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I have been trying to find out your request about the opening date of MERE OAKS thornhill and cannot find out anything with THORNHILL IN IT.,
The MERE OAKS SPECIAL SCHOOL IN WIGAN CLOSED IN 2006 SORRY but can't find thornhill

A. Winstanley, Thornhill was a big house near the Standish/Wigan boundary. There is a photo of it on this site at #: 2043. Mere Oaks was originally another of the very big houses nearby.

Standish is bigger than Wigan, yet they still refer to it as a "village"?

Yes,the irony ! Been saying this for a very long time.

It was a village back in the day, it's a small town now. The locals refer to it as 'the village' in a very tongue in cheek manner these days.

Prior to 1969, the broken black border line would have been Wigan Borough Police’s boundary. Standish then was policed by the Lancashire Constabulary.

Yes i noticed someone referred to Standish as a village and that infuriates my son -in-law who was born and bred in Standish and currently lives in Chorley Road ,with my daughter he does get annoyed when its called a village ,but thanks to John informing me as to where Thornhill was ....

The gate posts for Mere Oaks are still standing, along the wall at the start (coming from town) of the new houses built on the site. I'd like to see a pic of the house when it was still standing.

There's a couple of threads and discussions (links below) about Mere Oaks before the school was built, which with Lizzie and Jo Heyes and their relatives residing there in the 1950s and with blue007 seeing the houses derelict in 1966 could maybe give some timeline as to when it was built

https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/communicate/mb_message.php?opt=f1&opt2=&msd=189189&offset=27480&subject=mere%2520oaks

https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/communicate/mb_message.php?opt=f2&msd=928787&page=26&subject=Mere%20Oaks%20during%20the%2050s

The last link includes a map posted by gaffer with a lot more definition of the area around Mere Oaks.

I would date it before 1960. Shevington High school opened in that year and it is not shown on the map.

Sorry mike but some of the roads on there didn't exist until 1968

The road I once lived on, Coach House Drive in Shevington is not shown and I was living there in 1968! Neither is my brothers in Standish Lower ground. On that basis a rather confusing and some may say pointless map, unless of course the focus is on Standish alone.

Well it usually is ! Focus on Stand-off-ish I mean!

That Janette , and that Kim too , have serious psychological problems regarding The Village . I haven't a clue where they're from , but I have noticed that when ever rancour regarding Standish is required , then rancour they produce with joyous glee . What is your problem dear ladies
or would that be telling ?

I should imagine they find the concept of the residents of a small town creating their own individual ethnicity quite amusing.

Can 't speak for 'that Janette', but this Kim is sick of hearing what a gem of a place 'St.Andish' is when in reality is an over developed area mainly of 'executive properties' that is a complete bottleneck for traffic which insists on calling itself a 'village's,cue hollow laughter ! I am actually a resident of the dark side of the moon.

Yes , I thought there was something lunar about you .

Not as much as people from Snobdish though !!!!

Get over yourself Number 6,or is it 666??? Quit while your behind !

Many people think Standish is an overpriced,overdeveloped area without feeling the need to constantly be singing its praises,it is an area of Wigan for goodness sake not leafy Weybridge !

Number 10, I can just imagine - question, "what's your ethnicity?"
answer, "oh, Starrrndish".

Fair do Kim , I shall quit forthwith and get over myself immediately . Plus I've no time to exchange persiflage with the lower orders .

Kim, There is no Dark side of the Moon really, as a matter of fact, it's all dark :)

I know,and apparently it's all a matter of opinion.

My my, I have stirred up a hornets nest with this map. Growing up in Standish from 1945-65, Standish was a village to us and Wigan was the closest town for the main shop and in our family, education as well. Thornhill was a bus stop en-route.
A month ago I went through Standish to "Thornhill" where I parked up in Walter Scott Avenue which, at the time of this map is not shown. I was surprised how Standish has changed in the past 2 years-no "Chadwicks" to start with plus the traffic jams are back. My parents moved to Standish in 1940 and stayed there until their deaths in 1972 & 1984. I now live on the Wirral (not the posh side) but the village is still part of my "elderly life" and will visit and walk the paths of my childhood .
Now to come back to my original question with the map-Mere Oaks Sp. School is shown marked up which would possibly give some idea of the year it was issued, and when did the rail bridge at Standish Lower Ground/Crooke get demolished as that is also shown. That was always a problem driving round the bend not knowing whether you'd meet the bus coming in the opposite direction from Shevington.

Barrie, there is a new street that runs between the apartments opposite where Mere Oaks once stood that is called Thorn Hill Gardens

WN1, I saw the new developments as I walked back to the car, and thought how far are they going with it. all the way from Boars Head now. The next thing will be a roundabout on Wigan Lane so householders can get their cars on to it. That is what's happening on the Wirral now -mini roundabouts springing up by estates that were built a few years ago.
The reason I was asking about Mere Oaks School was because when Father passed away in 1984, I donated some of the stuffed caged animals /birds in wooden glass front cabinets that had been in the family for decades and I didn't want them. I had already approached the school Head 1st.

A sad day Barrie when Mere Oaks closed. I knew a teacher there and the work and ambiance they created was amazing. How those children went on when they were integrated into mainstream schools doesn't bear thinking about. I remember seeing the school when it closed and was abandoned. Even the vandals seemed to respect it, there wasn't as much as a pane of glass smashed by the time the bulldozers arrived.

The school was vandalised, I was on-call at the time and received a call for people trespassing on the west coast mainline.
They had nicked the aluminium window frames and were carrying them over the track.

Didn't know about that Nut, but as I never saw it from that angle and have no business to have done so, I didn't see that. No respect some people. I hope their hands dropped off