wigan

Rylands Mill stands as a substantial reminder of Wigan’s nineteenth-century industrial expansion and the scale of Lancashire’s cotton manufacturing industry. Constructed in the mid-1860s for the textile firm Rylands & Sons, the mill formed part of a large integrated manufacturing complex during...

History: The mill was built in 1867 for John Rylands, a Manchester-based textile manufacturer. The mill had the capacity for 60,000 spindles and 1,500 looms, becoming a vital part of the local economy. Textile production at the mill ended in 1954. The premises were then used by Great Universal...

Explore - As this place is quite local to me I thought I’d give it a go. I went as far to climb up what I can only describe as the narrowest spiral staircase to the church rooftop. The building is a lot bigger than I first expected and an overall great explore! History - St Thomas Church was...

Built in the 1560s for the Winstanley family who were lords of the manor since (at least) 1252. The Winstanley family also owned the Braunstone Hall estate in Leicestershire. The estate was later sold to James Bankes, a London goldsmith and banker in 1596. The Bankes family had huge economic...

This place is very local to us and is one we have checked from time to time over the past couple of years so when we saw @MotionlessMike had done it we had to go for a look. There has been a church on this site since the 1880's, the original church being corrugated iron. The existing building...

It’s a shame that its been allowed to become so dilapidated because it is a beautiful Tudor building and its being left to rot. Looks like the company that owns it is waiting for it to be too far gone so they can build houses on the site. If you haven't checked this place out yet I'd do it...

Twelve Apostles Catholic Church, Leigh, Wigan - January 2024 A small catholic church in the Leigh area of Wigan which was built between 1927 - 1929 to designs by Manchester architect William Ellis and finally closed in August 2019 due dwindling congregation numbers and a shortage of clergy...

History Eckersley mills in Wigan was once a sprawling 6 mill operation that housed over 236,000 spindles at its peak. Western mill no 3 is the building I’ve explored here . This former cotton mill opened around 1900 spinning a huge amount of cotton over its time before the sad closure of the...

May 2018 The Visit While taking a trip down memory lane and browsing through my old photographs, I stumbled upon the ones I took at the Royal Court Theatre in Wigan. Surprisingly, I realised that I had never shared these photos before. I visited this Theatre with @coolboyslim on a delightful...

This was a good explore, going down the steep hill wasn't fun but apart from that no complaints. From what I've seen on other peoples reports this place used to look a lot better even a few years ago, its really barebones now and going on the roof was pretty sketchy with the holes in it. There...

There's not much history on this place other than it's the former offices of Wigan Council Education department which closed down in 2012 and that it was built on the site of a former convent. Although it's quite overlooked the access was straight forward and once inside there was evidence of...

The church was originally established in 1873 in a tin chapel opposite the current building. The current building was built in 1908 from designs by Matthew Honan. Honan’s drawings survive in the diocesan archives. A note on one of them states that the church was designed to seat 500 and that the...

The Galleries Shopping Centre The Galleries was a shopping complex in the town centre of Wigan, Greater Manchester owned by Wigan Council. It is divided into three sections formed from three formerly independent schemes: The Galleries Shopping Centre, Marketgate Shopping Centre and The...

This place is very stripped out and trashed so not a lot to photograph but it's only a 10 minute walk for us so we had to have a look when it became accessible. The whole place is steel boarded so lighting is poor and I didn't have my tripod with me hence the badly lit crappy photos! History -...

Not much history to be found on this which is odd because it's just sat there in town completely accessible. You'd think there would be a dozen news articles about it being an eye-sore or dangerous. I guess Wigan people are just a bit different? (I married into this community 20 years ago so I'm...