Hindley Green Old Photos

Old Pictures of Hindley Green

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Sacred Heart Hindley Green.

1920/21

Anne Campbell ( 4th left 2nd row)

Jack Morris at work at Turner Bros 1950s

Turner Bros group picture

late 1950s

Turner Bros Cricket team early 1950s

Sacred Heart

Walking Day 1957

Sacred Heart

1st Communion
1966

Sacred Heart
May Queen
1967

Do you recognise yourself?

Pictures submitted by Lois Best

Alf Green of Yew Tree Farm

Selling milk at 3d a pint.

Farmer John Green, son Alfred & Housekeeper Martha Abbott

Yew Tree Farm,

John Green with his family

Threshing at Yew Tree Farm

Atherton Rd 1928

St Johns ( Near right ), Bethel United Methodist Church ( Back left )

Hindley Green Hall, Leigh Rd

Horse Ambulance 1913

School Row, Atherton Rd

Soup Kitchen, Brunswick Chapel 1926

Photographs
"With permission from Wigan Archives Service, WLCT".

St John's School Class 1908/09

Submitted by Eric Turner

St Johns Class 1923

Bethel Young Mens Football Team

Around 1934

Submitted by Eric Turner

Bethel Young Men 1934

The above photo's are from the old Bethel.

Locally known as " Top O't Sonds Chapel "

Photograph's with kind permission of Eric Turner. ( Eric is the little boy sitting on his dad's knee)( Eric's grandfather Fred Turner was choir master)

Scowcroft's Colliery, Hindley Green.

The site was used for the storage of cotton bales towards the end of W.W.2 and for a few years after. Eric Turner took this photo' from the top of the slag heap known as the Aerial Flights when on leave from the Army in 1947. The bales were stacked, covered with tarpaulins and corrugated iron sheets until needed.

The black building with tower to the top left of photo is Kirkpatrick Mill,or Hindley-Green Factory.

During the War it had been RAF Depot,Hindley Green, not a lot of people know that.

The road going from Scowcroft's lodge to the left middle distance is now Maple Ave

The white building in the centre is Harold Grimes shop at the end of Long Lane on

Atherton Road. New houses are under construction in Scowcroft Street,(Maple Avenue).probably No,13&15. Green's farm is in the field on the right.

The above photo's with kind permission of Eric Turner

Pictures Below are of Scowcroft Farm, ( Scowies ) Hindley Green

Pictures Submitted by Graham Purnell

( The farm house at the bottom of the photo is where I was born. The Farm house address is Scowcroft Farm,Close Lane, Hindley Green, near Wigan.)

Pictures above,with kind permission of Graham Purnell

The Cow & Calves Hotel, Hindley Green

Locally known as " Nurseries of Naughtiness "

This hotel stood where the industrial units are in Leigh Rd opposite PPG

The Pawnshop, Organ St, Hindley Green 1904

The Railway Hotel, Leigh Rd, Hindley Green

Very brief history of "The Bethel Church"

This information relates to the site on Atherton Rd, Hindley Green at the top of Leigh Rd where the Bethel Community Centre stands.

Today it is occupied by the Family Church @ Bethel.

Bethel United Methodist Church Hindley Green was originally known in the early days as Hindley Common Church.

The church began in 1865 and the Church & Sunday school were offshoots of Brunswick Methodist Church which was in Leigh Rd, Hindley Green. Today known as Hindley Green Methodist Church.

The church was founded in1865 in the house of William Meadows in Coal Pit Lane.

George Elliot offered his small shop on Atherton Rd for use as a Sunday School.

The floor had no floorboards, no stone flags the people stood and knelt on the bare earth.

On the 1st Sunday 10th Sept 1865 there were 58 people attended in the morning and 87 in the afternoon.
On the 2nd Sunday, 17th Sept there were a total of 160 persons attended.

Eventually the shop became too small, so there was an appeal for money to build a new Church.

John Thomason ( Picture below ) appealed on behalf of United Methodist Free Church.

Charles Abbott of Swan Lane loaned his barn ( Right ) for Sunday school address.

In 1866, Lomax & Griffiths of Platt Bridge were employed to do the building ( A small brick building ) and on the 23^rd July 1866, the foundation stone was laid. The building cost £250 and took 13 and a half mths to complete.

In 1871 – 72 the school began to give way because of land movement caused by the nearby pits. The Church was declared unfit for worship.

Thomas Kirkpatrick and Sons cotton mills offered a room in the mill in Atherton Rd to be used as the Sunday School and Church. The Church stayed in this room for 1 year.

Early pioneers of the church at Bethel

John Hodgkiss was Lead Singer

Because of the damage, the last meeting was held in Church at Bethel on June 22^nd 1873 .

A legal wrangle took place between the Bethel trustees and John Speakman, who at first, refused to accept liability for the damage.

Eventually, after a very expensive law suit and a 4 day trial in Bolton Town Hall, John Speakman was forced to accept full responsibility for the damage and erect a temporary building of wood ( Described as a lovely looking Doric style building, which was eventually clad with zinc tin.

Because of the many different buildings that had been used for the Sunday School and Church.

Cottage shop
Small brick building
Hindley Green mills
Wooden Chapel

Various names emerged for the Church, name such as: Noahs Ark, Silver Chapel, Tea Caddy, Top-o-th-Sands and United Methodist Free Church.

As the church numbers grew, it became obvious that this building was not sufficient for the size of the congregation.

Finally the church stewards did a deal and sold the wooden building to Westleigh Mill for £120 and it was dismantled in 1882.
A new brick church was built ( below ) at the cost of £1,315. 16. 6, the foundation stones being laid on 4th November 1882.

Further wrangles with the Swan Lane Brick and Coal Co took place as a result of damage to the Church. A shaft was sunk 30 yds from school and caused further damage to the school.

Finally, after much aurgument and court dealings in 1896 the matter was settled.

In 1901 a new pipe organ was installed.

The church had many problems over the years.

In 1905 the foundation began to give way again.

On two occasions the building was struck by lightening and on another occasion damaged by stormy weather.

The church celebrated its Jubilee Celebrations on Saturday & Sunday 30th & 31st October 1915.

The church building was eventually demolished about 1971.

_________________________

Photographs

"With permission from Wigan Archives Service, WLCT".

More detailed account can be found in Leigh Library

History of Bethel United Methodist Church Hindley Green from 1865 to 1915

Compiled by

Geo Short and Chas Bowen.

Other Hindley Green Pictures

Hindley Green Railway Station, Leigh Rd

Victoria Hotel, Atherton Rd

Above Photo's Courtesy of Wigan Shades

Detatched house in Swan Lane Built 1936.

No other houses around it.

One of the first cars to be seen in Hindley Green.

Morris 10 REG 1935 ( Parked outside of above house)

Above is the house during the building.

Below, Notice the row of terraced property in the background,

these houses would have been where Ingersol Rand now stands.

Florence Blyth nee Baxendale of Hindley Green wrote....

"I was brought up in those houses, there was a long row then Johnson Street then a row with 6 houses and a shop at the end I lived in the middle of this small row the chimney was Richard Howarths cotton mill".