Leigh, Greater Manchester
For other places with the same name, see Leigh |
The Arms of the former Leigh Borough Council |
Leigh is a town located north of the East Lancashire Road between
Manchester and
Liverpool in
England. It is the second-largest town in
the metropolitan borough of Wigan and is about six miles south-east of
Wigan itself.
Leigh comes from the word
lea meaning meadow.
[[Image:Wigan_coat_of_arms.JPG|thumb|right|The Arms of Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council]]In 1875 Leigh
Local Board of Health was established, consisting of the areas of the former Bedford, Pennington and Westleigh Local Boards of Health; and a Poor Law Union (administering the
Workhouse). In 1894 the area of the Local Board, together with part of Atherton township, became Leigh
Urban District. In 1899 the Urban District became a Municipal Borough. In 1974 the Borough became part of Wigan Metropolitan Borough.
A
rural district council named
Leigh, which included Astley, Culcheth, Kenyon, Lowton parishes, was dissolved in 1933.
Early history
In the 12th century the town was made up of six
townships, including Chowbent, Lowton and Pennington, where the weekly markets were held; a cattle fair was held twice-yearly.
Leigh was divided in its allegiance during the Civil War, some being for the King and others for Parliament. A battle was fought in the town on the 2nd December, 1642, when 3,000 Chowbenters beat back the Earl of Derby's Cavalier troops from Chowbent to Lowton Common, where the Earl's forces were put to rout. The Earl of Derby passed through Leigh again in 1651, when he spent his last night in the King's Arms in Leigh, before going on to his execution in Bolton.
Before the industrial revolution Leigh was famed for its dairy industry and production of
Lancashire cheese - reputed to be the best toasting cheese in the world. The marooned pirate Ben Gunn, a character in the
Robert Louis Stevenson novel
Treasure Island, craved Leigh Toaster during his three- year exile.
Textile industry
In the eighteenth century Leigh had a thriving domestic textile industry, mostly by hand-loom
weavers in their own homes, but with one or two factories also. It is a tradition in the town that a local man, Thomas Highs, was the inventor of a
spinning jenny and the water-frame in the 1760s, the latter invention being pirated by
Richard Arkwright, who subsequently made a fortune from the patent royalties. The link is commemorated in the town's Spinning Gate Shopping Centre and the town centre bypass known as Spinning Jenny Way.
Later more factories opened, so that by the latter part of the 19th century there were at least a dozen mills in the town.
Silk and
rope-making were also among local industries.
Coal mining
In the second half of the 19th century
coal began to be an important industry when the coal reserves at Wigan were being worked out; and coal mining became the largest user of labour after the textile industry in Leigh. The entire Lancashire coalfield is now closed.
Other industry
The tractor factory of
David Brown Limited was located here.
BICC (later renamed as
Balfour Beatty) had one of its largest factories in Leigh.
Leigh also has a Pataks factory next to Asda.
Canals
The
Bridgewater Canal was extended from
Worsley to the middle of Leigh in 1795, and in 1819 a branch was cut from the
Leeds-Liverpool Canal at Wigan to meet the Bridgewater at Leigh Bridge, giving access from Leigh to all parts of Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midlands.
Railways
Leigh was the southern
terminus of the first
railway to be opened in
Lancashire: the
Bolton and Leigh Railway (7.5 miles: 12km).
George Stephenson carried out the survey for the line. It opened for freight on August 1st 1828 and for passengers on June 13th 1831. The first locomotive on the line was an
0-4-0 called The
Lancashire Witch. The town station was at West Leigh. Later the line was extended southwards to Pennington. The line was closed to passenger traffic on 29th March 1954, and later closed completely.
The second
railway to serve the town was a branch line from the
Manchester -
Eccles -
Wigan line. It joined the earlier railway at Pennington: there was a station, originally named
Leigh and Bedford to serve the town. It was closed in May 1969, leaving the town without a passenger railway. Numerous freight-only lines crossed the town, but with the closure of the
collieries these were no longer required.
Today the nearest railway station is at
Atherton, three miles to the north. Leigh is the second largest town in
Great Britain without a railway station, second only to
Gosport in
Hampshire.
The large bus station is now the town's main public transport link.
Leigh's famous residents have included chess player
Nigel Short, opera tenor Tom Burke, author
James Hilton, composer
Peter Maxwell Davies, singer
Georgie Fame, actress
Tracie Bennett, newspaper columnist
Lynda Lee Potter, footballer
Harold Hassall and the 70s punk band
Buzzcocks.
Harry Pennington Born in Atherton & lived Leigh Lancashire was British Champion of Catch Wrestling in 1927, he taught
Joe Reid - also British Champion at
Catch Wrestling.
Leigh has a professional
rugby league team -
Leigh Centurions - whose main claim to fame is beating
Leeds 24-7 in the
1971 Challenge Cup Final. More recently they played in the
Super League in the 2005 season. It also has a
football team,
Leigh RMI, who play in the
Conference North division as of 2005â€"06.
Folklore has it that Leigh has more pubs located in a square mile than any other square mile in the country.
Leigh (UK Parliament constituency)*
Photographs of Leigh Lancashire.:
*
Life in Leigh Lancashire*
Brief History of Leigh*
History of Leigh*
The "Lancashire Witch" locomotive
