Heritage Plaques
From Standish Wiki
Standish Community Forum, with the help of a number of local businesses and organisations, have created a series of Heritage Plaques and Interpretation Boards to promote and celebrate local landmarks in and around Standish.
Heritage Plaques
Boar's Head Inn
sponsored by Burtonwood Brewery
The Boar's Head Inn Heritage Plaque can be found by the front door of the Boar's Head Inn, where Wigan Road meets Chorley Road. A map of locations can be found below.
Originally this may have been a hostel for pilgrims on their way to the Great Abbeys of the North, because at this point on the route, there is a parting of the ways. The present inn was built around 1450 and is now a Grade II listed building. In the early 19th century it became a coaching inn on the turnpike road system, providing a resting place for weary travellers and their horses.
Cat I' Th' Window
sponsored by Wigan Council
The Cat I' Th' Window Heritage Plaque can be found on Almond Brook Road. A map of locations can be found below.
Originally a farmhouse with a fine thatched roof, it was burned down in 1901 and later rebuilt. Tradition says that the silhouette cats in the blank windows are successors of the plaster cats used in the days of the early catholic persecution to indicate that a mass was to be held in nearby Standish Hall, or to warn Catholics that government troops were in the area. Alternatively, they may have been a dairyman’s sign
Captain Myles Standish
sponsored by Ainscough's Engineering Services
The Captain Myles Standish commemoration stone can be found in the grounds of Standish Library. A map of locations can be found below.
CAPTAIN MYLES STANDISH
1584-1656
Military Commander,
Pilgrim Fathers
1620
Eagle and Child
sponsored by Wigan Council
The Eagle and Child Heritage Plaque can be found in Market Place. A map of locations can be found below.
This Grade II Listed cottage was a hostelry from 1703 until it lost its licence in 1916. It was later converted for use as a butchers’ shop, but reverted to a private residence in 1993. Behind the inn was the Standish Court House. Now demolished, it was a small building used for public meetings before the completion of the Council Offices on High Street.
Girls' and Infants' School
sponsored by Lowry Homes
The Girls' and Infants' School Heritage Plaque can be found on Rectory Lane. A map of locations can be found below.
The front section of the Bramley Court development is the only surviving part of the Standish Sunday School established in 1829. The ground floor was later used as an infants’ school, and the upper floor as a girls’ school. In 1963 the girls’ school combined with the boys’ school(Green Lane) to form the Standish C of E Mixed Junior School which moved to new premises further down Rectory Lane in 1965. The infants followed them in 1970. From 1975 it was used as St Wilfrid’s Social Club, but this closed in 1999.
Palace Cinema
sponsored by The Bentham Family
The Palace Cinema Heritage Plaque can be found on High Street. A map of locations can be found below.
This retail development stands on the site of the Palace Cinema which was built for Ernie Bentham by the Moss brothers who were local builders. It opened in 1927 and Ernie and his two sons Ernest and Sidney ran the cinema for thirty years. In 1954 it was modernised and fitted with a new sound system and wide screen. The end came for the Palace on 6th July 1957 when the final film was 'Reach for the Sky' starring Kenneth More. After lying unused for a few years, it was converted to a plumbers' supplies business and then destroyed in 'the great fire of Standish' in December 1963.
Pit Tub
sponsored by Standish Community Forum
The Pit Tub can be found by the Plough on High Street. A map of locations can be found below.
This Pit-Tub has been sited here as a lasting reminder that for centuries the Township of Standish was associated with the Coal Mining Industry. Few, if any, signs of that past are visible today.
Plough
sponsored by W. M. Rainford & Son
The Plough can be found by the Pit Tub on High Street. A map of locations can be found below.
This hand plough illustrates the earlier chapter in the history of Standish, when it was a mainly agricultural society. Long before the onset of the Industrial Revolution and its thirst for coal, as depicted in this pit tub.
Quakers' Burial Ground
sponsored by Standish Community Forum
The Quakers' Burial Ground can be found on Preston Road. A map of locations can be found below.
