Wigan Album

Thats an interesting old hall in the trees DTease, any history with it ?
Dib Dib as Scouts would say.........or maybe they didnt !

I believe that the Hall was left to the Scout movement and they used the actual Hall to house visiting Scouts, unfortunately, the Hall was practically destroyed by a bad fire and what remained was sold to a private buyer.
At the time that this photo was taken the Hall was still in the process of being renovated. The Scouts however, still had the use of the grounds and they used them for camping. They also had dormitories and other facilities.
I don’t know if the Scouts are still there or not. No doubt someone out there will let us know (and maybe correct me if a have got things wrong).

You've certainly got a wide-ranging compass DTease. And I've just read that the ghost of Nellie Bispham is reputed to haunt the nearby woods. I worked with a chap from St Helens once who'd said that he'd detected some Scout 'badges' in the nearby woods during the 70s; No doubt he'd have been around Billinge Hill, as well - musket balls are reputed to have been found there.

The Beavers, Cubs and Scouts still use Bispham Hall grounds DTease, shame about the hall, quite a bit of history attached to it.

Yes - the Scouts are still there. In the grounds there is a memorial to the Battle of Waterloo. Quite a rarity.

Rev David, I have just found a photo of that monument that I took at the time. I’ll put it on here.
I remember thinking that it was a very strange thing to find out there among the trees.

A bit late but I asked the Fount of all Knowledge, Wikipedia, via our old friend Google for the history of Bispham Hall which was built in 1573.

Yes - the Scouts are still there. In the grounds there is a memorial to the Battle of Waterloo. Quite a rarity.

I never got to go to Bispham, but I was in the Scouts when I was twelve years old, and I do remember the scouts talking about their camping there. It appeared to have some status: a sort of local 'Gilwell'.

Seem to remember, when I was a scout, being there and being told the war memorial. Was also a grave stone to a horse!

Anybody any more info about Nellie Bispham. My grand daughter is doing a project about country house legends-ghosts etc

Remember staying here in must of been early 80s,This place has stayed with me till my 50s as some of the stuff we heard and seen was weird..remember a couple of us explored at night and the old house which had the fire had music coming from inside which was piano and old 30 40s songs..never ever forgot it..hairs stood up now thinking about it.

Went here a couple times in the mid 90's. Really nice grounds but quite eerie. The pond wasn't the cleanest. Remember canoeing on it but was only a foot deep. Use to play man hunt at night in the woods. All the time you felt you were being watched or something else was there with you. We told stories about seeing Nellie on a horse. We went up to the hall and there was a weird light in one of the rooms at night as we sneaked out the tents. Looked like candle light but no other lights where on in the whole hall. Weird place but stuck in my memories.

I recently obtained a book published in the 1950's about the History of BISPHAM HALL Not got round to reading it yet.