Photo-a-Day  (Sunday, 23rd June, 2024)

Mick, Gidlow Houses are not in Beech Hill, they're in Standish.

I don’t know the area but you can bet builders might be interested in that space.

I know Gidlow Lane but I have never of Gidlow Houses before. Whereabouts in Beech Hill are they, please? They appear to be in quite a rural area from the photo.

Thats nice Mick. A row of older terraced houses always look neighbourly & these have a country view over the meadow.

Nice picture Mick, they are as I recall in the middle of nowhere when you walk down the wood path from Standish to Beech Hill. I always wondered why they were built there, was there mining or some sort of industry in the area presumably as workers cottages?

PS Do they have anything to do with the Gidlow sisters who were quite wealthy and great benefactors to the RAE Infirmary?

I heard this is the site of the Roman road out of Wigan, through Standish then to the north, contrary to popular belief that Wigan Lane followed the Roman road.
As already said by James, Gidlow New Houses are in Standish, Brimelow Farm being at the boundary.

They are the old pit houses from the long gone Gidlow coal wash. Many memories growing up here.

The long row of terraced houses once belonged to the NCB. They are facing towards Gidlow cemetery.

If Gidlow houses are in the confines of Standish or Beech Hill I just couldn't give a hoot, the subject makes a nice photo in pleasant surroundings and is a far cry from its industrial past.
Irene, it is a lane that carries on from the top of Gidlow Lane, if you carry on from here there is a road to the right which leads to Gidlow Cemetery, though if you did carry on along the lane you would reach Standish at the top of Almond Brook Road.

Irene, what's the point in explaining we're they are, because you will still be lost.

John Noakes, wish you hadn’t mentioned that. If the Council are tuning in they’ll have a dual carriageway going up there and housing estates on either side before
you know it.

Bob, the Gidlow coal wash was only built in the early 50s.
These houses were built for the miners who worked at the Gidlow Colliery.
Their were 2shafts, one of them at the end of the terraced row, and the other not far from Gidlow Cemetery.
They were connected by rail from Rylands Siding which was situated near Spencer Rd railway bridge on the West Coast Main Line.
Good pic,Mick

Most of the land around there was taken by the NCB, then British Coal, now The Coal Authority.
That means it's ex-industrial land, also known as Brown Belt. So, yes Veronica, you're on the right track with your comment regarding builders.

I think I have my bearings. There’s a row of houses on the crest of a hill which can be seen inside the Cemetery. My parents are in there. I go inside from the main road past the very old pub which I have to say is very handy! ( name escapes me at the moment!)

the route for any standish bypass is from M6 Standish to either Boars Head or to top of Gidlow Lane close by Gidlow Houses

Irene, If you were to start at the 'Famous Pagefield ' Mesnes Park behind you, turn right and follow the road all the way up over the mini roundabout, past Little Tesco on your left to the lights at Beech Hill crossing. Carry straight on passing Tupperware/Milliken Carpets/ Roburite ( I think ) on your right and the road becomes a bit rural. Stay with the road and these houses will be on your left. As previously stated, they were the mining cottages that the workers at Gidlow Coal Wash lived in. The coal wash funnel, now long long gone, was clearly visible from Wigan Lane as you passed the entrance to Gidlow Cemetry. If you go off the boundary marker on Wigan Lane, these houses are in Standish. They'll probably come for this land when there's nothing left in the centre.

My first house was at 505,Gidlow Lane,just past the rail crossing. The cottages were just higher and I could cycle to Standish cricket ground along the unmade path

I don't think it was Mick who was being nasty to you Irene because he told me two weeks ago that he was driving to Scotland. the taking calmac ferries out to Staffa an some other hebrodean islands

Colin Traynor and Freddie

A bypass for Standish was started in the early 1960s when the M6 opened, and it was from Junction 27 on the M6, and at that end it got has far as the road to nowhere bridge at Shevington Moor, where you come from the motorway or Wrightington and turn left towards Standish or turn right towards Shevington, the road would have gone from there under that bridge and skirted around Shevington and Standish Lower Ground joining Woodhouse Drive at the junction with Wigan Lower Road at the sharp bend, and Woodhouse Drive which is the straight road between the sharp bend and Woodhouse Lane at it's junction with Beech Hill Lane is the only part of that bypass which was ever built and it would have been known as the M6 - Wigan, Northern Link Road.

A relative of mine lived there, Gordon. Ken Lythgoe.

Correction, it's not Roburite, it's Milliken Industrials. Not sure where I got that from, senior moment !!