Wigan Album

Abram Hall isn't a place I know well, even though I live in Abram and Abram Hall is still there; it is only the size of a large house and is situated down a side street going towards the Dover Lock. It used to have a horse-riding club when my daughter was a young girl but I don't recall ever seeing anything like the moat and bridge shown on the photo. When we walked along the canal at weekends some years ago, we could often see "gymkhana"-type events in the grounds and hear someone speaking over the tannoy but I'm not sure if they are still held. The hall is occupied as far as I know and private, so I have no way of "mooching about" down there looking for clues as to whether there is anything left of the moat or bridge, but I really don't think there is.

There are no remnants of the moat / bridge and there hasn't been for a good number of years as I think the hall itself was demolished in the late 60s / early 70s. The moat itself later acted as a kind of modern day midden for locals to dispose of their unwanted items and I can well recall borrowing a wheelbarrow from Jack Carney (who owned the farm) and dumping all sorts of debris that my dad wanted rid of into the moat although it was drained of water at that time.

I thought The Hall was still there, Steve....I was sure that was where my daughter went to riding classes and she was only born in 1981! We only came to live in Abram on our marriage in 1974 and I remember it. Perhaps the house I recall ISN'T Abram Hall after all, (or at least not the original one), so perhaps I am mistaken but I certainly heard it called that by the locals. It stood alone off a side street at the bottom of the "broo" just before the road bends right towards the Dover Lock.

I have just googled Abram Hall and apparently the original Hall, with the moat, was demolished many years ago and a new hall built nearer to the main road. So it is the NEWER building where my daughter went for riding lessons and which still stands, and is still a riding school.( I was beginning to think I'd dreamt it! Lol!). I have only lived in Abram since 1974 so I naturally thought the Abram Hall which still stands was the original. A friend who has always lived in Abram remembers going into the moat, (dried up by then), as a child but says it has been completely filled in now.

As far as I understand it Irene the house to which you refer was never built as a replacement hall but was more of a farmhouse. To get to the hall you had to go past this newer residence and head down to the end of that same road and it would have then been in front of you. Jack Carney was the resident farmer (I think he lived with a sister?) but by the time of my childhood the only farming activity I can recall was that the field which now houses the jumping ring was used to produce hay.

Those interested in ABRAM and Abram Hall mught find this of interest - This small agricultural township, the parish originally called Adburgham, and afterwards Abraham, gave name to an ancient family of landowners, of whom Richard de Edburgham, who held four bovates of land, by gift of Henry II, in fee farm, by a rent of four shillings, and of those four bovates the third part was given in alms. A descendant, Gilbert de Abram about the reign of Henry IV, had a daughter, Cecily, married to Robert Hindeley, and John Abraham, of Abraham, whose daughter and heir married James Holt, of Grizlehurst, about the reign of Henry V. In the proceedings of an inquisition taken at Wigan, March 28, 1627, before John Bridgman, Bishop of Chester, and rector of Wigan, and other "commissioners ad pios usus” it is found that “diverse yeares since Mary Abraham of Abraham in the parish of Wigan did lend unto Miles Gerrard late of Ince Esqr. the some of Fowrescore Powndes in trust for the use of a free school to be erected in Hindly." [The school was superseded a few years ago by a new school at Hindley, endowed with £30 a year.] There are in this township several ancient houses: Abram Hall once a moated brick mansion, existing in the time of Henry VI; Bamfurlong, or Bromforlong, a wood, plaster, and brick building, of an age contemporaneous with it, where formerly existed an ancient Catholic chapel, long disused; Bickershaw Hall until late years a moated massive brick house, with approach by a gateway and bridge. In pulling down the gateway some years since three celts, or ancient British war weapons, were discovered. The Episcopal chapel of St. John the Baptist [sic] was consecrated June 9, 1838, and in February, 1864, became a separate parish, under the provisions of Lord Blandford’s Act. It consists of a nave, with aisles and chancel, and western turret containing one bell. There is a stained glass window in memory of Helen, wife of the Rev. John James Dixon, incumbent, 1839-73. The living is a vicarage, of the yearly value of £170, of which the Rev. Hewett Linton (1878) [died 1901] is the present incumbent; patron, the rector of Wigan.”

Edward Baines, “The History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster”, published 1891, written c1878.

Thanks, Steve.....I have got my bearings now. The riding centre IS advertised as "Abram Hall" riding centre which sounds very grand and conjures up a vision of somewhere like Haigh Hall, but in reality looks much more like a farmhouse. Glad we got there in the end! Also, thankyou to Colin for the interesting history. Gentlemen both!

I do like the historic name of Adburgham, it would be nice to see it commemorated as such on the road signs when entering Abram.

Nice piece of research Colin - the 6 inch OS map of 1971 shows part of the moat still surviving and with water in (according to Steve probably drained shortly after).