Photo-a-Day  (Thursday, 4th July, 2024)

Great photo Dennis, I've never seen this viaduct. Looking at the amount of repair work needed it would be far to costly to make safe, too cost to demolish as well. I always think that monuments like this are best left alone as a tribute to our Victorian ancestor's. Having stood the test of time it would be a shame to remove as long as it doesn't become a danger to life.

You do get to some places Dennis.
No doubt the bridge was pristine when newly built, perhaps in Victorian days ? That paling fence wont last long to keep folk away.
Also the pink flower looks like Balsam, claassed as an invasive plant species these days
As I say Dennis you get about !

Interesting one Dennis.
Suspect the nearest arch will go in the next 5 years, due to water ingress rather than the flaking brickwork.
A few more "summers" like this one might do for it earlier!

Imagine all those hardworking navvies building that monument. It must have been wonderful then but I wouldn’t like to walk down that path these days. It looks eerie and
not very inviting. Nature is doing its job …..

It looks like it's dreaming of days gone by. I have been to the Twenty Bridges but it was many years ago. It doesn't look in too good a condition now but I hate to see things like this demolished.

It's known as the Lancashire Union Railway Viaduct. Nobody wants to have anything to do with it. The Council and Network rail don't want to pay the massive repair cost. In time the structure will have to be demolished. Built in the late 1800s it carried coal, goods and passenger trains up to the mid 1970s.

I too am amazed it’s still standing, I thought it had been demolished years ago.
Do you know if the top is still accessible from either end? It would be a very interesting walk.

Fallen into ruin.

Reminder photo ID required at polling stations today.

Good photo Dennis.

This is an extract from a much more extensive article with photo's on Wigan & Leigh Buildings Site:
For many decades the viaduct carried passenger trains and also coal and other freight across the valley. Passenger trains running from Manchester to Windemere, and Blackpool used the line until the early 1960s. The line was also frequently used when trains needed to be diverted around Wigan using the Whelley Loop.
The line closed in the early 1970s. The Standish Junction signal box being decommissioned on 15 January 1973.
The viaduct remains a landmark and is known locally as “Twenty Bridges” (although there are only 19 arches and spans there is a bricked up false arch near the centre of the viaduct. As of 2021 funding is being sought to convert it into a cycle and walkway as part of a Greater Manchester Bee initiative.

It used to be possible to walk over this viaduct from Rectory Lane in Standish into the Plantations along the Whelley loop line

Dennis that’s the bridge that I thought was Whelley loop line but obviously not,did you walk there Dennis or cycle and where from as when I’m following someone on a bike I’m not fully aware of how we get to our destination.

John (Westhoughton), I have put a photo of the Hillman Minx on Album for you but made a right pig's ear of it! I don't even know if I sent it successfully! Anyway, if I did, it should be on sometime today.

I have left a message on the Forshaw Lorries photo John ( from Howfen).

Dennis, you've certainly had a good mooch down from Pendlebury Lane, I certainly wouldn't like to be on that path when the viaduct does collapse.
Some time ago folks when having a dig around there have found old bottles and broken clay pipes most likely discarded by the navvies, and a little further away musket balls have been found and said to be from the time of the civil war.

As kids, my friends and I went on many adventurous walks and bike rides; we spent many happy hours on and around twenty bridges and the sevens. It would be a shame to demolish such an iconic structure and one which has been part of our Wigan environment for almost 150 years.

It isn’t possible to walk across the top anymore because it is blocked off. There are signs around warning of the danger of falling masonry.

John (W) if you go down Leyland Mill Lane and bear left after the dip at the bottom and follow the road until it turns into a dirt road then follow that up the hill and you can’t miss it.

Thank you Irene and Veronica I’m not so good at finding items on here but will try hard and let you know.

It is the Whelley loop line , close to where it rejoins the west coast main line .

I would treasure anything so old Cyril such as clay pipes and bottles. That’s if you are allowed to, but I don’t see why not. Very interesting. I do believe in Westhoughton small tins of tobacco were found when roadworks were being done believed to belong to miners who were killed in the Pretoria Pit disaster. Something I heard years ago.

Put the number where the magnifying glass is at the top John. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Where’s the photo of the Forshaw’s wagon Veebs ?

It isn’t the one that’s on its side is it ?

This was the Wigan Avoiding Line, so called because express trains or freight traveling North could leave the main line at Bamfurlong, to through Spring View, Higher Ince, Plantations, over Twenty Bridges and rejoin the main line at Standish Junction on Rectory Lane. Opposite direction for trains traveling South.
Thus avoiding a very busy Wigan North Western.
The brickwork is in bad condition because the drainpipes have fallen off plus, NO MAINTENANCE.
Whoever owns this structure should be ashamed of themselves.

Veronica, the miners used to hide their baccy and matches before they got to the pit. It was a criminal offense and meant instant dismissal to be caught on pit grounds with such things.

It’s on the green square ‘recently commented.’at the top of Album. Just press on it. It shows some Forshaw wagons from 12 years ago. I like going on there because older posts come up.

Yes that’s correct Dennis that was mentioned as well. There used to be some artefacts in a glass cabinet in Westhoughton library upstairs. Very interesting but it’s closed off at the moment Dennis. The number for the photo is 3033 John from Howfen. Insert it near the magnifying glass at the top of the Album.

Yeah , found it Veronica and left my own comment .

Unlike yourself , I very rarely look at the recently commented section and was trawling through the work section looking for transport related posts .

Dennis you’ve pricked my memory now I recall coming out of the plantation gates turning right right again down Leyland Mill Lane and looking over the wall part way down at the relic of what was described as a once prosperous business then eventually coming under the Twenty Bridges.Veronica I found the photo doesn’t seem like 10 years ago time flies pity I don’t know Franks grandchildren but thanks again to you and Dennis.

Veronica, when I was removing a cast iron fireplace in a bedroom of our first house I found broken clay pipe stems, an old tin containing what we assumed to have been tobacco, and a codd pop bottle, they'd probably been swept up along with the builders rubbish and thrown behind the chimney breast before the fireplace had been fully bricked up.
The tobacco tin was interesting as it had a lithographed print of one of the big passenger liners of the time on the lid (the house had been built in 1910), I imagined that the workman who'd lost it all those years ago had wondered where his tin of baccy had gone too.

I love those cast iron fireplaces Cyril. My son has one in his house. The house I lived in before this one was built in 1910 but it had been ‘modernised’. Still a lovely house though. Next door retained all the old marquet floors and doors though. You can’t beat those houses.

Ooops! I should have said ‘parquet’ floors Cyril. I’m getting terrible for names!

Those floors are nice Veronica, and houses with their original features are sought after. A lot of folks have been opening up the chimney breasts and replacing the fireplaces so as to burn logs, and they've probably found that the dreaded condensation has gone away too, in our first house it was the neighbour who told us to get rid of the fireplaces and brick them up to stop draughts, but after doing so we began to get condensation forming on the windows which never happened before, we later put in air vents to the chimneys which helped, but the flow of air around the house wasn't like it was before the chimneys had been blocked up.

Cyril In my daughter’s house the fireplace was blocked off and plastered over. Her husband has knocked all the plaster off and underneath has revealed a lovely brick arch fireplace. It’s now opened up and they are putting a fancy wood burner in. They have a lot of lovely Victorian features in the house. He is a builder so he knows what he’s doing.