Photo-a-Day  (Tuesday, 8th July, 2025)

That's a real great photo Mick with fantastic history, thank you.

Looking at the grasses it seams to be a very wet area and may still be prone to subsidence even now. If it was to be built on it would need piling or a large concreter float.

It’s like taking a photo of the North Atlantic and saying ‘this is where The Titanic was’.
Tomorrow can we have one of the Invisible Man?

In support of Mick’s picture If you consult PAD 27/03/24 you will see a photo I took of a timber relic rescued from the hall when it was demolished in 1937 now on display in Wigan Museum.
I have also put a comment of a photo I took of a print of the Hall which should pop up today on The Album, Recently Viewed.

At least Sue thinks it's "a real great photo with fantastic history ".

My history book says Crooke Hall was the former seat of the Catterall family, standing on low ground on the north bank of the River Douglas, 3 miles west of Wigan, what was later to become Crooke Village, at the extreme south-western end of the township. The canal now passes between where the house used to stand and the River, and the surroundings were desolate and sordid owing to the working of collieries in the immediate neighbourhood as the coal industry took off around 1800, so from 1840 onward an ugly colliery village sprang up to the north and west of the Hall.
Nobody knows what happened to the Catteralls descendants. I remember some Catteralls living on the council estate in Shevington, and one of there daughters once told me she had some relations in Scholes, Wigan.

There's a lot of talk about 'wilding' and encouraging the wildlife back into these areas. It looks like a place you'd find frogs, eels, wild flowers etc. Great.

The invisible man was never a real person, a bit like you.
There's a lot of sunken history in that pond that will bring back memories to many a Wiganer from stories that their parents and grandparents have told them.

wn6 HA HA very fitting comment for this P A D

I know what you mean Ozy, but in the old days most of the people sending in photos just wanted a pat on the head and for the comments to say Oh, what a good photo that is, well done, and another thing, I can't understand why you have to say what camera was used to take the photo.

Wn6 contradicting himself at 10:21 yesterday's photo, I don't think he knows what he wants.
Good photo Mick.

Too many people on pad lately criticising photos, snappers go out their way taking photos for all to see in all weather's.

Wn6 not only is two faced, he's also got two names.
Take no notice Mick.

It is an interesting photo but it would have been better if the photographer's comment on the history had been with the photo not after , otherwise it would just have been a pic of a field.
Nice one Mick.

Mick , even though I would have welcomed to see the pictures you mentioned yesterday I think admin would have been unwise to post them as people kick off about everything these days . We don’t have free speech anymore with politicians backing off to keep their vote . Also , comedy programmes we enjoyed once are now posted with warning as not to upset certain groups .
Personally I find it good to know that there are Muslims in Wigan just like everywhere else . Does anyone know the numbers ?
Where I live at least 60% of my local primary school children are of Muslim parents and the rest are either Chinese, Japanese or Asian. Only a tiny few are of white English background which is now difficult to define without someone questioning what that means . Now I read we also have 20 plus different genders which personally I can’t make head n tail of .
Dave Oy btw left because he was accused of touching up his pictures which was sad because he posted wonderful pictures .
Thanks for posting Mick and all who post .

Crooke Hall was built in 1608 for Peter Catterall and his wife Elizabeth.
Mining subsidence and flooding led to it's demolition in 1937.
Standish tunnel canal was probably the cause of the subsidence, part of it is still there, widened out and called a marina.

Kath, no contradiction, I’m afraid a blank field of something that hasn’t been there since 1937 does not meet the criteria of remotely interesting.
Had one of Dennis’s Pantomime horses been there that would have been a different kettle of kippers.

Catterall is the name of a village in a very nice part of Lancashire, it's in the borough of Wyre, and you go past it on the A6: https://www.townandvillageguide.com/Lancashire/Catterall.html

Accordingly, with information on here there were Catterall's in Orrell and Poolstock who were rag & bone men, there being photos in the Album and comments about them, and by all accounts they had done very well by it.
I remember the ones at Poolstock, as they hired out horses and carts for the day, we when kids thought it a good way to raise funds for the gang, and went along to hire one out, but they just sent us packing with a lot of expletives.

The Catterall Family web-site:
http://www.catterall.net/
does mention the family in Crooke, and also other places, 'click on the cat image,' for another page of information.

There's also more information on the Lancashire Catterall family history on this link: http://catterall.net/ragbag.html#Other%20Catterall%20Properties

That is not the site of the old Crooke Hall, that site now straddles the marina road and car park, in the middle of the marina.

I don't know where that photo was taken.

Thanks Cyril my family name was Catterall. I must have a look.
I hope the branch didn’t lose everything!

Mick, if you had clapped your hands and blown a whistle, would the Catterall family have risen up and showed their heads?

Dtease you crack me up….§;o))

Dtease, Veronica is a Catterall from Scholes and my Auntie married a Catterall, so touch your forelock when you address us and less of the lip, my lad!

I knew there was aristocracy in the family but it seems they ‘fell’ on hard times. In this instance it must have been they fell underground. Irene one must have escaped and married your Auntie. Another Catterall had a
‘rag and bone ‘ business that must be where my interest in clothes comes from…thank you once again Cyril for your info.

I remember Catterall rag and bone man around Ince/Wigan in the 60s and 70s.
There is a photo of him with his mate on WW, working around Scholes.

I don’t know if the man was any relation Jeff perhaps way back in ancestry.
Good for them as entrepreneurs though. I have seen the photo I can’t see any facial resemblances…

My Catterall’s had a shop on Caroline St selling fish and vegetables. There were 10 children . 5 sons served in the 1st WW the youngest was killed.
My Grandfather was posted to Gallipoli and survived luckily for me!