link to information about the wiggin tree

contact by email link to home page link to galleries link to site map link to 'about page' link to links page

Bickershaw Colliery, 1980
The closure of Bickershaw in 1992
brought an end to mining in Wigan.

Bickershaw Colliery, 1980

People

(pages about ordinary people who reflect Wigan's history)

Thomas Darwell - mill owner
the Fairclough family - weavers-1
the Fairclough family - weavers-2
Mary Cook, mining widow
Richard F. Cook, mining hero
James Taylor - miner
William Lord, teacher, part 1
William Lord, part 2
William Lord, part 3
Henry Brown - pupil teacher

Wells

Wigan Spa
Pingate Well
Standish Wells
burning wells

Miscellaneous

The History of Elnup Wood
Oatcakes
The Origins of Hindley and Abram Grammar School
Hindley and Abram Grammar School, the new building
The History Shop
a strange marriage
Battle of Wigan Lane
Cockersand Abbey

Latest
Saturday 15th November, 2008
John Bird, 1840

Coal Mining

clearing the "fierydamp" (1751)
Cannel
more about cannel
Roman Mining
Mining Accidents
Two Explosions

Textiles

hand weavers-1
hand weavers-2
hand weavers-3
early mills - development
early mills - conditions
The Cloth Hall

Early History

Romans
Coccium
Origin of Place-name
Arthur in Wigan?

Transport

colliery railways
Yorkshire Horse
The First Trams to Pemberton
Pemberton Trams, Danger

How Others Have Seen us

John Ogilby, 1675
George Orwell, (1937), part 1
George Orwell, (1937), part 2
George Orwell, (1937) part 3
William Dodd (1841)
Celia Fiennes (1696)

Wigan has a long and varied history.

The Industrial Revolution brought greater prosperity with the expansion of the mining and textile industries - but at a great social and environmental cost.

The second half of the 20th century saw a decline in industry and much unemployment, but the new millennium brings a promise of renewed prosperity.

Medieval History

The Lost Land of Occleshaw, part 1
The Lost Land of Occleshaw, part 2
Medieval Norley Hall
feudal homage
Norse Settlement
Anglo-Saxons, part 1
Anglo-Saxons, part 2
Wigan in the Domesday Book
Wigan in the 11th century - part 1
Wigan in the 11th century- part 2
Which languge was spoken in Wigan in the 11th century?
Standish Copyholders

Crime and Punishment

Stocks

Poverty

Alice Battersby, apprenticed pauper (1805)
Betty Battersby, fallen woman (1795)
miners in 1842
John Bird, 1840
weavers in 1842
Hallgate in 1849

Privilege

privilege, Wigan area, 1664
mill owners
mine owners

Health

Infant Mortality, 1840s

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