Winstanley Park

Winstanley park is up near Winstanley College. Does it have public access? Or is it private property?

private

me too...


Winstanley College

Winstanley College isn't in Winstanley. And when it was Upholland Grammar it wasn't in Upholland either!
Why can't they get it;s name right?

Winstanley Hall is nowhere near the college, the entrance is opposite the old pony dicks site, and the once beautiful building like many others in the region that have been sold for planning permission has been left to decay.

Probably the same distance from the college as it is from Pony Dick's. Hall Lane is near the college, and that goes to it.

you can get to the hall from winstanley rd , brook lane and pemberton rd hall is nearer to peberton rd than to winstanley rd but not by much.

Upholland Lodge was an entrance to the Hall prior to the building of the M6. Winstanley College is on the opposite side of Winstanley Road a few yards towards Orrell.

From the reverse side of the map.

Under William Berridge, Up Holland Grammar School made remarkable progress because of his total dedication. However, the building was ‘utterly unfitted for the purpose’ until, under Mr Berridge’s leadership, the school moved in 1878 to new premises in Ox House Road – the site of the present Up Holland High School.
Just before the outbreak of war, Alfred Maggs was promoted to the headship of Up Holland Grammar School. His first task was to steer the school through the difficult war years. He also had to oversee an enormous growth in the number of pupils, following the Education Act in 1944 which decreed that all grammar school places should be free to those pupils selected by the ‘eleven plus’ examination. The Ox House site had reached the ‘absolute maximum’ of its capacity. One parent described the classrooms as ‘faintly reminiscent of the dungeons of the Tower of London’. The art room was like a barn ‘except the smell’. The laboratories ‘might just have been passable in the days of Faraday’. In fact, the school would have made ‘a great location for the film Oliver Twist’.


However, there was ‘a wonderful spirit in the school’ and relief was at hand. In July 1944 Squire Bankes of Winstanley Hall made ‘a most public spirited and munificent gift’ of 20 acres of land in Winstanley for a new school and ‘the shadow that has rested over the school for so long has passed away’. But it was only in September 1953 that Mr Maggs could move his staff and 461 pupils into the new school in Winstanley Road.

In 1974, following local government reorganisation, the control of Up Holland Grammar School transferred from Lancashire County to Wigan Metropolitan Borough. On 30 August 1977 Mr Ellis became the first Principal of a new sixth form college opened in the grammar school buildings. It was called Winstanley College to avoid confusion with Up Holland College, the Roman Catholic seminary in College Road, now closed. Under Principals Lavelle and Watson, Winstanley College has continued to grow and develop and has been consistently ranked in the top five colleges in the whole country

Why didn't they call it 'Billinge College'? Because that's where it is.

winstanley

No. Billinge!

When selective secondary education in Wigan was abolished the council decided to use the Upholland Grammar School site for the new sixth form college.One of the reasons the name Winstanley was chosen was because the area was known as such by generations of Wiganers as well as being in the Winstanley ward.I remember, just about, from my early driving days of going down the 'two mile straight at Winstanley'. Sadly mining subsidence and a realigning put an end to that.
Irrespective the council were entitled to name the college in any they saw fit. Since it was originally for Wigan MBC area domiciled pupils only, a promise broken a few short years later,it could have been called the Wigan Sixth Form College.I suspect Billinge was a non runner since a sizeable chunk of it lies in the Merseyside administrative area.

Gaffer, it's the 'two mile 'stretch'!

Also, that area might well have been 'known as such by generations of Wiganers', but that's because 'Wiganers' don't know what day it is, never mind where anywhere is. Generations of Billingers and Orrellers have known it as what it actually is - Billinge!

Bollocks!

The boundary at the bottom of the two mile stretch divides Orrell from what was known as the Urban district of Billinge and Winstanley. I must admit I was born and brought up in Billinge near to Greenslate Farm and always reckoned the Grammar school was in Billinge. If I sent a letter to Winstanley Rd I would definitely address it as Billinge.

I dont think any boundary markers have ever existed between Billinge Higher End and Winstanley, not in living memory. The old fellow is touching 80, was born in Longshaw and isnt certain were the actual boundary is in Longshaw.

However, the historic boundary between Billinge Higher End and Winstanley goes through Longshaw just west of Morris House, the last of the houses on Park Rd. From there the boundary goes North to the Water Park and then carries on to where the boundary marker is at the bottom of the two mile stretch. Hence Winstanley College is technically in the old district of Winstanley.

http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/boundary_map_page.jsp?u_id=10341620&c_id=

The confusion has arisen because historically Billinge and Winstanley were lumped together and no one is old enough to remember where the actual boundaries are. I daresay that nowadays anyone living on Winstanley Rd would consider themselves a Billinger and that Winstanley is the estate a couple of miles away. This is not the case unless the boundaries were redrawn when Wigan Metro was created and I dont remember that happening.

Tonks, being so correct in all you do
Why use a semi colon ; instead of using an apstrophe '

As in "Why can't they get it;s name right?"

tonker the district was known as billinge and WINSTANLEY UDC.squire bankes was head governor at highfield sec mod,he gave permission for the school cross country run to start at pony dick entrance to the estate to run through it and to emerge just east of brook ln,then down leopold st back across another pedestrian bridge just west of pemb station , and back to school.estate was delightful even to young schoolboys.cross country was universally hated.pony dick entrance is shorter than billinge? entrance.