The Quaker movement founded by George Fox in 1647 was established in Standish Parish in the late 1660s by Heskin Fell and the brothers Roger and John Haydock of Coppull. The burial ground, enclosed from the common, was used by the Quakers as early as 1682. They erected a meeting house here in 1717 which was used for that purpose until 1803. John Haydock, who lived in Langtree Hall and owned this site, was buried here in 1719 following his death in Lancaster Prison.
Quakers' Place
sponsored by Wigan Council
The Quakers' Place Heritage Plaque can be found on Quakers' Place, off School Lane. A map of locations can be found below.
The Society of Friends, or Quakers, built a new meeting house along here in 1803, but the cause had declined by the 1850s. In 1858, the site was sold to the Wesleyan Methodists who used it for a chapel, before it was converted into a number of cottages of which only numbers 17 & 18 are originals. The area was previously named Quakers’ Yard.
Recreation Ground
sponsored by Wigan Council
The Recreation Ground Heritage Plaque can be found at the entrance to Squires Hey, on High Street. A map of locations can be found below.
The playing field at the other end of this passage is known as the Recreation Ground or 'The Rec'. It was the home pitch for many generations of teams representing St. Wilfrid's Football Club until 1975 when they moved to their new Convent Ground. The base for the club was St. Wilfrid's Church Institute on Rectory Lane. Leader of the Club and Secretary of the football team until 1966 was Peter Sedgewick, to whose service to the youth of Standish this plaque is dedicated.
Standish UDC Council Offices
sponsored by Somerfield
The Standish UDC Council Offices Heritage Plaque can be found by the entrance to Standish Clinic, on High Street. A map of locations can be found below.
This clinic stands on the site previously occupied by a building known as the ‘Council Offices’ or ‘ Local Board’. This was the centre of local government in Standish, housing the HQ of Standish with Langtree Urban District Council from when it was established in 1895 to 1974 when Standish became part of Wigan. As well as the offices of the council and the council chamber, the building housed at various times a courtroom, public library, mortuary and public hall. It continued to be used as a public hall from 1974 until its demolition in 1990.
War Memorial Gardens
sponsored by Standish Royal British Legion
The War Memorial Gardens are on High Street. A map of locations can be found below.
To mark the 60th Anniversary of VE & VJ Day 2005 They did not give their lives in vain,
if those who are left remember them.
They will not grow old as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
we will remember them.
Wellington Place
sponsored by The Chadwick Family's Emporium of Fine Food
The Wellington Place Heritage Plaque can be found by the entrance to The Chadwick Family's Emporium of Fine Food. A map of locations can be found below.
Built in 1817 and named after the Iron Duke, the house which is now a butchers’ shop was part of a small complex of buildings comprising Wellington Place. Many of the other buildings, including a number of cottage dwellings, were demolished in the mid 20th century. The house and associated buildings, including offices for the Standish Estate, were sold as lot 63 of the Estate in the adjacent Council Offices on 21 April 1921. It was acquired by Noel Chadwick in 1950.
Wheatsheaf and Brewery
sponsored by the Standish Dickensian Group
The Wheatsheaf and Brewery Heritage Plaque can be found above the entrance to Somerfield, on Preston Road. A map of locations can be found below.
This Somerfield supermarket stands on the site of the former Wheatsheaf Hotel, which closed in November 1982. Behind the pub was a brewery opened in 1870 by J.B.Almond. It produced a traditional beer for local pubs until it was taken over by the Burtonwood Brewery in 1968. The row of terraced houses along School Lane was owned by the Almond family and leased to brewery workers. Both the pub and the brewery were demolished in May 1985.
Interpretation Boards
Hermitage
sponsored by Wigan Council
The Hermitage Interpretation Board can be found down the track from Beech Walk. A map of locations can be found below.
This area was the site of a large house provided by the Standish family for Catholic priests who served their chapel at nearby Standish Hall from about 1838, and from 1884, at St. Marie's Church. In 1908 it was replaced by the new presbytery adjoining the church.
Market Place
Standish Hall
sponsored by Wigan Council
The Standish Hall Interpretation Board can be found near the location of Standish Hall, down from Beech Walk. A map of locations can be found below.
Beyond this point are the derilict remains of what was the ancestral home of the Standish family. The entire estate, including the Hall, was offered for sale by public auction in 1921 following the death of the last member of the family.
