The Mystery of Monkeys' Neest (Poolstock)

Hello everyone

I grew up in Wigan, principally in Hindley and Aspull respectively, but my family were from the Poolstock area (my parents and numerous other ancestors were married in St James' Church).

For the best part of a century, different generations of my family lived at 20 Pool Street , which I gather was part of a little row of maybe six or so terraced houses that had the nickname Monkeys' Neest.

I have no idea what the origin of this nickname is (or whether I've even spelt it correctly). I don't know whether 'neest' is a dialect word or a contraction, maybe meaning 'nest' or 'newest'? Niest is the German word for sneezes... but that seems unlikely (a species of Burmese monkey that sneezes when it rains was discovered a decade ago, but this is hardly likely to have been the origin of the name... there is plenty of rain in Lancashire, but not too many sneezing monkeys!).

I've also never seen a picture of the houses, which I believe were demolished in the 1970s.

Any information about the name, the general history, any pictures - anything about this little group of houses on Pool Street (or even Pool Street in general) would be very much appreciated.

Hope you're all keeping safe.

kaikell AKA Phillip

Philip click on search(top of the page under link)Type in Pool Street and it opens a list .Photos and written information under various threads

Thanks Peter - will do!

My Nana had a house on the corner of Poole Street. It was quite big if I can remember. Her name was Jane Jarvis (Ginny).

She sadly died in August 1959, quite young, at 63 years old.

We all loved her to bits. xxx