Photo-a-Day  (Monday, 16th August, 2021)

This is the lane coming up from Milldam Wood at Standish Hall Farm . To the left the hermitage pond . Top of the hill is the cricket club .

So much history mostly unknown to many Wiganers who grew up in the back streets of the town.
All that land was once open cast coal mines, you can still see parts of the concrete road that runs down from Beech Walk and past the Hermitage pond.
Hermitage knocked down on the advice of Rev Fisher who said it is too large for 2 people to live in comfortably and unsuitable for a farm.
Standish Hall knocked down and some of it shipped to America
The fields and wood are now full of deer and other wildlife. and dog walkers.

A dark tunnel lit by flickering yellow lanterns . The priest breathing hard in the hot airless gloom . Elizabeth's horsemen churning up the fields above . Someone's informed . They've seen the secret signal , the cat in the window at the farm beyond . Aye , there's some history here Mick .

Walking home from Shevvy in the summer, calling at Gray’s shop and spending our bus fare, through Mill Dam wood on our way to Standish.

A great many boys and girls passed their scholarships from those backstreets you mention Mick. I knew quite a few from Scholes...

Poet , your rich writing could lead one to believe the Knights Templar or some papal envoys, carrying very important parchments ,
once rested here . In the dead of night they travelled to Shevvy and hid the sacred parchments in a secret chamber awaiting a finder and a reader, to journey on the quest therein ...

Just got back from a weekend away in Lytham so only just seen the weekend's photos. Good ones. I love your words, Poet, and Veronica's words re the passers of scholarships....I was one of them, along with a lot of other children from the back streets.

Those very important sacred parchments may very well be still there, awaiting discovery in Mick's Anderson shelter

.....Well why not ?......

That's where I keep my sacred parchments...in the Anderson...between the propane bottle and the Porta Potti, just next to my more mundane everyday type parchments .

Just thought I'd share.

Should come in very handy there Ozy, next to the Porta Potti, what with all those beans and cabbage you've been eating lately.

Parchment - sacred or secret can be very scratchy on soft sagging skin...far worse than Izal hanging on a nail...I rest my case!

I grew up in a back street in Scholes , I wouldn't have had my childhood anywhere else in the world. We were taught never to be disparaging of people wherever the lived or whatever their background !

Im not knocking Scholes, (after all my family came from Hardybutts) I was just saying how much countryside history back street kids will have missed

Mick,did you never go pea picking..potato picking or strawberry picking,back street kids saw all the countryside they needed,as for history,that was learned at School..in the meantime on Summer hols the back St kids would be out in the glorious fresh air,traveling to their hearts content on the railway..don't forget Mick you're not the only one that's travelled to many places..we all have.

That's right Maureen - we roamed about a lot ... all day long we were outside. The woods and fields were our play grounds. We learned first hand about history both in school and outside of school.
Ps we're already in Europe we don't need to go on a 'sleeper' to get there.

Being in Europe means sipping on a glass of wine on the Champs Elysee, eating pea & ham soup on a Dutch train, nibbling on Belgian Chocolates on Brussels Grand Palace.
All these activities will just be a short train journey from Wigan

Mick,did you not know that you can get a glass of wine here..plus pea and ham soup...and lo you can also get Belgian Chocolates here as well.

Its all about the ambience of the place, think of it like you eating fish and chips down Wallgate and eating fish and chips on Blackpool seafront