On Sunday, Father's Day, my dad along with his dad and my mums dad were all reminiscing about all things old Wigan. My dad seemed to enjoy in particular telling the tale that as a young lad he and his friends would visit the old slag heaps, presumably from the Kirkless ironworks and find all sorts of waste, including razor sharp sheets of iron left corroded by the rain. He said most fun was further down in what is now an open playing field in Ince. They would walk over the wasteland up to open mineshafts left totally uncovered from old pits. He said there was a huge one with a big tall round wall that he'd have to climb over first. They'd peer over the edge into the darkness and drop bricks or stones down and wait tens of seconds while listening to them hitting the sides slowly fading quieter before hearing a faint splash at the bottom. Totally oblivious to the dangers of course!

Of course now there's almost no trace of any mineshafts around there (unless there is?), so I was wondering if anyone else got up to things like this when they were young? My generation are of the technology age and don't get out much like my dad seemed to! Sounds horribly risky but I bet it was fun.

My parents would have gone bonkers if they had known the half of it. we were all very lucky and came through for the most part unscathed, but we used to get up to all sorts. The trouble is when you are young your sense of danger isnt really developed, and you thinkyour invincible. Lack of parental approval just makes things so much more attractive and exciting. I once almost drowned. A friend managed to pull me out, but I was almost a goner. I once went riding my bike across an old concrete railway bridge and turned the corner at the other end to find about 6 steps missing at the top. I managed to break in time, but it was a close thing. We used to paddle in a small stream over the fields in Bickershaw, knowing it was the outflow from Turner Bothers in Hindley Green, I hate to think what was in that water. I well remember a gang of us getting caught pinching raspberries from the vicars garden. We used to run down the slag heap at the side of the Flash, and despite the speed we were going managed somehow to stop before landing in the water, even though it was just a narrow footpath at the bottom. How we survived is hard to understand.

Does anybody else remember pulling the fluffy bits off the chain link fencing down Coal Pit Lane at the side of Turners. That was asbestos waste

Coal Pit Lane brings back memories jazzy,but before Turners was there,my Grandma lived in one of two houses in the lane,they would have been about 150 yards down the lane,and were demolished to make way for Turners,this was in the late 1940s,we either went on the bus from Hindley,and walked down the lane,or we walked all the way down the Seven Turnings,do you remember the seven turnings?

Hi spud1, no I dont remember the seven turnings, where was it?

Jazzy, The seven turning were at the back of the Grammar school in Hindley.They path went towards Hindley Green to the aerial flights and the maggot farm.It was a lovely walk any time of the year.Most likely been built on now.There was a place we called the boxes near to it.It was a dump for ammunition boxes from WW2 ,we used to open the boxes hoping to find something but never did

Some time ago, I remember an old chap saying that the seven turnings were part of the old road from Wigan to Leigh, how true it was, I don't know. Looking back through the old directories gives:

Littler Henry, Balmoral Hotel, Lord street. 1869
Twist William, Balmoral Hotel, Lord street. 1881

Not Atherton Road where it's located now, suggesting that Lord Street began at the traffic lights, not its present location. Lord Street led to the seven turnings.

Vicious horse flies all around there in warm weather.

I remember that maggot farm, who could forget it, once smelled, never forgotten!

It was a pig farm, the maggots were a sideline.

I bought my maggots from the pig farm up to it being demolished to make way for route 5225,but the piggery bought the maggots in,they could only breed feeders,tiny maggots bred from bread and sour milk.

This is my first entry to Wigan World a site that I have been addicted too for many years as an outsider.

The reference to 'The Seven Turnings' brings back lots of happy memories. As a youngster fishing the Perch Pond and Grammar Lodges on hot sunny days you would hear the twittering of sky larks hovering high above, it must be 60 years since I saw or heard my last one. There was also a good number of Lapwings which have also in the main disappeared.

I also remember the Ammo Box Dump vividly, there were thousands of boxes stacked high.

Happy days!

Aye we've all done these daft things when we were kids. For good or for bad most of these old mining wastelands have gone now. Either built on or landscaped off the face of the earth.
For those of you who have memories of jaunting over the seven turnings, mooching around Grammar Pit lodge, playing on the mini hills or trecking the old railway lines around there, if you want to re-live your memories and visit your past playgrounds you had better be quick because if Peel Holdings and Wigan Council have their way, there will be 2200 houses built there soon.
The same with the adjoining patch of land between Leigh Rd and Westleigh Lane, another 1800 houses being built there.