Photo-a-Day  (Thursday, 30th September, 2021)

Travelled under that bridge many times going from Thommy Linacre to Woodhouse stadium and Christopher park for athletics and cross country.

Well Mick not much has changed on this photo. Used to walk home this way to Beech Hill back in the day

A great looking bridge, it could look better with WIGAN written on it.

Male pigeon singing to female pigeon.
“How would you like to be
Down by the Park with me
Oh what I’d give for a moment or two
Under the bridges of Wigan with you”

Feel free to add a verse.

I know the bridge has to be there. But I always thought it made this part of Wigan look dismal.

If that's the bridge I think it is, floods under there in heavy rain.

The first house on the left ( just out of view) was the home of Louisa Merryfield the Blackpool poisoner,before she went to live in the said Blackpool..this house has never looked inviting,it seems to forever look gloomy..I've often wondered when passing it if anybody does live there..does anybody know?.

"We'll share a cosy nest,
I'll wear my woolly vest,
Watching the people of Wigan go by.....
Hoping they drop a pie!"

I used to have nightmares about Mrs Merryfield after seeing her wax figure in Blackpool Waxworks. I remember a homely scene with her and her husband it looked so real, I think she was administering poison to him. You just do not know what goes on behind the net curtains. I passed the house on Park Rd many times going to The Wigan Local History group about 18 yrs ago. I didn't know then that she had lived there. I remember folk talking about her in the early 50's.

Hi Irene, i lived 50 yards from the bridge when i got married, it never floods, the bridge is at the top of an incline, so it can't flood.
It is situated more or less where the park ends, just around the bend is the Pagefield Hotel and Gidlow Lane.

My name's Stanley and yours is Beryl
But you're a fantail and I am feral
And so our love can't be consummate
Just like Romeo and Juliet ,
O that we were two skylarks
Beneath this bridge by Wigan park .

I'm obviously on the wrong bridge, Ron....I have no sense of direction! When I used to mind my grandchildren after school. I used to walk through Wigan Park from the main gates and come out the other end, (you walk down a long passage at the top end of the park). As you come out onto the road the bridge that floods is on your left.

Always thought it was Parsons Walk up to the bridge , the only street with that name in the UK.

Irene your lost again, this is the bridge you walk under when you are going to your grand kids.

David, Parsons Walk becomes Park road at Park Crescent opposite the small gate to the park approximately 100 yards from the bridge.

Irene, 'your' bridge is on Buckley St, when you leave the park via the children's play area you come out on Buckley St and as you say the bridge is on the left.

Seven Star's railway bridge is one that floods.
If you look further under the bridge, you can see where another bridge once stood on the abutment used for slow moving goods trains.

We’d perch on the RSJs,
Your feathery looks I would praise.
Oh what I’d give for a moment or two,
Under the bridges of Wigan with you.

Two scruffy pigeons met in the dark in Wiggin Park,
As they rose in the sky
They made sparks fly ..
When they landed on Park Rd bridge
they perched on a convenient ridge.
By the stars above
they swore undying love and,
With great jubilation
They increased the scruffy pigeon population... Ahhhhh!

I remember Seven Stars flooding Garry, we used to take the car there for mot.Anyway where have you been?

I always thought Louisa Merrifield lived in the
Scholes area of Wigan near silver Street hardybutts

Love all the verses related to the pigeons. Irene - the pie references always make me smile, great you got one in there. Thanks all.

I recognise the bridge now, thanks everyone....I'm absolutely useless at finding my way round! But my verse to DTease's song isn't too bad! Trouble is, I've been singing "Under the bridges of Paris" all day.....I can't get it out of my head! It's all your fault, DTease!

Maureen, I remember going to that house in the 1990s as there was a problem with particular insects around there that was later found to have originated in the park, (even after 28 years and with them created for survivability they may still be around, so I won't say which.) It was split into two self contained flats and as I recall the then tenants were very pleasant and I very much doubt they had heard of the Merryfield's, I couldn't remember hearing of them also and looked it up, makes gruesome reading and wasn't she cunning in causing deaths to look like an accident. https://www.lancs.live/news/lancashire-news/blackpool-poisoner-drunkard-who-murdered-17079890

They can't roost on the RSJs underneath the bridge Arthur, as the council spent a fair bit of money netting those off as folks were getting spattered when walking under and also the poop was making the pavement messy and dangerous to walk on, though I see the pigeons have found other roosting spots, very clever and not at all bird brained.

It may have been Maureen who mentioned Louisa Merrifield a couple of years ago. I revisited the case at the time.
I have little doubt Louisa was guilty, but Alfred, her husband was more involved than he cared to say at the trial - he played the part of a deaf bumbling idiot quite well.
The evidence was circumstantial - to the extent even prosecuting Louisa today would be problematical.
Her parents were originally from West Bromwich and came to Wigan in the late 19th Century. Her father, Job Highway, worked in the mining industry and Wigan, at the time, was very attractive in terms of employment opportunities, with some 54 mines in the area.

Thank you Cyril and Gary, there’s a lot of interesting information there,I’m going to read up again later..I recall reading that he was a bit dense but he wasn’t as daft as he pretended to be, and ended up with quite a good hand out. Yes a good read tonight.

Ozymandias has written a comment where she lived whilst in Wigan on here about Louisa Ellison later to be Merrifield, my spelling of the name was wrong, and Albert says she also lived next door to his grandma at Ince. It appears she lived a life of crime even at a young age and under the guise of the Sally Ann.
https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=8&id=27670&gallery=A+day+in+Blackpool&offset=0

Have just been reading more about her..she was a bad egg without a doubt… if she’d not been caught she would have murdered more I’m sure.

Cheers Roy, didn't know that.

there is a parsons walk near the parish church david

There is an episode on Murder by the Sea about the murder,it is quite good.

PW can you get that episode on ytube? I wouldn't mind watching it.

Veronica, apparently the complete series of Murder by the Sea are to be broadcast by CBS Reality with series one this Sunday 3rd October at 9.00pm.

https://www.cbsreality.tv/uk/shows.php?title=murder+by+the+sea

Concerning the insects in the park, I saw this cartoon in the Jewish Press today and couldn't resist putting the link on, quite funny in a way, though not if there's an infestation of them.

https://www.jewishpress.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Good-Cockroach-Parshat-Breisheet.jpg

JOHN, can you tell me where the 'other' Parsons Walk is please ? I know of only one.

CBS REALITY,free view channel 66,as Cyril says starts on Sunday.It is series 3 episode 6.Back to back episodes,starts at 9pm but goes on till 2am,not sure if this episode will be on.

Thank you I will make a note of that PW. I don't usually go any further than Talking Pictures.

Veronica, you can get murder by the sea on channel 7, its the same as 66.

It's a mine of information on here! Thanks Edna.

Marriage: 12 Sep 1931 Christ Church, Ince, Lancashire, England
Joseph Oldham Ellison - 25, Iron-dresser, Bachelor, 16 Bird Street
Louisa Highway - 24, Spinster, 13 Farmer Street
Groom's Father: John Ellison, Iron Moulder
Bride's Father: Job Highway, Miner
Witness: Albert Johnson; Alice Highway
Married by Banns by: John H. Pain Vicar
Register: Marriages 1927 - 1935, Page 128, Entry 256
Source: Original register at Wigan Archives