Photo-a-Day  (Friday, 9th May, 2025)

What sort of improvements?

Clearly this is going to be a major renovation Dennis, it’s now completely covered with a canopy above.
The two curved walls have been taken down to allow access or a turning point for those electric vehicles which will take visitors up to Haigh Hall, I think they will be reinstated in the same or a different location later.
I think the lodges at either side will be converted to toilets and an information centre.
I took a photo of the front just before the scaffolding went up, you never know it might appear!

Good pic Dennis, always concise comment as well.

You get a better view from the other side of this renovation work, I think I have sent in a couple of photos of the gates, but they have not come on the Pad yet.
The council or whoever is paying for all the work are doing a good job, but they should keep some money back to pay a lumberjack to cut back all the trees in the plantations because they are all becoming dangerous. Every week on my weekly ride through the plants, I see more and more fallen, rotten trees. It's only a matter of time before one of them falls onto a passerby.

By concise do you mean no information and leave us guessing?
I prefer to know a bit about what I am looking at. Thanks Mick and Colin for the info, very interesting.
Nice rear view picture though Dennis.

Thanks for keeping us in ‘ the loop’ Dennis. Not that I would be going up Wigan Lane anytime soon. It’s nice to be kept in touch with what is going on in Wigan.

That’s a bit harsh Mr WN6. Not everyone likes to Rabbit on like me.
I think it leads on to speculation and generate comments.

I did take a photo from the front, but then I thought, everybody takes a photo from the front, but we all know what the gates look like from the front so l’ll take a photo from the back instead.
I think it’s pretty obvious what’s going on, no need for me to explain it.

I wonder if you can use your bus pass when these EV's are up and running

I very much doubt it Peter.

Dennis, there are quite a few people
(including me sometimes) that don’t have transport or get out and about as often as they used to do.
Our updates with photos on what is going on, I am sure is appreciated by many. So thanks again.

Hear, hear Colin. Many thanks to everyone who posts photos on P.A.D. They take me to places I haven't been able to get to for a very long time and I look forward to seeing them every day.

I rode up to all the scaffolding last week Dennis from Haigh hall thinking no exit but found my way through to the left I’m sure it’s not that well signposted.

I always thought that the gates, widely known as 'Plantation gates', were older than the plantations.

Of course, I may be wrong, as they may well have been a retro style when built.

Anyone know?

Strangeloop, The Plantation Gates as we know them were built around 1840 as the ‘Grand Entrance’ to the Haigh Estate for the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres.
The woodland themselves had been around for centuries before that so better access roads were also constructed leading up to Haigh Hall.
No doubt his Lordship wished to greatly impress his noble friends and provide a safe route home when they returned late at night from Clubing in King Street.

I rode up to all the scaffolding last week Dennis from Haigh hall thinking no exit but found my way through to the left I’m sure it’s not that well signposted.

Colin, thanks for the c1840 date.

But The Plantations themselves are not ancient woodland. As the name suggests, they are planted.

I am under the impression they were planted in the 1860's, to mask a landscape badly scarred by former mining activity, and to provide some local employment during the 'cotton famine' resulting from the American Civil War and consequent blockade by The Union of Confederate ports.

However, I am happy to be proven wrong if anyone knows different.