Photo-a-Day  (Thursday, 8th April, 2021)

A great servant to WRLFC has done a wonderful job restoring that building and it's grounds, it is a great historic monument for Wigan.

Well at least Wigan Council can't knock it down like the rest of our historic beautiful buildings.
Thanks Joanne.

Joanne, I read somewhere what the Deanery school was using the Gatehouse for but Ive forgot.

https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101384502-gatehouse-to-wigan-hall-with-attached-boundary-wall-wigan-central-ward#.YG6y8crTWf0

Joanne,that's a great shot of one of our historic buildings that can't be knocked down..thank you.

That is a lovely building. So mush nicer than modern ones. I remember Canon Forrest who lived in Wigan Hall and used to come into Boots when I worked there. He adopted a dog that had been abandoned outside, tied to some railings.

If there's a will,
not death by the quill,
ripped from the soil,
for modern boy spoil,
Replace the old face,
a new for the space,
when all that is needed,
the will to be heeded,
and restore what we have,
make good the brick bad,
and then be our history
now still..

I remember Malcolm Forrest adopting his dog.He very often took it into The Deanery school with him,it just followed him everywhere.The kids loved it.Good photo Joanne.

Good job WMC didnt get their hands on it or are they learning something about keeping some of Wigan's past ???

I originally thought of that as being a sort of folly, but I've read that the verger of All Saint's church along with his wife lived in there for some years at one time.

There's a lot of photos of the gatehouse and the hall uploaded by Brian on the Album. https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/newgallery/shownew.php?opt=2&gallery=Wigan+Hall%2FRectory

It's for classrooms Mick, so it must be a lot bigger inside than it looks from the outside. https://www.wigantoday.net/education/school-bids-use-wigan-hall-lodge-classrooms-1300922

Thanks everyone for your comments. Great links, Cyril, I’d missed the article about the school using the building :o)

Yes Cyril, I thought I read that the school had taken it over.
It is small, maybe they are using it as a vaping lounge for the senior pupils.

Hello All, the article that I read about the verger may have been in an edition of Past Forward, however I can't find it, though I have come across this by The Wigan Archaeological Society about their investigatory digs at the Rectory/Wigan Hall which I didn't know had been done, it's a long but quite interesting read and their other projects are also interesting to delve into. https://www.wiganarchsoc.co.uk/blog/?page_id=111

I think it was refurbished by a group with previous connections to Wigan Rugby,who were taken over by Americans and Irish. The connection to the school is news to me.
Great restoration project.

Do the Clarkes not have it now then ?

I heard that they sold the company Sports Office UK last year and just looked on Companies House to confirm it.