Photo-a-Day  (Sunday, 18th May, 2025)

Was Halley’s Comet visible at the time of your birth Mick ?
Just wondering ….

As I’m just trying to put two and two together here , taking into account the element of a stable being part of the equation an’ all .

Only I got through my last bottle of Côtes du Rhône last night …. but I’ve got loads of water , and I was wondering if you could just nip round and help me out with a small favour .

There’ll be a drink in it for yersel’ don’t worry .

That's a nice photo Mick, an interesting history to the place where you were born.

My place of birth wouldn’t be quite so photogenic, 175 Bech Hill ave.

Your childhood home doesn't need to be photogenic, Anne.....it's where your memories lie. My childhood home had a single cold-water tap, no bath, and an outside toilet in the backyard and was demolished as a "slum" in 1971, but I loved its every nook and cranny and it creeps into my dreams still.

Interesting Mick, my in-laws lived in that cottage from around 1950 to around 1955 when having bought a plot of land from Jimmy Tyrer on Shevington lane they had a bungalow built by Len Gibson.
My wife was borne in Billinge Hospital in 1953 but this was her home as a toddler, she remembers Mrs Hardman who lived next door and further along a Mrs Foster.
That arched doorway was previously a standard window, my wife thinks that when they lived there it was a front door.
That building on the side looks to be a more recent extension.

Did you know that Shevington was previous named Scheuynton, 1253; Sheuington, 1277; Sewinton, 1288; Sheuynton, 1292; the spelling with 'g' became usual about 1350.

And a bit more information to bore you,
Shevington became a manor, an estate system of local government held of the king by a lord of the manor from the 12th to the 18th centuries. The area was included within the ecclesiastical parish of Standish until 1887 when it was granted separate status with the consecration of St Anne's Church.
Church lane was only really opened up to service the church, prior to this it might only have been a mere dirt track possibly called Cinnamon Lane leading to Crooke.
From earliest times the area had a sparse and scattered population eking out a living from the common and wood and farmlands owned by the church including Burscough Priory, Cockersand Abbey and the Knights Hospitallers until the Dissolution of the Monasteries from 1536, and that of the local gentry included Sir Adam Banastre, Lord of the Manor in 1288 and the Standish, Catterall, Stanley, Rigby, Hulton, Dicconson and Hesketh families, the last being the last lord of the manor in 1798.[7]
In Tudor times only a handful of families existed, possibly as few as 30, the population reached 335 by 1764, and the first official census in 1801 recorded 646. The 1851 census 1,147, 1,753 in 1,901, reaching 3,057 by 1951 and 8,001 in 1971.
By the 18th century most of the common land had been enclosed forming landed estates and tenant farms where mixed farming was practised. Corn was ground into flour at local water mills – Finch Mill on the Calico Brook and Standish Mill on Mill Brook and skills associated with agriculture developed – smithies, wheelwrights and so on. Handloom weaving and basket making were also undertaken together with primitive coal mining in the Elnup Woods area

And now it’s run by the Parish Council Colin….. and Mick of course. I mean, where would they be without Mick on patrol day and night, with his butterfly net, chasing after errant Peacocks and collecting all the scrap metal.

Irene…. My childhood home was exactly like yours. The reason I was born at that particular address was because it was my aunts, my mother’s sister. A council house with a bathroom

I’m sure those cottages wouldn't have been so
picturesque 80 odd years ago. More in keeping with the old terraced housing in Scholes… Stone cottages would have been damp and cold in Winter. I love stone buildings but they would have to be really renovated to a high standard to live in for me ( if I could afford one). Nowadays they
are more ‘chocolate box’ after a great deal of work has been put into them. Stone can last centuries but it takes hard work and expense to keep them liveable and in a good state.

St Mary’s Hospital Manchester doesn’t sound very homely does it but at least I was only there for my birth.

Mick, I just read that the Blacksmiths Cottage was No.1. Best remembered as being the Old Post Office that Gladys ran for many years.
Could it be that the Blacksmith lived No1 and No3 was just the Smithy?

A blazing coal fire made any kitchen /living room look like a palace despite being humble with the Lino and peg rugs in the fifties. The old sturdy oak furniture which I didn’t like at the time being young went on the bonfires later when we got new furniture from Mc Curdy’s in the early sixties. It was all good stuff.

Yes, Colin, the arch was bricked up, so we had a square window. The side extension was only single-story.
I still say hello to Mrs Hardman when I'm in St Anne's graveyard. Others who lived in the row were Tom and Lily Foster and Mr Leach, who had an allotment on the other side of the rec. Tommy Pilkington and Jacky Stringfellow, who became Shevy's first school crossing man.
We used to go the Tom Foster for haircuts that he did in his shed. When My mother peeled spuds, she would use a shovel for the peelings, and I would take these to feed Mrs Foster's chickens.

Colin, I don't know whether the Blacksmith lived at the old Post Office because I wasn't around then.
It was Gladys' man and dad Sarah, and Frank, who ran the post office when I was young, and Frank did window cleaning in his spare time.
Harry Pem, the Shevy comedian, made a plaque and mounted it where Frank used to lean over his gate, waiting for somebody to talk to.

History of Shevington Parish Council by Maurice Allen

http://www.shevingtonpc.gov.uk/Documents/History%20of%20the%20Parish%20Council.pdf

Thanks for posting this link to the history of Shevington parish council Mick .
I’ve taken a cursory glance but that’s all .
I promise I’ll read it in its entirety as soon as I have I have a fortnight to spare .
All the best mate … Ozy.

See what happened there ? … I’m not making it up ….
This bloody contraption is going is going in the bin in the bin tomorrow .

You will enjoy reading it Ozy, and I bet no other area of Wigan has such a good record of events and history of the place they grew up in.
I bet if you put your mind to It you could do the same about Garswood and Irene could do the same about Ince and Abram.

Condescending rubbish as usual from you know who.....talk about deluded !?

There’s history around everywhere if you look for it. Jean just means that Shevington (a backwater ) compared to other places ie Wigan itself and ‘villages’ like Standish AND Scholes or Ince have a lot more. Due to Industrialisation and the swelling of the population mostly by Irish and others from Wales and up and down the country. Before all that everywhere would have been lovely fields….but ‘hidden’ by those fields was a great deal of poverty.