Friday 13th February, 2009
Crooke Village is about 2½ miles to the west of Wigan town centre. It stands on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal near Shevington. The River Douglas flows very close to the canal just to the south of the village.
There was once an old hall here but it fell into decay and has been demolished.
Terraced houses were built in the 19th century to provide accommodation for workers employed in local coal mines.
The village has a nursery, which was once the village school. It also has a Methodist Church and a pub. In recent years a marina has been built on the canal.
It is a small but strong community.
The “Victoria County History” (A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6) of 1911 said the following unkind things about the village:
“ ...the surroundings are desolate and sordid owing to the working of collieries in the immediate neighbourhood...
“On the north and west an ugly colliery village has sprung up.”
This statement is typical of many made by the “VCH” about the Wigan district. It makes no mention of the strong community spirit embodied within such places as Crooke.
Scarlet Fever
In October 1874, there was an outbreak of Scarlet Fever, a potentially fatal disease at this time, in the Wigan area. It appears to have affected Crooke. It had been suggested that some buildings in the village should be burned down in an attempt to control the fever. A letter appeared in the “Wigan Observer” criticising the village for its insanitary conditions.
The village hit back. On 24th October, 1874, the following letter appeared in the Wigan Observer. It is written in the first person, allegedly by the village itself, as though it were a living entity:
Wigan Observer 24th October, 1874
"I do not think there is a more dirty and more neglected place in England than I am. I am told that in other places the people who live there put a top coat of stones on their streets and so when they want to walk about they can do it and have their feet dry, even after a heavy shower. But with me it is different; people build houses on me and leave so little space between row and row, that air can scarcely get between the rows, and the roads are made of dirt, and when people walk about on them they take a great deal of dirt into their houses when they go in, and no matter how clean the wife is the house is just as if it had never been cleaned, with the husband and children going out and in with dirty dogs, and so the insides of the houses I am told are always dirty. And I don't think the houses are ever white washed or not very often, so when sickness comes it lays a terrible hold on the people and they can scarcely shake it off."
"I heard somebody read a letter out of your paper about the dirty state I am in, and the letter said there was scarlet fever and other zymotic diseases about the place. I cannot tell why zymotic diseases are, but if they have anything to do with dirt I can well believe the writer tells the truth. I have not got a decent drain through me, and whatever dirty water or slops are thrown down they sink into me all over and make me quite ill."
"I hear that this authority is going to burn a great deal of property and the fever with it, and they are going to close the schools, and the children won't have any place to go and then they will go into each other's houses and spread zymotic diseases. And there will be more burning property."
"It is a pity to make such a loss to poor people, don't you think it would be better to prevent than cure, as I think they might have done?”
There are many truisms in this letter. The spread of the fever in the village was not so much the fault of the occupants, but due more to the condition of the village and its lack of sanitation, over which the miners and their families had little control.
I recommend a visit to Crooke. Have a stroll along the canal or walk the paths on the far side of the river. End with a pub lunch at the Crooke Hall Inn.