double fronted.

JTM

Thank you for those pictures and I can see what you mean by the different colour of bricks, but as regards the wooden stump, I am thinking that it might have been a mooring post, for barges to tie up to, but it is very close to where the bridge would have been.

My pleasure Tommy, you could well be right about the stump being a mooring post but when I looked carefully at it, there are no signs of rope grooving as per other mooring posts I have seen elsewhere.

Thanks for all your interesting information, JTM. I’ve noticed the wooden post/stump before and thought it must be a canal relic.

Jo Anne

Thank you

JTM

I took a picture of a similar but bigger wooden post at the Wigan Pier Basin, taken from the wooden footbridge there.



But that basin is where wide beam barges used to operate, which would be a lot bigger and heavier than the narrow beam barges used on the Wigan Flight of locks and canal at the Ince Green Lane bridge, so that stump at Ince could have had metal rings attached to it when it was in use

Thank you Jo anne and Tommy. In your photo Jo anne, the stump looks more upright that it is now. I wonder if it is the ground sinking into the actual canal bed that has tipped it slightly? The houses on Canal Street and those on The Grove near to the Old Conq pub were demolished because of unstable ground beneath them. Some of the families, including my wife's, moved to Darlington Street East in Scholes, to the houses set back from the road next to the Silverwell pub. The family of the girl on the right in the photo of Canal Street in 1967 being one of them. Her brother still lives there apparently. I will post more here as I uncover the history of the area. John

Here are some interesting old Ordinance Survey photos of Ince Green Lane taken in the 1950's The photos display at the bottom of the page underneath the map. The starting photo is on the railway/canal bridge looking south, with the next one showing the entrance to The Grove.

Ince Green Lane

The following link takes you to the 1939 Survey record for Canal Street. If you look carefully, you can see that the six houses are numbered evenly between 2 and 12 there are no odd numbered houses. If you click the previous page arrow on the left of the image, you can see records for The Grove.

1939 Survey

The following links show the old canal branch still partially filled with water behind the houses on The Grove. I walked through the entrance gates to Foster's Playing Fields and then pushed through the bushes/undergrowth on the right hand side of the path to take the photos.

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3